What Does an Off-Road Racer Think of the 2017 Raptor?
Emme Hall, friend and editor at Roadshow, is also a desert off-road racer with more driving chops than most of you. She also just had an opportunity to ride in the third seat of the Foutz Motorsports 2017 Raptor in the Best in the Desert racing series. Since we haven’t had a chance to drive the new Raptor yet, Emme provides the best look yet at what the new truck is like, and how capable it is off-road.
We won’t spoil the whole thing here — you should check out her full write-up on Roadshow — but we’d like to hit a few key points about the new truck and what Emme thought of it. Her normal racer is an air-cooled buggy, has competed in the Mint 400, the Baja 1000, and she takes part in the Gazelles rally. Again, she knows her stuff.
The truck really is as stock as Ford and Foutz Motorsports claims that it is. While yes, there are modifications for race duty, including the roll cage, the cup holders were used to hold coffee while queuing up to race. When mud started to be flung around, the fully-functioning windshield wipers cleared it. It’s all there.
Emme also pointed out that there’s still some work to do. Apparently they had a brief ABS slip up at one point during the race that was unexpected. Ford is looking at the telemetry data and inputs after every race to make corrections to the production version.
And that, friends, is why Ford is doing this. By brutally testing it in racing, they’re making it a better truck for you!
Let us know what you think in the forums!
via [Roadshow]
photos via [Emme Hall / Roadshow]
