2011 Ford SVT Raptor SuperCrew 4x4
It's tough to blend in when you're driving a Molten Orange F-150 riding on 35-inch tires with the widened stance that come with Raptor-ization. Everywhere I took this truck people were pointing, commenting on it, or just staring at it. I bought a new chest freezer from a home improvement warehouse that had dozens and dozens of pickups in the parking lot. Some of them were modified, some were pulling big trailers, but only one of them drew a crowd and it was the SVT Raptor. Most people didn't know the Raptor rolled off the assembly line looking exactly like it did in that parking lot (save the freezer in the bed) but they all knew it was awesome.
If you think the Raptor is too expensive, you haven't priced out an F-150 lately. If you're looking for the 6.2-liter V-8 that's standard (and your only engine choice) in the Raptor, you'd need at least a Lariat trim level, which, equipped with a crew cab and 4wd, will start at $44,125 with destination. By comparison, the Raptor is $45,290 when equipped with a comparable bed and cab. That's a mere $1165 for the SVT suspension and tire upgrades. I understand that the Lariat comes with more luxury features, but the amount of engineering effort that went into the Raptor is an incredible bargain.
I'd jettison every option on this test truck except the Raptor plus package that includes a trailer brake controller and rearview camera for $595. Then I could have the ultimate half-ton pickup for $45,885. It isn't cheap, but the only Ford vehicle that even comes close to being this exciting is the Mustang Boss 302. Call me crazy, but I say it's worth the extra money to have the ability to cross any terrain you can find, at highway speeds. Heck, the Raptor just might be the ultimate vehicle, provided you don't spend much time in urban environments.
Phil Floraday,Senior Web Editor
The 2011 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor represents a remarkable engineering achievement on Ford's part, as this truck is perfectly reasonable to drive on the street and yet, from all reports and the videos I've seen, masterful at the off-road game while remaining refined and comfortable. There are indeed reasons for a truck like this to exist, legitimate uses for it, as evidenced by the story that our own Ezra Dyer did of a Raptor on border patrol.
Ford is being rational about how it rolls out the Raptor, bringing out the extended-length cab last year and this year adding the SuperCrew. This is how you keep a model fresh and keep consumer attention, by dribbling out variants slowly and carefully.
From an aesthetics point of view, I like the black-on-orangish-red graphic treatment on the Raptor's body sides. This is not a subtle truck, so why should its exterior be at all subtle? You also have to love the fact that so much of the Raptor's capability is on display, in the form of the oversized suspension and frame components that are clearly visible to even the most casual observer. This is the equivalent, really, of a Ferrari V-8 under glass.
Despite all this, and despite the fact that people like my colleague Phil Floraday get so excited by the coolness of the Raptor that they start imagining it as a reasonable personal-use vehicle, I would say that it's not. The Raptor is sort-of the opposite end of the performance spectrum from a twelve-cylinder supercar-it offers extreme performance but extremely poor efficiency. I saw readouts of an average of 9.5 mpg on the way into work the other morning, although when I drove the Raptor on the freeway over the weekend, my average crept up to a slightly more palatable 12 mpg. So, the Raptor is like a weekend sports car: great for when you need it, great for when you want to have fun, not great for your daily commute to work, unless you're a border-patrol officer.
Joe DeMatio,Deputy Editor
