Ford Everest Raptor Prototype Exists

[Broncofan7]

Ford Everest Raptor prototype built, not for production (whichcar.com.au)

 

Not surprised. But interesting story.

[jpd80]

The engineering for the Raptor power train was split three ways to help amortise costs, pity that Ford didn’t proceed but there’s always a change of them changing their mind. The model is developed and a lot of the engineering is shared with Ranger.

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“We did build one though and it was sensational,” he says, eyes widening. “I can tell you I've been airborne in an Everest Raptor. The Ford Performance guys in the US thought it was incredible. 

"We took it out to the desert in California and even though it was a very rough dev[elopment] car, it was something else. At one point we took it up a rocky mountain face, probably about a 60 per cent gradient, and nobody thought it had a chance. There was something wrong with the car at the time. I seem to recall that the diff lock wasn't working at that point, but it still crawled right up. Yes, it was more rock crawl than proper Raptor stuff – but nothing else made it up that slope. Nobody could believe it.”

 

 

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Still, there were other reasons aside from those of pure budget allocation why the Everest Raptor never made it past this one engineering assessment vehicle.

“The SUV body meant that it was a harder vehicle to engineer than the Ranger Raptor. The rear door shutline was always a problem. That's a particularly complex part of the vehicle body, so you can't just blow it out into a wide box arch. As a result, the suspension never quite had the articulation of the Ranger.”

Most such prototypes then get crushed or repurposed for other engineering programs, but perhaps the engineers at Ford Performance in the US loved the thing so much that they couldn't bring themselves to kill it.

“It's still around somewhere,” says Hall grinning.

 

 

Edited July 28, 2022 by jpd80