Ford F-150 Raptor SuperCrew

Standard equipment includes Raptor-themed underwear 'enhancement' module. But at 00, a rolled-up sock'll do the job just as well.

By PedroConejo on 4 September, 2010, 4:35pm

I Wonder...

...what kind of cars you might have in the UK if petrol were £0.51 per liter as it is here in the US. Would pickup trucks be as ubiquitous there as they are here? May I suggest repealing most of those outrageous fuel taxes? Besides, a little global warming might improve your weather.

By sshowers on 7 September, 2010, 12:24am

The USA still havent learnt how to properly tune a car then...

It continues to amaze me that whilst Asian and European tuners manage to extract over 400bhp and 450 lb/ft from a 2 or 2.5 litre turbo block, the Yanks still persist in sticking a huge heavy inefficient block in their cars.
Bet the handling is dire like everything else from that side of the ocean. Never mind, I'm sure theyll continue buying this rubbish...

By Bugeye on 7 September, 2010, 8:12am

senor neek

Ah, the rabid anti-yank sentiments come to the fore so quickly. If you visit the US, you'll understand why they love the pick-up, namely because it's well-suited to the environment. The same is true in Oz, S-Afr and large parts of Africa. Yes, this truck may be poor on your average B-road but WTF am I gonna do with a Focus RS in the Rockies, the Kalahari or the Outback? As for tuning, try feeding any of the highly-tuned Asian motors crappy petrol or diesel and see how long they last. Or, you could ask BMW how many of their 2l and 3l diesels (320d & 530d) exploded (blown turbo) on the S-Afr highveld before they got them right.

By nlouw on 7 September, 2010, 12:45pm

You can't beat a massive displacement engine with just raw power rather than all this turbo nonsense. There is no replacement for displacement!

By fhp11 on 23 September, 2010, 1:04am

@bugeye

Ugh I actually registered on this site to explain how uninformed you are. While also adding to what @nlouw said.

Trucks have big engines for massive LOW end torque. (Something truck engine derived sports cars like the Corvette and Viper take advantage of. Incredible machines that both held the nurburgring lap record.)

There's advantages to large and small displacement motors, but for trucks you wouldn't want anything else. Those little 2 or 2.5 liter turbo 4 bangers would disintegrate towing or hauling anything larger than a toy boat. And they rarely have that much torque unless they're tuned to the moon. And even in the best case scenario like that, the grunt isn't even accessible until you row through the gears hunting for the turbo powerband. Something you CANNOT have with a truck which needs all of its power at like 2-3k RPM's to tow/haul stuff.

The bigger engines are far more reliable too. It takes a rocket scientist that'll charge you a fortune every month to keep that lil' engine running, unlike a big american motor such as this. When it finally DOES breakdown, it can be fixed by a monkey with a hammer.

There's an advantage to simplicity, and not over engineering something. Especially for a vehicle meant for such harsh abuse.

By diabolicalpie on 17 October, 2010, 2:02am