MotorMouths

With the 6.2-liter engine, The 2010 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor is an even more impressive off-road device. It’s safe to say there’s nothing else like it with a factory warranty. Sure, it rules the desert, but now we know it’s the ultimate Michigan mudslinger.

Ford’s Special Vehicle Team succeeded in creating a truck that is unique in market. While it may be aimed at desert racers, the Raptor’s style and performance will likely lure buyers from other markets, especially where there is snow and/or frozen lakes to run on.

The 2010 F-150 SVT Raptor is fast, furious, highly capable, and impressively street worthy. It may have been made for the sands of Baja, but it’s ready to conquer the daily grind as well.

For just $3000 more than the 5.4-liter, the 6.2-liter engine gives the Raptor the power it was always supposed to have. Except for the price, there are no readily apparent downsides—Ford claims that the 6.2-liter will deliver about the same fuel economy.

Against the Platonic ideal of a factory off-road-special half-ton truck, only the weedy engine prevents the SVT F-150 from being as good as one can imagine such an object.

Can the Ford Raptor walk itself out of deep sand after you bury it up to the axles? Easily. I never would have tried any of those things in another pickup or SUV.

At $38,995, the 2010 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor is only $2500 more than the F-150 FX4, yet an order of magnitude more capable.

Is the Ford F-150 Raptor for real? The truck’s average time on a dealer lot is six days. Like its effect on the Raptor’s 0-to-60-mph times (6.9 seconds vs. 8.4 seconds for the 5.4-liter V8), the6.2-liter engine is only accelerating that process.

Given its inherent capabilities, the Ford F-150 Raptor greedily absorbed the 6.2-liter’s additional power. At Ford’s 3,000-acre test facility in rural Romeo, Michigan, the truck certainly felt livelier. The extra

You don’t need a flat-billed hat or limbs covered in tattoos to appreciate the 2010 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor. All you’ll need to truly appreciate it is a desire to drive fast over rough terrain. This is a truck that’s engineered to be driven. Flat-bill or not.

The $40K Raptor did not disappoint. I won’t claim to have taken the truck to its off-road limits, but I will claim to have barreled down some seriously sketchy gravel ridgeline roads — I mean, potholes the size of baby pools.

The 2010 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor is %@&*ing awesome. It is the fastest off-road vehicle we’ve ever driven, yet remains a refined, capable and fun daily commuter or work truck.