Watching this B-roll of the 2017 Ford Raptor doodling around Michigan’s Silver Lake sand dunes we realized; this must be what every car commercial looks like before it’s tuned up with sweet jumps and sound effects.
Ford’s taking their sweet time teasing out the next-generation Raptor. And wouldn’t they? You need hype as much as horsepower to sell an expensive off-road pickup truck.
The video we’re talking about, which Ford has put on blast on their media pages, is right here:
The guy behind the wheel of that Raptor was without a doubt having an awesome time. You’d never know from the camera’s perspective though.
There’s no sensation of speed, no drama. You can barely see the truck in most of these sand-washed clips.
Now let’s look at a polished promotional clip for another off-roader, the Jeep Renegade. Mostly filmed at the very same spot we just watched the Raptor, no less:
I don’t have to tell regular Truck Yeah readers that a Ford Raptor would chew up and bury a Jeep Renegade in an real off-road contest. But if these two videos were extent of your automotive knowledge, I wouldn’t be too mad at you for thinking the lifted Italian compact car was the meaner machine.
We all know commercials are expertly edited and dramatized to sell a product, but I thought it was pretty interesting to see the contrast between two manufacturer’s footage at the same off-road park; one raw and one well-crispy.
It really is amazing what a few star wipes and color saturation can do for a vehicle’s performance, isn’t it?
The new Raptor comes out in a little over a year, and with any luck I’ll be able to drive it for you shortly before that. Then we’ll have our own heavily cut and dressed-up footage of it to knock your socks off with.
Videos via Ford and FCA. Hat tip to Tavarish for figuring out what to do with this new Raptor video.
Andrew’s the off-road and adventure guy at Jalopnik. Send him an email at andrew@jalopnik.com. I mean, why not right?