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The Ford F-150 SVT Raptor changed the pickup game for good when it arrived for the 2010 model year. After years of focusing on street performance, Ford’s Special Vehicles Team turned its attentions to the off-road world, which had previously been the domain of specialized rock crawlers like the Jeep Wrangler or low-speed bruisers like the Dodge Ram 2500 Power Wagon.
Ignoring precedent, Ford went in the opposite direction with the high-speed, dune-bashing Raptor spec, and in the process created an entirely new truck segment. Over-muscled, with long-travel suspension and a fiercely beefed-up appearance, the Raptor had no direct competition and it wasn’t long before the entire industry had abandoned the street truck game in favor of chasing SVT’s desert racing trailblazer.
Leaving The Pavement Behind
In the mid-2000s, SVT was at a crossroads with the F-150. In 2004 the full-size truck had been completely redesigned, bringing with it a larger and heavier platform. The Blue Oval’s performance team realized that a follow-up to the extremely quick SVT Lightning model (which featured a lowered suspension and a supercharged V8 engine) would require a huge horsepower bump if it was going to do anything other than tread water in the acceleration department.
This was problematic for a company that didn’t have an automatic transmission capable of handling the third-generation Lightning’s estimated 500 pony minimum, and it quickly iced the project. With a street performer unlikely to materialize, SVT began to consider building its first true off-roader. There was no interest in simply re-treading old ground, however. Instead, Ford turned to an overlooked chapter in its racing history for inspiration.
Ford had long been involved in Baja competition, entering vehicles in the famed 1000 mile race as far back as the 1960s. Although it learned lesson after lesson with its factory-backed efforts and substantial sponsorship of some of the event’s most prominent names (right through to the modern era), rarely had any of that tech trickled back into the showroom, where off-road trucks tended to be burly and methodical grinders.
This was generally true for other manufacturers as well. Although Toyota had long offered “Pre-Runner” versions of models like the Tacoma (and its 4Runner SUV sibling) that mimicked the two-wheel drive scouts employed by Baja race teams, these were low-powered machines that lacked the grit to get over difficult obstacles.
Recognizing a gap in the market for a pickup that was as fast as it was tough (with hints of Trophy Truck in its DNA), SVT began to piece together the Raptor puzzle. By 2008, a concept version of the truck made it to SEMA, and in the ultimate advertisement of its capabilities, a test mule (dubbed the SVT Raptor R) entered the Baja 1000 that same year, managing to not just finish but actually place third in Class 8.
Turning Heads, Kicking Up Dust
Two years later, the production version of the Ford F-150 SVT Raptor arrived bearing the fruits of its hardcore development program. Wider than the standard F-150 (with a track pushed out by 6.6 inches), featuring 10 inches of ground clearance, delivering up to 12.1 inches of suspension travel (thanks to internal bypass Fox Racing shocks) and riding on 35-inch tires, the Raptor was like nothing else that had ever worn a Ford badge. It evinced an incredible capacity to hover over desert scrub, ruts and cuts without a second thought, absorbing punishment from the ground below in a way none of its rivals could claim.
It was also visually distinct from its F-150 brethren, featuring a chunky, vented hood and a blunt front end that spelled out F-O-R-D across its black plastic grille. Initially offered as an extended cab model (with a full crew cab arriving later), the bulky truck weighed in at an astounding 5,900 lbs.
It also provided a number of electronic enhancements intended to prolong off-road pleasure, including an electronically-controlled locking rear differential and an “Off-Road” drive mode that dialed back its computerized nannies.
Under the hood, the Raptor was outfitted with a 5.4L V8 good for 310hp and 365 lb-ft of torque — uninspiring numbers that kept early versions of the truck hobbled by its own weight.
By the end of its initial 2010 model year, SVT had gifted the Raptor with a much more appropriate 6.2L V8 option that kicked output up to 411hp and 434 lb-ft of twist, a unit that sliced nearly a full second off of the truck’s sprint to 60 mph while also invigorating its ability to shrug off sage. A six-speed automatic gearbox was standard with either engine.
Sweeping the Street Slate Clean
The effect of the SVT Raptor was both immediate and long-lasting. Not only did Ford have a hot-selling niche model on its hands, but truck brands in both Japan and Detroit quickly purged their line-ups of any hint of street stalkers in favor of increasingly rugged off-road models. Gone were models like the Tacoma X-Runner, the Colorado Xtreme and the Ram 1500 Sport R/T, and in their place came a tidal wave of buffed-up off-roaders like Toyota’s Tacoma and Tundra TRD Pro and Chevrolet’s Colorado ZR2 redux.
The market shift towards off-road performance continued well after the Raptor’s second generation (rebranded under Ford Performance), culminating in the current landscape where it sits alongside brutal trucks such as the Hellcat-powered Ram 1500 TRX and the upcoming Chevrolet Silverado ZR2 and the GMC Sierra AT4x—not to mention lesser models like the Silverado Trail Boss, the Ram 1500 Rebel, and the F-250 Tremor. It’s no stretch to say that these pickups wouldn’t exist without the pioneering efforts of the original Ford F-150 SVT Raptor.
Keyword: The Ford F-150 SVT Raptor Off-Roader Changed The Performance Pickup Truck Game Forever