this is michael levine from pickup trucks .com for almost a year now we've been
hearing rumors and writing about the fabled ford f-150 svt raptor now we're
getting our first look at it
this is Ford's halo off-road truck from its special vehicles team and we're here
today with lead designer
Bruce Williams to walk a straight truck first thing what we wanted to do when
we're developing this vehicle
we really tried to emphasize the width of the vehicle as far as the forms of
the vehicle go really tried to make them fairly soft and racy kind of parking to
the whole idea of a prerunner the whole baja feel of a vehicle may get that
visual uniqueness
the first thing you'll notice on the front of the vehicle is there's no for
doable but if the f o r d of Ford is blaze very prominently and very boldly
in the grill
we did that to really emphasize the bold nature of the truck and also say forward
in a unique stuff and modern way and the other thing that you'll notice about the
grill is there's lights that are integrated in the upper portion of the
grill there's three there and there's to a board in the upper fascia the reason
that those exist is the vehicle is so wide that we needed to specify this this
marking with normal trucks usually have them up on the top we wanted to do
something different and we wanted to create some type of visual
differentiation as well when they're let they're going to look like nothing else
on the road
events up top the hood vents and also the fender vents here the advanced are
there to really again emphasized that visual with of the vehicle
you'll notice in the fender vent here we we actually have the svt taken out of
the center portion of the vehicle so the color of the vehicle shines through so
it's an orange vehicle the orange comes through if it's white it's white as you
walk around the vehicle the running board is a is a single castell
when peace covered in rhino liner kind of gives it that tough
what I call kind of a wood stove look it looks raw it looks cast and also as you
walk around the vehicle
you'll notice that you really don't see any chrome on it and really the idea
here is the the thing that we're trying to show off is the suspension the
suspension is the real jewelry of the vehicle that's what we're showing off
everything else becomes somewhat recessive what we did is we looked at a
bunch of images and we like to really wear a graphic any type of graphic was
going to start and end right down into here
basically if you think about the vehicle going through going through the mud
going off-roading this is about the pattern that it would that it would kind
of spray up in and we like that idea
we were playing around with color in the beginning but we decided to be kind of
tough and sinister that
its a mix of flat and gloss tones very akin to graphics on snowboards that was
a real inspiration for the graphic of a fresh modern way and we call it digital
blood
let's start with a steering wheel it's a unique steering wheel
it's slightly larger in diameter all the way around and it has has some pads on
either side and also has a non center marker in leather up at the top
the center stack has a unique applique in either the signature orange color or
the or the gray the seat side bolts have been increased to hold the driver in
place in a more secure way as they're driving on the on the cluster and the
and the HVAC vents these are all done in in a black ring surround really
to reflect more the racing nature of the gauges in race trucks and also there's a
unique switch bezel here that has auxiliary switches and off-road mode
buttons unique to the svt raptor but we've got four and i think they're all
very appropriate their own way for the vehicle
the white which is really reflective of a lot of the desert prerunners white
being you know when you're out and it's hot
that tends to be the color of choice for a lot of the race trucks but black
probably my personal favorite because it's just a really sinister color i
think with the absence of chrome on the vehicle the black on black tonal
differences it's really gonna it's really going to set itself apart the
blue which is a very signature for blue we have to stick with that and I and we
also have the signature molten orange which is a unique color kind of a play
on the Reds kind of rolling into an orange kind of a fun color but I think
it's also has a real strong wow factor to it and for more news and information
about the brand new 2010 ford f-150 svt raptor check out pickup trucks. com
and for another take on the svt raptor check out the January addition of four
wheeler magazine on sale in November