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2017 Ford F-150 Raptor Enters Best in the Desert Off-Road Racing Series

The hottest pickup truck in the F-150 lineup isn’t all show and no go. To prove the rugged credentials of the twin-turbo V6-powered F-150 Raptor, the Blue Oval decided to enter one in this year’s edition of the grueling Best in the Desert off-road racing series.
2017 Ford F-150 Raptor race truck 14 photos
Photo: Ford
2017 Ford F-150 Raptor race truck2017 Ford F-150 Raptor race truck2017 Ford F-150 Raptor race truck2017 Ford F-150 Raptor race truck2017 Ford F-150 Raptor race truck2017 Ford F-150 Raptor race truck2017 Ford F-150 Raptor race truck2017 Ford F-150 Raptor race truck2017 Ford F-150 Raptor race truck2017 Ford F-150 Raptor race truck2017 Ford F-150 Raptor race truck2017 Ford F-150 Raptor race truck2017 Ford F-150 Raptor race truck
Kicking up rocks, spitting sand, and conquering dunes are in the 2017 Ford F-150 Raptor’s nature. You could even say that the all-new Raptor has more in common with a Baja race truck rather than the blue-collared F-150 sitting in the parking lot of a Ford dealership.

Modifications operated by Foutz Motorsports to the race-ready Ford F-150 Raptor are minimal over what the model comes with as standard. These come in the form of a roll cage, racing seats with 5-point harness safety belts, window nets, racing fuel cell, a RacePak digital dashboard and data logger, and a GPS made by Lowrance.

Other mods include race-grade components such as the front and rear springs, augmented by the three-inch-diameter external-bypass shock absorbers made by Fox Racing.

Everything else is more or less stock because the 2017 Ford F-150 Raptor pickup truck will race in the factory stock class, which is the most production-specific class ever in the history of Best in the Desert. Stock components include the 10-speed automatic transmission and the Torsen front differential.

The output of the 2017 Ford F-150 Raptor hasn’t been confirmed yet. In an interview with Fox Sports, the Blue Oval's Global Product Development Vice President Raj Nair let it slip that the 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6 of the all-new Raptor is good for 450 horsepower.

Will that output mirror the one that will be printed on the spec sheet of the dune runner? That’s plausible, more so if you consider the fact that the 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6 develops 365 horsepower on the down-to-earth version of the 2016 Ford F-150.
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About the author: Mircea Panait
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After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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