- I'm sure you've heard of the Ford SVT Raptor.
The Raptor was the first
high performance off-road super truck
that you could buy straight from the dealership.
(alt rock music)
Not only that,
this truck was capable of tackling the Baja 1000
in stock form.
The Baja 1000 is like the toughest race ever.
So today we're gonna talk about the Le Mans tested
and Baja beating powertrain,
the race ready suspension,
and all the technology
that keeps this prehistoric powerhouse ahead of its time.
(hip hop beat)
There are two generations of the Ford Raptor R
with slightly different names.
The first generation is the Ford SVT Raptor R
which Ford ran from 2010 to 2014,
while the second generation
called the Ford Raptor Race Truck
and it started its run in 2017.
And in either iteration
they were both built and tested
through the world of off road racing,
namely the Baja 1000.
Put it this way.
On average, 40% of all vehicles that start this race,
they don't finish.
And that's mainly made up of rigs
that are specifically built for this race.
The only differences is between the current gen Raptor,
the one you could go to a Ford dealership and buy right now,
and the Raptor Race Truck are all based on race regulations.
So today's Raptor Race Truck gets a roll cage,
it gets racing seats, it gets a race spec fuel cell,
a race spec navigation system,
and it gets three inches of lift to the suspension,
but that's it.
So you can go to a dealership and buy
basically a freaking Baja 1000 tested race truck.
The gen one was powered by a big old bossy boy
6.2 liter naturally aspirated V8.
And internally Ford referred to this engine as the Boss V8.
The Boss V8 was the main variant
of what Ford called their modular engine format,
which is a big old lovable huggable family
of V8 and V10 small block engines
in both single and dual overhead cam orientations.
And the gen one's engine has a single overhead cam setup
with two valves per cylinder
as well as two spark plugs per cylinder.
And it was fitted with two spark plugs
for a couple of reasons.
Now first Ford wanted build in redundancy for this engine.
Now imagine racing through the desert.
It's three a.m. in the morning,
you're in the middle of nowhere,
it's frigging cold outside.
The only person around is your co-driver
He might be sleeping because it's three a.m. in the morning.
That is the last place you want to be having engine problems
and then end up stranded.
No, thank you, I don't want that.
So Ford engineered two spark plugs into the cylinder,
that way if one of them failed they had a backup one
and that backup one was completely independent of the first.
Now the second reason that Ford used a dual spark setup
was for something called flame propagation.
With a larger bore and a shorter stroke,
which are common characteristics of small block engines,
there's a large volume of space
for the fuel air mixture to fill up
in a very short amount of time.
And when you're at higher RPMs,
like the Raptors redline of 5,700 RPM,
that air fuel mixture may not get fully ignited
before the exhaust valve opens and it gets pushed out.
The engine moving so fast
that it's beating the combustion of the fuel.
Think about that, that's wild.
So to combat this issue
the dual spark plug setup
fires from both corners of the cylinder,
thereby creating a much more even and efficient combustion.
And this is called flame propagation
and it ensures that the entire mixture
gets completely ignited before the cycle completes.
Ford mated that Boss V8
to their six speed automatic transmission
and then they called it a day.
And the net result of all that in the gen one,
it has a large capacity, small size,
high power, low emissions, super reliable powertrain.
In fact it's engine was such a massive success
that after the truck finished third in its class
during its first time at the Baja 1000,
a class in which
five out of the nine vehicles that entered the race
didn't even finish,
Ford took that engine and they made it the standard one
inside the regular Ford Raptor.
You've heard that old saying before.
What gets third place on Sunday gets leased on Monday.
I would lease a Raptor.
Not even lying,
I thought about buying a Raptor when I bought my F-150.
But I was like, "Do I really need a Raptor?"
I mean, I don't but I do.
So where did Ford go from there?
Did they use a bigger engine?
Did they use turbos?
Did they use a supercharger?
Well, they went from a V8 to a V6
and they went from a naturally aspirated
to a twin turbocharged setup.
(hooting) Where my Boost Creep boys at?
Aw, I'm not wearing my Boost Creep shirt.
The gen two actually has the same engine,
albeit with some different tuning,
that was developed for the 2017 Ford GT supercar
which also won the 24 Hours of Le Mans
in its very first appearance in that race.
That's pretty impressive stuff from a V6.
So the gen two's EcoBoost engine,
it's called the D35,
is obviously a far departure from the Boss V8.
Aside from it being a V6,
it also uses dual overhead cams.
Now the EcoBoost also has a couple of spinny boys bolted on
that use specifically designed extra lightweight turbines
and something called electronically actuated it wastegates.
Now a wastegate is basically a bypass valve
for exhaust gases to circumvent the turbocharger
which allows for the amount of exhaust
that's spinning up the turbine to be regulated.
It does this by having a set amount of pressure
that the wastegate can withstand
before it opens up and bypasses the turbine,
going straight to the exhaust or into the atmosphere.
A wastegate typically gets this pressure
from the compressor or the cold side of the turbocharger.
The D35's electronically actuated wastegate
constantly takes readings
from the throttle input, engine load, and RPM
and uses this data to not only control
whether or not the wastegate is open,
but how much it will open up.
This automatically controls the boost pressure,
giving the absolute peak performance to the wheels
at any speed or RPM.
