Raptor Showcases Fox Race Series Upgrades in Action: Truckin’ Fast Wednesday

Modern F-150 Raptor goes from segment leader in off-road abilities to race-ready beast with these upgraded dampers.

This week’s Truckin’ Fast Wednesday video comes to us from the YouTube channel of Down South Motorsports and it features a modern Ford F-150 Raptor with an upgraded suspension setup. Fox Shocks, the same company that provides the factory dampers for the mighty Raptor, has put together a Race Series package for the 450-horsepower EcoBoost’d F-150, allowing the street-friendly pickup to handle the roughest off-road situations at high speed.

Upgrading the Champ

The modern Ford F-150 Raptor is arguably the most off-road-capable truck on sale today and for those critics who want to point out the likes of the Ram 2500 Power Wagon, there is no question that the Raptor is more of a high performance truck than just an unstoppable mudder. The factory Fox dampers allow for a relatively smooth ride on the road, but more importantly, these shocks allow the premium F-150 to go pretty much anywhere it wants at high speed. Whether you are blasting across mud or racing across the desert, the Raptor is the best at what it does.

However, there are some Raptor owners who manage to push the stock suspension components to their limits and for those folks, Fox has a solution in the form of their Racing Series.

Fox Race Series

The Fox Shocks Factory Race Series is a direct replacement for the original dampers in the current Raptor, but they offered improved performance, advanced cooling and adjustable ride height. According to Fox, this coilover system was “designed to deliver a high level of adjustability via Dual Speed Compression (DSC) adjusters and improved cooling efficiency through an all-new Recirculating Reservoir Bridge and finned remote reservoir. This kit delivers the next level of off-road performance without sacrificing every day ride quality and comfort.”

In other words, these dampers will handle rougher surfaces for longer periods of time, but this upgrade doesn’t come cheap. The kit has an MSRP of $3,399.95 per pair, so you have to be serious about wanting improved off-roading ability to make this switch.

Race Series in Action

In the video above, we watch as a new Raptor equipped with the Fox Shocks Factory Race Series raises all sorts of hell in a variety of off-road settings. The truck skims across uneven surfaces with the body stable as the tires bounce around, showing how well the high performance dampers eat up the impact. We also get to see how smoothly these dampers handle a big jump, with the F-150 effortlessly soaring through the air and landing, only to quickly continue on its way without any bothersome bouncing.

Crank up your speakers and enjoy!

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Patrick Rall

"Before I was old enough to walk, my dad was taking me to various types of racing events, from local drag racing to the Daytona 500," says Patrick Rall, a lifetime automotive expert, diehard Dodge fan, and respected auto journalist for over 10 years. "He owned a repair shop and had a variety of performance cars when I was young, but by the time I was 16, he was ready to build me my first drag car – a 1983 Dodge Mirada that ran low 12s. I spent 10 years traveling around the country, racing with my dad by my side. While we live in different areas of the country, my dad still drag races at 80 years old in the car that he built when I was 16 while I race other vehicles, including my 2017 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and my 1972 Dodge Demon 340.

"Although I went to college for accounting, my time in my dad’s shop growing up allowed me the knowledge to spend time working as a mechanic before getting my accounting degree, at which point I worked in the office of a dealership group. While I was working in the accounting world, I continued racing and taking pictures of cars at the track. Over time, I began showing off those pictures online and that led to my writing.

"Ten years ago, I left the accounting world to become a full-time automotive writer and I am living proof that if you love what you do, you will never “work” a day in your life," adds Rall, who has clocked in time as an auto mechanic, longtime drag racer and now automotive journalist who contributes to nearly a dozen popular auto websites dedicated to fellow enthusiasts.

"I love covering the automotive industry and everything involved with the job. I was fortunate to turn my love of the automotive world into a hobby that led to an exciting career, with my past of working as a mechanic and as an accountant in the automotive world provides me with a unique perspective of the industry.

"My experience drag racing for more than 20 years coupled with a newfound interest in road racing over the past decade allows me to push performance cars to their limit, while my role as a horse stable manager gives me vast experience towing and hauling with all of the newest trucks on the market today.

"Being based on Detroit," says Rall, "I never miss the North American International Auto Show, the Woodward Dream Cruise and Roadkill Nights, along with spending plenty of time raising hell on Detroit's Woodward Avenue with the best muscle car crowd in the world.

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