- 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.
