Ford's Special Vehicle Team (SVT) has been around for some time. Originally called Special Vehicle Operations (SVO), they helped build the first factory turbo and intercooled Mustangs beginning in 1984, helped work with Yamaha to build a super high-output engine for everyone's favorite family hauler (1989 SHO Taurus), and more recently have concetrated on putting aftermarket parts together under their Ford Racing Performance Parts (FRPP) name.
The folks at Ford that brought you hi-po versions of more mundane cars (SVT Focus, SVT Contour) and traditional performance models (SVT Cobra Mustang, SVO Mustang, '07 Shelby) and even trucks (SVT F-150 Lightening) are putting together a test bed of sorts for off-road truck racing.
Here is a spy pic from Car and Driver:
And here is the production version of the 2010 F-150 Raptor.
The 2010 Ford F-150 Raptor seems to be set to go on sale to the public. It won't feature all the racing improvements that the R version has (Supercharged engine, fully boxed frame with roll bars, etc.), but that is what many of the other SVT models got their start. They would build some crazy version just for racing or car shows, then bits and pieces would slowly find their way into the production version.
I'm not a huge fan of Ford Trucks, but this is starting to change my mind.
If you want to see the official press release, here you go: http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=29344
It's starting to snow outside, and the kids are getting itchy to sled. I'll see you soon.
Shifting gears and burning rubber,
geoff
