Will We Get More 2017 Raptor News at NAIAS?
The 2016 North American International Auto Show starts Monday in, what will probably be a cold and snowy Detroit, Michigan. A year ago Ford wowed us by showing us where they were in the process of the 2017 Ford Raptor. We were immediately in love. But what about for this NAIAS? We’re expecting the truck to go on sale later this year, and there’s still much we don’t know. Will we get some of those questions answered?
The first question many of you have is how much power is the truck going to make? To be honest, that’s not really something that’s announced during an event like NAIAS. I doubt Raj Nair will say, “Check out this great new product, oh and Raptor makes xxx horsepower.” It’s something we’d probably learn in a press release or at a smaller auto show.
Also, I wouldn’t expect pricing information. Again, when you’re introducing new products, you don’t talk about other products and how much they’ll cost. Like the power figures, this is something we’ll most likely learn in a press release.
Also, we typically don’t see power numbers or pricing this far away from the launch, since a lot of that is still being finalized.
But what could we possibly see?
For one, we’ll probably see an updated prototype. The Liquid Blue SuperCab from last year has made the rounds, and it’s time to show us something different. At the very least, I wouldn’t be surprised if the show truck is a different color. We might even see it in a SuperCrew configuration, since we’ve seen spy shots of it testing and they’re obviously going to build one.
With whatever they end up rolling out onto the stage at Joe Louis arena, they’ll have to give some information with it. If you rule out power and pricing, for the reasons mentioned above, we might learn more about that 10-speed transmission that the truck will have.
It’d be nice to learn about other tech goodies that Ford is including to the new truck, but they really don’t actually need to change much from the previous truck in that department. It was more than capable of conquering anything right out of the box.
But more importantly than all of that, I’d like to learn more about the engine. Not just the power and torque that it’ll make, but the upgrades they’ve made to the engine to ensure longevity in harsh environments. The old 6.2L V8 was rock solid, and I’m convinced the EcoBoost will also be, I know some people will have their concerns.
Finally, I want to hear what the truck sounds like. When they drove the prototype on stage last year, they didn’t make any effort to be loud. They didn’t do donuts like Raj Nair did with the Shelby GT350 R. I really want to hear what the truck sounds like, especially with the echo of the sports arena. Just hearing that, and knowing what to expect, would make me a happy camper.
What do you think we’ll see about the Raptor at NAIAS? Let us know in the comments or over in the forums!
