I’m looking at this truck and it’s simultaneously a 1979 Ford with a Raptor 2014 grafted into it, and a 2014 Ford Raptor with a 1979 Ford grafted on top of it.
The Ford news launching a V8 version of the new Raptor made me look for V6 sales figures versus the V8 generations.
I didn’t find anything exactly (Ford doesn’t reveal sales of the F series at all, although I tried to comment), but I came across this old story of Ford Authority while on my hunt.
From the Ford Authority:
[T]his 1979 Ford F-150 is actually just a 2014 Ford F-150 Raptor with a classic F-150 body inserted in it. This means that the chassis, the transmission system, the interior and almost everything else came from the Raptor donor. But, unlike some of the other Frankenstein-like projects we’ve seen, it’s almost impossible to say from the outside.
[…]
To make the old body fit the new structure, Sweet Brothers had to stretch the cabin ten centimeters and cut through the firewall and floor plans to modify them. Move inside and you will really think you are getting into a newer F-150, because that is what it is. Better still, all the amenities of the modern truck still work, including the heated and cooled leather seats, navigation and satellite radio, and even the unmistakable Ford door chime.
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The inclusion of the Ford keyboard is what it does for me:
The suspension is original, but the engine gets a Roush Stage 2 supercharger, good for what Sweet Brothers claims to be 590 horsepower and 590 pound-feet of torque. Do you need 590 HP in a pickup? No you do not. Do you want? Almost certainly.
The only question I have arises when I look inside. One of the great joys of owning an old vehicle like shit is the old interior. The way everything sounds, how everything looks, the giant, thin steering wheel spinning in your hands. This truck misses it and looks like a ‘90’s cigarette boat.
On the other hand, the interior of an old car is also what keeps it locked away from the normal state of a car. No airbag, a steering column that wants to blow your solar plexus, and a suffocating heat and cold that put you in a jacket in winter and shorts in summer, shorts burned on your legs because of the sunburned vinyl seats. I mean, I can see it from both sides.
Changing a Raptor’s body is one of those things that just makes sense, and it’s no surprise that this isn’t the first time I’ve seen one. This Bronco is recorded in my memory.
Part of me wonders if there’s anyone out there who built a 1979 Ford pickup by grafting the Raptor suspension to it and replacing it with a Raptor engine. I imagine what This one person thinks about this equipment.