Best in the Desert 2017 Ford F-150 Raptor Race Truck

[bmacked]

No such thing as a stale joke on this forum.

Apart from the marketing angle, the whole exercise is exposing the truck's weak points, which is a good thing on multiple fronts. It gives us potential buyers a better idea of what we might be buying; it gives Ford a chance to fix/strengthen/improve before putting it to market; it makes Foutz the Guinea pig rather than every first year buyer; and it gives after market companies ideas for improvements they might offer. The ADD High Strength Lower Control Arm Bolt Kit with Military Grade Washer might be a hot seller.

You do know they tested the gen 1 and the first year buyers still had issues, right?

 

[ovrlnd]

You do know they tested the gen 1 and the first year buyers still had issues, right?

Ya don't say.

 

[bmacked]

Ya don't say.

Fanboys gonna fanboy, I suppose.

 

[Reptar]

and I'm sure there were haters back then too that hated on the gen 1 for doing testing.

Gotta love it when people are never happy no matter what lol

Thanks for the update on the details of the issues during the race. Can't wait to see it continue to progress!

 

[bmacked]

My only hope is that if it's going to have a castastrophic failure, that it happens at Bluewater when I'm actually in the pits.

 

[Frogger22]

MILITARY GRADE!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

More like military food

 

[FullAuto]

This is the run down of what went wrong at the Mint 400:

It was about Mile 55 where the course started to take the upper hand. After pounding through 168 miles of absolutely punishing topography, Greg noticed a loose feeling in the steering wheel. We pulled over and upon inspection noticed that the rear bolt on the front passenger lower control arm had come loose. Greg and Bill grabbed some tools, got it tight, and we were back underway in no time flat. Unfortunately, a few miles latter it happened again. This time, however, the bolt had pulled the nut through the damaged sheet metal of the lower control arm mount. We promptly got on the radio and alerted the crew at Pit B, located at race mile 71, to start looking for a welder, washers, and a new bolt. While limping the truck the last ten miles to the pit, as if we needed another issue, the truck experienced a flat tire. None of us were able to find the damage that caused the tire to go flat, so that remains a mystery to this day. After an expeditious tire change we were back underway, praying the truck would stay together long enough to get us to the pit.

Through Greg’s skillful driving we made it to the pit, where the crew was waiting for us and eager to get the fix complete and us back on the course. After scavenging a bolt from the other ’17 prototype Raptor that was being used as a chase truck, welding washers into place to hold said bolt, and also welding the bolt’s nut to the chassis to prevent it from backing off again, we were back underway. However, thanks to the downtime caused by limping the truck to the pit and then the repairs, the unlimited classes had started their race and were hunting us down quick.

This may not seem like a big deal until you consider that in a section of race course where we could comfortably go 40 MPH, the unlimited Trick Trucks were passing us at 115 MPH. Seriously, head over to YouTube if you don’t believe me, the unlimited trucks and buggies are amazing. This made for a very nerve racking second half of our lap, as these guys caught and passed us sometimes before we had time to get out of the way (or even see them coming). One mistake could have caused a horrible accident that none of us wanted. Though we had some close calls we were fortunate enough to not tangle with the beasts.
We hit one more snag at race mile 80, when the intake tube connecting the intercooler to the engine came loose, causing the truck to lose power. This was again a quick fix, and Greg and Bill had the truck pointed at the finish line in no time. All told, we crossed the finish line in 9 hours and 10 minutes, thus winning our class and earning the title of Mint 400 champions! This was no small feat, considering only 28 of the 63 vehicles that started with our group actually finished (only 190 out 339 entries total crossed the finish line in the allotted time limit.)

Honestly, that has been one of my concerns from the beginning...... I would rather jump/beat on a na truck. Throw on a set of turbos and you have all that piping that cannot have a leak/come off or you are in trouble.

 

[ovrlnd]

I've had the same thing happen on a NA engine, just this winter in fact. If it has an air mass meter, and pretty much every engine does these days, then you'll get kicked into limp home mode if the intake comes loose. All the timing, fuel delivery, etc. is mapped to that intake reading.

The thing I wonder about is how much tinkering they've done to the truck. Not talking upgrades, but at least the Porsche guys I know pretty much disassemble their cars after every race. If Foutz is taking stuff apart, cleaning, lubricating, etc., then some of these problems could be their own doing, esp. since they wouldn't be all that familiar with the truck yet. Of course if they're just racing it and putting it up wet, then forget that idea. But even if so, I assume that all the Raptors out there right now are pretty much hand built anyway, so there's a good bit of room for human error in the assembly no matter how you look at it.

 

[ZaneMasterX]

2017 Raptor Race Truck finishes the Laughlin Desert Classic.

 

[RLTW]

Lol "race truck" [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]