The D35 also incorporates direct injection
and port injection for the fuel to get to the cylinders.
Now you might me asking yourself,
Jerry Berry, why the heck would I need to use
two kinds of fuel injection methods in only one engine?
Well, that's a very good question
and we're gonna figure this out together.
The difference between the two
is that direct fuel injection
goes straight into the cylinder
while port injection mixes fuel and air
upstream from the intake valve.
We've mentioned
the different types of fuel injection before,
so if you want to learn more about that
go check out this episode on the Subaru WRX STI.
We go into it a little bit more there
if you want to nerd out, it's a good one.
The way that the uses both
is by prioritizing port injection
at lower load and lower RPM,
gradually incorporating both injectors
as the engine moves through the power band.
And then it prioritizes direct injection
at higher engine loads and higher RPMs.
And it's really a smart way
to efficiently squeeze the most power out of an engine.
Now that D35 links up
to the factory 10 speed automatic transmission.
And 10 speeds sounds like a lot,
and to be honest it is a lot.
But the gen two uses this transmission very cleverly.
So they incorporate higher gear ratios
in the first set of gears,
and that's to make sure
that the truck gets a good launch off the line.
And then it has progressively lower ratios
as the gears go up
with the last few gears just being overdrive gears
for super efficient speeds
when you're driving on the highway.
So the Raptor's got a good transmission and a good engine.
But if you want to compete in the Baja 1000
you need more than just a burly powertrain
to get you through all of 1000 miles.
You need some really sturdy suspension with a lot of travel
to make your way through the rough terrain of Baja, Mexico.
And that's why the Raptor uses
one of the best aftermarket suspension companies
in the world,
and that is the Fox Shock brand.
Now Fox has been one of the high performance go-to brands
for off-road trucks, motorcycles,
and a bunch of other off-road vehicles.
So when Ford started pulling the trigger on the gen one
it was only a natural decision
to put Fox internal bypass shocks on their rig.
(jazzy music)
Shocks generally have three zones in them.
They're called the catch zone, the ride zone,
and the bump zone.
So to help explain these three types of zones,
let's say I'm in my Ford Raptor R Race Truck,
I'm driving on the street, right.
Right now I'm in my ride zone.
The suspension is under the normal weight of the truck
and all the people and stuff that you have inside it.
There's a big jump, so the trucks takes the jump,
and now the suspension is in what's called the catch zone.
And that is when the shocks are fully decompressed.
So I'm up in the middle of the air,
I'm frigging free bird flying in my Raptor R
and I land the truck.
Well, when I land the truck
the suspension is now in the bump zone.
And the bump zone
is when the shock gets close to its maximum load.
The Fox shocks in the gen one
are made out of two sleeves of metal
with one inside the other.
The inside sleeve of the shock
has one little hole inside of it towards the bumper zone
and two holes in the inner sleeve towards the catch zone.
And these holes allow for the fluid inside of the suspension
to freely flow in between the two sleeves
as the shocks piston compresses and decompresses.
And this is what keeps the suspension
nice and plush and soft.
But when the shock goes past the holes
and pushes into the bump zone,
the suspension becomes much more stiff
and more deeply dampened
because the fluid can only pass through
the compression valve.
And that compression valve
is built directly into the shock's piston,
preventing the truck from bottoming out.
Likewise, the exact same process occurs
at the top end of the suspension
as the shock piston goes into the catch zone.
The gen two Raptor took the Fox suspension from the gen one
and it added a little yummy maraschino cherry on top.
Ford and Fox worked together
to develop something called live valve shock absorbers.
And the suspension system utilizes sensors
that closely monitor braking, steering input, acceleration
to actively and continuously adjust
the amount of compression and rebound dampening
that the internal cylinder can allow for the truck.
And these adjustments happen
at all four corners of the truck independently.
So this keeps the truck much more level
on super rough terrain,
which ultimately allows it to go faster
because it's behaving more predictably.
You got to be one with your truck.
You pair all this fancy shock absorber tech
with an additional lift to the front and rear suspension
and you got yourself a truck that can handle
13 inches of suspension travel upfront
and 13.9 in the back.
Now to put that in perspective,
a 2017 F-150 4x4 that's just the non Raptor version,
it has eight inches of suspension travel up front
and eight inches out back.
Big difference.
After the guys at Ford
completed the Baja 1000 in the gen two,
one of the engineers on the team was quoted as saying,
"No truck with a warranty
"should be able to do what this truck does."
I mean, just think about that for a second.
You can go up to a hundred miles an hour
in the deep sands of Mexico for over 30 hours straight
and then you can still take it back to your dealership
and it's covered under a warranty.
And they'll probably even wash it for you.
Hey guys, just want to give you a heads up
that there will be no "Bumper 2 Bumper" next week.
We're taking a week long vacation
so there's not gonna be any Donut shows.
Taking a little summer vacay.
So if you come to our page next week
and you're like, "Hey, where the heck are these new videos,"
we're just taking a week off, we're not going anywhere.
Bye for now.
We'll be back better than ever. (clapping)
Say hello to Dolly.
Say hello, hi.
My name's Dolly.
Say hi.
You make my life better.
We hope we're making yours a little bit better.
Bye for now.