-As if anyone expected Ford to bolt together the 2017 F-150 Raptor pickup and call it a day, the engineers slapping each other on the back before abandoning Dearborn for summer cottages in northern Michigan, the automaker has announced that initial testing on the redesigned off-road truck is complete. Whew, and here we were thinking no durability testing would ever take place on the beastly pickup! As obvious as Ford’s announcement is, it at least comes with some sweet eye candy: Photos of an aluminum-bodied 2017 Raptor prototype blasting through the desert Southwest.
According to Ford, the photos were taken during the F-150 Raptor’s sanctioned abuse over 1028 miles of “fast sandy washes, deep-rutted silt beds, steep climbs in deep sand, and slow meticulous crawls through tight trenches” intended to mimic the Baja 1000 route. Just a day in the life of a Raptor development mule, right? The brutal test loop includes sections where the Raptor hits a claimed 100 mph, as well as tight, slower segments. The truck seen in the photos is cobbled together from a mixture of previous-generation F-150 Raptor bits and stuff from the new version. Ford promises that testing will continue throughout this year and into next, and cruelly reminds us that we won’t be able to drive the final product until close to the truck’s debut in the fall of 2016.
--
- -
- 2017 Ford F-150 Raptor: We Build and Review Ford’s Beastly New Truck in Three Minutes!
- -
- 2017 Ford F-150 Raptor In-Depth: Twin Turbos, 10-Speed Gearbox
- -
- Ford F-150 Research: Full Pricing, Specs, Reviews, Photos, and More
- -
-
from Car and Driver Blog http://ift.tt/1McDsCJ
via Agya
