2012 Ford SVT Raptor - Over the top and LOVING IT!

2012 Ford SVT Raptor - Over the top and LOVING IT! - Printable Version

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2012 Ford SVT Raptor - Over the top and LOVING IT! - car fanatics - 06-20-2012 05:34 PM

Car Fanatics
Photo: Copyright 2012 Vic Handa / Car Fanatics Forum
June 20, 2012
By: CF staff

As a 'turnkey' offroad vehicle, this truck really has no peers that I can think of. Many in the sport will take a vehicle, then soak a ton of money into lifts, tires, roll cages etc. This truck already has many of the 'mods' that a serious off road enthusiast would do. It is absolutely huge, riding on 35' tires (on 17' rims) with a seating position that has you looking out over the tops of minivans. Its vitals, from my limited time with it and a bit of research are as follows:

Price as tested, over $65,579 Canadian

Curb weight, 6,210 lbs

Payload capacity, 1,030 lbs

Towing capacity, 8,000 lbs - this could pull a really nice trailer for a cross country trip, provided you had lots of gas money.

H/P from the mighty 6.2 which thankfully runs on regular gas, 411 @ 5500 RPM - It pulls hard right up to redline

Max Torque 431 lbs/ft @ 4500 RPM

Real world mileage in mostly city and enthusiastic offroad sampling, 18.2 litres/100 km, somewhere around 13 MPG.

Exterior

Only one word I can use here, HUGE! The Raptor treatment widens the truck to take up just about an entire lane. Backing in is the only way to successfully park, the backup camera being very helpful in this regard. The ride height is stratospheric and the intimidation factor is enormous. As mentioned, I repeatedly had people cede the right of way to me at stop signs. This effect only increased when I got it good and muddy.

A peak below shows substantial protection for the undercarriage though I was a bit surprised to see something (wire, hose, I don't know) which fed into the differential just hanging loose. I'm not sure I'd go for all the stickers and such that this had on the exterior - If I had one I'd go for solid black, but it's pretty cool and makes it stand out in the crowd.

The running boards are necessary for getting in and out - there is a grab handle for the passenger side, but not for the driver side, which was kind of odd. They're also handy for when you're washing it because there's no way to reach the roof unless you're a giant.

Interior

The interior of this thing is gorgeous. As good and in some ways better than the Taurus SHO. The seats are fabulous, centre guage display (between the tach and speedometer) has a wealth of information including offroad applications and average mileage. All of this is navigated by a straightforward menu on the left side, which you work your way through by using the buttons on the steering wheel. This one was equipped with the Sony stereo system which was amazing and the touch screen, while still a bit slow, worked better than on the Taurus and never went 'dark' on me.

The centre console screen can be split up to show the nav, stereo and climate control all at once and this was the setup I liked best - very informative at a glance. On start up, the centre of the guage display gives you the 'Built Ford Tough' graphic, and the console display shows the Raptor logo, in case you forgot...

This was the Super Crew version and the space behind the driver/passenger seats is massive. The rear seats were very comfortable and will lift up to allow enough space to use for, well, just about anything. Again, this obviously shortens the bed, but this version came with a 'bed extender' which I didn't get the chance to figure out. There's very little you can't option on to this thing if you want.

There is a front camera, which is activated by selecting 4X4 low. The image then comes up in the console display, same as it would for the backup camera. I'm sure it's very handy for tricky sections of track because the ride height is so high, you may not see your obstacles as well without it.

Performance

During it's shortened stay I did manage one session on a rough dirt road not too far from home. The suspension is firm and will bash you around pretty hard on washboard surfaces. This also sends shudders through the whole thing, but the tradeoff being that it also handles incredibly well for a vehicle of this size. Go ahead and attack your favourite onramp - it'll track beautifully and the steering requires minimal correction. It even has the red tape on the wheel to give you a quick visual reference for when the steering is on centre.

Roll and dive are minimal, and the 6.2 gets it up and going very smartly. This truck is good for 0 - 60 times of around 6.6 and a quarter mile around 15 flat. The engine makes all the right V8 sounds, leading up to a diabolical sounding crackle as it gets up to redline. It's actually very civilized on the highway - settles right into a groove at just below 2000 rpm at 70 MPH.

The tranny is the very excellent 6 speed automatic which allows for manual shifting on the gear shift. Not as good as paddles, but still really entertaining for holding gears around corners and allowing you the blast out of the apex. It had a little bit of hesitation on kick down and was a bit slower on the upshift commands in manual mode (compared to the SHO), but it's a lot of fun.

The brakes are heroic - never a concern, very confident and it comes equipped with a trailer brake system. Our offroad experts can chime in on how that works...

One thing I noticed right away was the way the tires grabbed at the road during small, tight maneuvers. You'll feel it skipping at the rear end when you do tight right or left turns as the knobs just dig in for all they're worth. Basically, with 35 inches of diameter, they're 'skidding' instead of rolling. When the guys came to pick it up Friday, it was getting warmer, and it left a set of big black marks on the pavement where he turned out. Another thing this causes is significant rolling resistance when you're trying to park - if you have the wheel cranked, it won't move on idle - you'll have to gas it to get it to roll. Makes parking a bit of a challenge for sure, but you get used to it.

Conclusion

I made my best efforts to get an offroad session in, but was not to be for this time around. There is a chance we will get it back later in the summer at which point I will be sure to coordinate a trip to the appropriate trails and update this thread accordingly. In the meantime, there is really very little I can fault with this truck. I'd like to see a dead pedal for the cavernous footwell, and I'd prefer paddle shifters, but that's about it. It's obviously built for a limited and hardcore type of market, but I'm sure those who want this sort of thing will love it.

RE: 2012 Ford SVT Raptor - Over the top and LOVING IT! - REVolution - 06-20-2012 05:41 PM

EXCELLENT!!!!! rockon

RE: 2012 Ford SVT Raptor - Over the top and LOVING IT! - MOPAR74 - 06-20-2012 05:47 PM

beer

RE: 2012 Ford SVT Raptor - Over the top and LOVING IT! - G8mike - 06-20-2012 05:51 PM

Thanks! Thanks again to Vic who on really short notice managed to get in some great pics.

RE: 2012 Ford SVT Raptor - Over the top and LOVING IT! - Gixser995 - 06-20-2012 05:52 PM

Great pics!

RE: 2012 Ford SVT Raptor - Over the top and LOVING IT! - lengnert - 06-20-2012 06:12 PM

Good stuff, and yet another good reason to have more money than sense.

I wish I didn't have so much sense, and so little of the money!

RE: 2012 Ford SVT Raptor - Over the top and LOVING IT! - jspookss - 06-20-2012 06:36 PM

rockon

RE: 2012 Ford SVT Raptor - Over the top and LOVING IT! - supremor - 06-21-2012 09:31 AM

Another great review. rockon