So I live in the high desert, and last year traded my 16' Z06 for a 20' Raptor. I loved the Z06 it was fun and fast but because of where I live you can only dive it about 6 months a year. I work in the gold mining industry and that takes me down a lot of dirt roads so I thought I would get something fun I could drive all the time. After having the truck for the year it was a little disappointing, the suspension lived up to all the hype it's fantastic, but the truck was lacking zip. I was looking for another Z06 or ZR1 for the garage, even if I could not drive it that often. Well, I came across a thread in a Raptor forum on Facebook and thought what the hell, it's about the same cost to tune the truck as one payment on a Z so not much to lose. I just completed the process with Winfield, took about 5 revisions I would program in the morning get a datalog on the way home from work, upload them, and always had a revision later that evening. I was very impressed with the customer service. I was hoping it would only take a day or two, it only took an hour or two. I did the Cobb TCM too, coming from a sports car background I knew half the experience was in getting that power to the ground. For reference, I ended up on OEM+. The Sport setting was a little rough first thing before I had that cup of coffee down, so after work I put her sport mode and best of both worlds. I have read a lot of comments about how its a different truck, Ford should have done this, and all those comments are correct, here are my $.02. First off I only drive the truck in 4A now, I used to drive 2H on pavement and 4A off, and that is because I am taking full advantage of the added power and change in shift points on the TCM. I enjoy the acceleration not spinning tires. I have complete confidence pulling into any traffic now, you can match a car at 25mph in a car length no problem. Had my 15-year-old son with me who has already bought a 17' 5.0 Mustang and is Jonesing to get his license and did just that, he turned to me wide-eyed and said "So that's what you have been doing to your truck". Highway passing is effortless now, speed limits here run 75 to 80 depending on where you are so it's not uncommon to pass someone at 100 if you're really going to get around a few trucks. I just had an opportunity yesterday to accelerate from about 55 to 105 ish passing several semi's, the power was confidence-inspiring. Made for a very fast and safe passing situation and back in my lane. I still might end up with another sports car in the garage someday, but for now, I am really enjoying how my truck drives. The powertrain finally matches the suspension.
Further, note its snowing today, I drove around a little and played with the power I like to know where the tires are gonna break lose. Found I really the slippery mode setting, very safe, a little detuned on the peddle and mushy on the shifting is how it felt on first impression. And that is exactly what you want in the snow for those of you that don't know, at least on the street
. I guess with the added power and sportier shifting I will finally be using those on-road mode settings.