2019 Raptor Assault

[Christopher Manns]

I just signed up for September 2-3 dates. For some reason, they were wide open. Is there something secret about Utah in September that I don't know?

 

[loupuleff]

I just signed up for September 2-3 dates. For some reason, they were wide open. Is there something secret about Utah in September that I don't know?

Probably the weather but imo the worse the better I wish I could have went in a month when the weather sucked !

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[NousDefions]

I'll be flying tomorrow morning for the May 2-3 class dates. Really looking forward to it!

 

[D11gnccer]

I just signed up for September 2-3 dates. For some reason, they were wide open. Is there something secret about Utah in September that I don't know?

Labor Day. Increased travel expenses and more people on the roads. I debated between that class and the August 27th class. It was cheaper to go on the 27th.

 

[Kirby Lastinger]

I am signed up for August 30th.


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[Dust Devil]

Booked for Nov, long wait but I'm sure it will be worth the wait!

 

[Ducgsxr]

2018 owner here. Thoughts on the truck and course...

IMO, the driving is pretty tame. Those who've never offroaded will likely have a blast, and it's definitely worth the flight out there for them. Those who run their trucks fast in the desert or have rock crawled or track their cars... you're not going to get an adrenaline rush from what we did. That said, this shouldn't be surprising given the running costs, replacement costs, and liability incurred if they went balls out every week with a group of 20 drivers of unknown experience and skill levels.

It snowed on us, and that aspect made the trip really enjoyable for me as I haven't run mine offroad in the mud and snow. Pretty cool how much capability it retains, and there's just something fun about offroading in mud and snow.

Overview of what we did:

Meet and greet dinner: food was surprisingly tasty. Bunch of car guys and race car guys hanging out talking cars made for a good time. Got to check out the baja 1000 truck up close and personal, see an actual ford GT, sit in their boss race car, shot the shit with some race car drivers.

Drive day:

Classroom time where parameters were spelled out.

There was a very short offroad AutoX course which I thought was a lot of fun. I think we should have spent at least 3x as much time here as we did and that we should have been allowed to run full laps.

The slickrock-like crawling course was pretty cool, but again... very short.

There was a lot of low speed offroad driving on BLM land. ~10-20 mph-ish. This was cool especially because of the mud and snow and large puddles. Also cool for the awesome scenery.

Then there was a lot of low speed climbing on primitive roads. This was also pretty fun.

Then there was the 'desert run' course. The primitive road chosen was pretty representative of what I like to run on, except speeds were limited to 40mph and we only ran for maybe a mile.

The scenery in Utah is incredible.

The instructors were a cool bunch of guys, and it was cool to hang out with a bunch of hard core car guys from all over the US for the day.

Miller motorsports complex is no joke.

As a 2018 owner, I paid close attention to the 2019 shocks and recaros.

My take is the shocks are noticeably different, but it isn't game changing dramatic. Which is both good and bad. They behave intuitively which is good, but on the road they aren't as butter smooth over small imperfections as i was expecting (high speed | high frequency small amplitude damping is more than expected). They are less floaty on the road (drove in sport mode 24x7 on the road), but they transmit the little bumps that the 2018 filters. Offroad, we didn't run as fast or as hard as I run; I couldn't tell a difference, though I imagine there is one. On the little offroad autoX course, they had us nail the brakes in three modes, and there was a noticeable difference in dive across the modes, I imagine that was at least in part shocks related.

My take on the Recaros is I prefer them to the regular seats, but they aren't dramatically bolstered as I'd like to see in a set of sport seats. The material offers a higher coefficient of friction so they keep you in place better. Unsure how alcantera holds up to getting dirty. Wish they were offered in black or dark grey.

WRT the 'Trail Control': I tried it once, left foot braked for all other times where it'd have been used. It's very effective and kinda cool, but I'm not pointing a truck at obstacles because I want to be a passenger.

Overall take:

Definitely worth the flight if you're a SBUX edition driver and want a taste. For more advanced enthusiasts, worth the flight if you want to do some pretty tame offroading, see Utah scenery, and hang with some cool car guys and race car drivers. Not worth the flight if you're looking to be Ken Block in Ford's trucks.

I enjoyed the trip, and used it as an excuse to hit up Moab for a few days. Philosophically, I think it's really cool that Ford offers this, and I hope they continue to do so.

Thanks for the info. I’ve owned a few of your engines, Mr. Mezger. You do good work! New ‘19 owner, just signed up for Sept Assault. Only off road experience is on a dirt bikes. Couple decades of roadracing on 2 and 4 wheels, so hopefully I’m trainable at least.

 

[loupuleff]

Thanks for the info. I’ve owned a few of your engines, Mr. Mezger. You do good work! New ‘19 owner, just signed up for Sept Assault. Only off road experience is on a dirt bikes. Couple decades of roadracing on 2 and 4 wheels, so hopefully I’m trainable at least.

I agree it would be nice to really drive the trucks hard but the trip was great and so is the area very beautiful country anyone should have fun on that trip !

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[mezger]

Couple decades of roadracing on 2 and 4 wheels, so hopefully I’m trainable at least.

You might be able to complete the ~1 mile desert running course without running off the primitive road, haha.

I highly recommend taking a few days, heading to Moab, renting the hottest Can Am offered, and tearing/crawling/cruising around a few of the local attractions.

 

[Ducgsxr]

You might be able to complete the ~1 mile desert running course without running off the primitive road, haha.

I highly recommend taking a few days, heading to Moab, renting the hottest Can Am offered, and tearing/crawling/cruising around a few of the local attractions.

Sounds like a great idea