It’s been a while since Ford had a halo car. The GT got the sighs of admiration but was more of a monument to Ford’s past than to its present. If nothing else, the F-150 Raptor gives Ford trucks a Baja 1000-competitive glow (3rd place in Class 8, “race prepped”). Besides, it actually attracts paying customers. Like . . . the government! “Multiple sources reveal” to pickuptrucks.com that the US Border Patrol is considering the purchase of “at least 10” of the $38K base trucks. The one catch is that Border Patrol wants “work truck” interiors instead of Ford’s standard “class leading” finery. Can’t you see Howie Long rolling his eyes about that one? But hey, Ram and Silverado are both built in Mexico (among other places), so at least the Raptor is the least irony-charged full-sized border guard truck. Still, is “the immigration issue” as easily solved as a factory offroad special?
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Third place in class makes it a halo car (truck)? That’s a pretty low standard for a halo — wouldn’t the Focus WRC be a much better choice if racing success is the #1 criterion?
Ford has made specially optioned versions of sedans as cop cars for decades. Usually this means the biggest, baddest drive train along with a rubber room interior. No reason they couldn’t do the same for a special Border Patrol version of the F150.
At least the border patrol will be able to drive off deep into the desert to pick up their bribes to avoid the coyotes. And have some fun doing it.
So is it pronounced “Suhvt” now?
Reminds me of the 1982 movie The Border (Jack Nicholson). It’s an excellent serious movie with a very funny scene related to the speed potential of the agent’s pursuit truck. I think the SVT will definitely help the border patrol.
Ya gotta see it.
I don’t see the ZR2 F-150 being bought by the Border Patrol. It’s a toy that is not near green enough for the Administration.
Ford has made specially optioned versions of sedans as cop cars for decades. Usually this means the biggest, baddest drive train along with a rubber room interior.
What models are those?
“th009 – Third place in class makes it a halo car (truck)? That’s a pretty low standard for a halo”
For an off the shelf truck to gain a podium finish in a race prepared class of the Baja 1K is not a “low standard.”
Illegal immigration will be solved when the likes of Pelosi, Obama (who I voted for and would vote for again), McCain, and Harry Reid decide to quit enabling it, for example, by preventing the long-term extension of E-verify. If you want to be part of the solution, join numbersusa.com. Mass immigration (including illegal immigration) will definitely hurt driving in the US, by adding another 100 million plus to the population by 2050 (Pew Research Center, 2008).
I’m all for the border patrol getting these trucks.
“For an “off the shelf” truck to gain a podium finish in a “race prepared” class of the Baja 1K is not a low standard”
Read the link. A “race prepped” Raptor finished 3rd in class 8. Not trying to settle the dispute, just saying.
In the part of the border where I live, the Border Patrol can use those trucks to monitor all the traffic heading back to Mexico. No housing boom = no jobs = no immigration, except maybe to Texas. Even California’s agricultural jobs in the central valley haved dried up – a judge shut down the valley’s water supply to protect the Sacramento Delta smelt.
Sold. Though I would want it in the same wash-out configuration.
“What models are those?”
Police Interceptor. Granted that these days it gets the same engine as the dead and dying Grand Marquis, but it wasn’t always so. It does get slightly different tuning that the civilian models. Wikipedia has a good summary of the mechanical differences between the cop car version and the civilian version.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Police_Interceptor
TomH: For an off the shelf truck to gain a podium finish in a race prepared class of the Baja 1K is not a “low standard.”
If it indeed were “off the shelf” it would be more impressive. But it’s clear that the suspension is modified and would not have been legal for the stock class.
Again, third in class in a ~1000-mile race is nice, but I’m not that impressed. Focus in WRC, Fiesta in the ERC — or if the F150 is really that capable, let’s see Ford enter it in the Dakar. Score a third place in that and I will instantly accept it as a halo car/truck.
I was under the impression that TTAC hated the idea of anyone having a halo car. Wasn’t that the basis for suggesting that the Corvette be killed off?
My understanding is that they weren’t allowed enter the truck into a production class because it actually wasn’t in production yet. So they entered a modified prototype instead. Just finishing the Baja 1000 on your first go with an under development truck is quite an achievement.
I expect to see a load of these racing in the stock class next year.
I was under the impression that TTAC hated the idea of anyone having a halo car.
And what, in this article, would cause you to question that premise?
What a disappointment, I expected to see a fencing gang get out and start building a wall!
th009
That truck WAS NOT race prepped. It was straight off the production line, meaning anyone could buy one and go straight to Baja with it. You need to check your facts before spewing off like that.
From what I understand the SVT Raptor in the Baja did have some modifications, but it would have still been legal in the stock class if it were actually in production at the time of the race. The Ford team also decided to enter the race somewhat on a whim, doing so with far less prep time than many of the other teams, so, 3rd place considering all that isn’t bad at all.
If the F-150s that Ford sells to the US Border Patrol actually stop illegal immigration then who is going to buy the rest of the F-150s?
Sureshot way solving the illegal immgration problem is to bring down the US economy below that of Mexico, we are well on our way.
haha david holzman! your joking right? I don’t think there is any difference between MCcain and Obama when it comes to Illegal Immigration, they are both in the pockets of big business and are all about letting all that cheap labor in..as far as Pelosi she is still learning to tie her shoes while flying around on her shiny new G5 private jet.
but anyway seems like the perfect ride for boarder patrol, to bad Obama will perfer them to troll the desert in Honda Insights and front wheel drive Ford Escape Hybrids..
David–
The overpopulation/urban sprawl argument is probably the best reason to be against mass immigration.
I never bought the cultural argument. That is a silly argument to make in a “settler” country like the USA, and smacks of racism to boot. Hispanics will integrate just like the Irish Catholics did in the long-term.
But I can see where overpopulation and damage to the environment would be an issue.
The Baja 1000 Raptor was heavily modified. Ford produced a video of the Baja effort, shown on SPEED I believe.
Regardless, it was a fantastic effort by Ford.
It seems to me the best way to deal with illegal immigration is to send back the illegal immigrants we already know about. If an illegal immigrant commits a crime he should be turned over to his country’s legal system for prosecution, not left clogging ours. California and other states have even talked about offering driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants, which seems to me like they already know where they are, so why not round them up and send them back to wherever they are from? If they want to immigrate legally or seek political asylum, give them the paperwork to do so, but let them do it from their side of the border they way they should have the first time.
With regard to the illegal immigration issue, the only way to stop it is to actively persue and heavily punish the small businesses that hire them.
A constitutional amendment that made citizenship more than just a game of being born in the US would also help, but that’s not going to happen.
However, this whole pickup truck thing is pretty funny since, as noted in the post, some GM and Dodge pickups are made in Mexico, and since, because of culture and profession, undocumented aliens are probably one of the biggest buyers of pickups in the US.
Police Interceptor. Granted that these days it gets the same engine as the dead and dying Grand Marquis,
As it has since at least 1992.
The tuning consists of a higher idle and different shift points.
The trans has a longer tail shaft and they are limited to 129MPH with the 3.27 gears and 119 with the 3.55 gears.
Most minivans can outrun a “Police Interceptor”. There is nothing special about them…except the fact that they are one of the only platforms that actually makes Ford money.
“Work truck” interiors? Leather is durable and easy to clean, so it is often the choice of contractors and consultants in the fields I’ve worked. Wouldn’t it be more expensive to customize a truck with lower quality materials than to take the mass-produced option anyway?