In 2009, Ford’s Special Vehicle Team had a stroke of genius. “Big-Three” performance wings had been tinkering with trucks since the GMC Syclone embarrassed an Italian blue-blood on a 1991 drag strip. Whether it was an SVT Lightning, a Viper-imbued Ram, or an SS 454, truck upgrades tended to adhere to the tried-and-true sportscar playbook. Traditionally high-riding vehicles were lowered, power was added, suspensions and tires were optimized, and sometimes weight was cut, but the resulting vehicles were always vastly compromised. Even with the speed-based modifications, they didn’t exactly excel in sporting activities beyond making power/noise and going straight, but they also lost the ability to do truck things – the Syclone’s stubby bed could infamously carry just 500 lbs., and the larger Lightning and SRT-10 trucks both made do with RWD-only drivetrains and less than nine inches of ground clearance. All three were two-door, two-seaters (the Dodge was the only one that even offered a back seat, though you lost the selling point manual transmission when checking this box) that weren’t recommended for use as tow rigs. As a follow-up to the supercharged Lightning, the SVT guys decided that instead of fighting the F150’s inherent “truck-ness,” they should take advantage of its burly architecture and leave the deeply flawed street truck concept behind in favor of something much grander, with greater market appeal, to boot. With this goal in mind, SVT birthed the factory desert running trophy truck, which they brilliantly dubbed “Raptor.”