Owners Review: Ford SVT Raptor

Reader’s review of his own Raptor – it’s so cool, that we’ll forgive him for calling it Felicity

By Barry Cummings

Barry Cumming's Ford SVT Raptor, Owners Review

 

[Read our review of the Ford Raptor here]

My name is Barry Cummings and I’m the proud owner of a 2010 Ford F150 SVT Raptor. It’s the 6.2 litre V8 with 411bhp and 434lb ft of torque. It’s pretty much stock bar a Volant cold air intake. The digital mud decals have been taken off and the FORD logo on the front is colour coded to the paint work – Molten Orange.

My truck was originally a US import, a local guy brought it in from new and used it, but got ‘bored’ of it! I was in the market for a new truck, as my existing modified, F150 FX4 was piling on the km’s. I was actually in the process of buying a very modified F150 platinum, when by chance I flicked through Dubizzle one last time and my dream truck was there, for a quite frankly ridiculous price. I won’t reveal it, as that might hinder my chances of selling it in the future!

Although I don’t ever see selling it 🙂 I got an AMAZING deal though, considering you couldn’t get your hands on a brand new one here in the Gulf at that point, unless you had some serious Wasta. I spoke with Al Tayer and they only had the test vehicle available and were asking AED180,000 for that one, which had been brought over specifically to break it in the desert!!! No thanks.

The great thing about this truck is its size. It is massive and for the roads over here, it’s a bonus. For the most part, people see the thing coming and refrain from doing their usual stupid antics in front of me. However, even with three tonnes of bright Orange truck, travelling at 120kph, some people still decide to pull out; they go back pretty quick though.

Road presence is fantastic and also the ability to see further up the road, over even
Range Rover’s and Land Cruisers, gives me piece of mind as I can see what carnage is unravelling in front of me. It’s a big truck, but that engine and the torque, coupled with the exhaust note make this truck a joy to drive all the time.

It’s my only car and my daily driver and I have no complaints from a drivers perspective. Couple of vibrations here and there (but nothing major) Al Tayer have been pretty good with servicing and fixing bits and bobs. Especially as it’s an import and therefore no warranty. The guys at the Al Quoz facility have been really great with her. (Yes, her name is Felicity)

As a daily driver, it’s a 4 door, 5 seat car with an exceptionally large boot! It is a wide
vehicle though, wider than just about every other ‘car’ out there, even the H2, which is why it has LED’s on each corner. You sometimes realise just how wide, when you are on the highway and you are touching white lines on both sides. This is perhaps the only downside to driving this awesome truck to the mall. It’s the size of the parking spaces, it can sometimes be very difficult getting in and out of it, in a busy mall. What’s worse, is that ‘selfish Dubai driver’ syndrome, whereby people swing there doors open and ding your car affects me quite badly and it’s so annoying coming back to Felicity and seeing yet another white (it’s always white) paint mark and dent on her flanks.

Obviously this truck was built to go off road, and I am one of those people that has bought a huge off roader and actually use it off road. We’ve been on a number of outings into the desert, Fossil Rock and various other destinations in and around RAK, Al Ain, Fujairah.

Some wadi bashing as well. It is totally capable on the flat rough stuff, you can get up to speeds you know you shouldn’t be doing on the loose stuff. But she’s also proved herself to be perfectly capable in the dunes as well. With a truck, the length can sometimes prove to be an issue when cresting, but no such issues. That massive 6.2 litre V8 roaring away and tires down to 12psi have meant no issues whatsoever on the off road excursions (as you’d expect)

As a US import and a 2010 model, I don’t have the touchscreen mounted in the central console, but I have just about everything else. Someone that got in recently sat for two minutes staring and said ‘I’ve never seen so many buttons’ – all lit up with the ice blue back lights. The interior is colour coded with the paint, which makes sense. I’ve seen my interior on an all black exterior and don’t think it goes well. I might be biased though.

For me the Raptor is the ultimate all rounder, she’s as happy trundling around Karama looking for a parking space, flying up Emirates road to get out of town at the weekends, or bouncing around in the dunes or the Wadi’s of the UAE and Oman. I was also secretly quite proud coming out of Al Qasr one Friday and seeing her parked right up front with the Ferrari’s, Bentleys and Porsches. And just to be clear, she did an over night stay and I was whisked home by one of the RTA’s finest.

I would 100% buy another one if I could get the same kind of deal as I did this time round. Having said that, if I had the money, I would also pay ‘full’ whack for one, especially the 2013 model with the new Torsen Differential, front mounted camera and beaded wheels. In my humble opinion, the Raptor is the ideal car for UAE.

5 responses to “Owners Review: Ford SVT Raptor”

  1. Wow, you are about as UN-Environmental as I have seen!

  2. Abdul says:

    My dream car, want to ask you when imported from US did you replaced the radiator? Cause most people who import US vehicle’s they replace radiators because of heat

  3. Johan Rivera says:

    Dear,
    I am waiting the 2013 Ford Raptor SVT in Qatar, but the people in the dealer does not know when it will come to Middle East.
    Do you know something about?
    Thank you…

  4. Nasser Al Maadeed says:

    Hi , Iam intrested to buy ford pick up car same the car shown in u site(red ford 2012 Raptor 6.2L ) but iam not experinced in pick up cars specially with other pick up cars like GMC and DOODGE so I need some help and I really wants to buy one new car through u from Dubai. I like the car which i saw in the site red Ford 2012 one and half door Raptor 6.2L. and my questions are? 1- can I order through u same car 2014 ? 2- Can I get bigger engine ( I heard here they change the standard engin to highre one like 500HP and above. 3- can i add some specifications to the car? Like bigger oil tank and some wood inside and others… ( sorry to bather but i like some thing special ). Please send me u tel.no. and iam ready to come over to Dubai and meet with u. thanks and best regards, Nasser (00974-55528000 )

    • admin says:

      Thanks for your message. We do not sell cars at Motoring Middle East. Please consult with your local Ford dealer or import specialists.

Leave a Reply to Nasser Al Maadeed Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.