Need something even more capable off-road than the F-150 Raptor? Factory Five now has a solution for your woes: The XT-1 Pre-Runner Truck kit.
Billed as more than just “a modified F-150 with fender flares and a lift kit,” the XT-1 takes a 2015-2020 F-150 and replaces the ladder frame…
Kudos to FF for thinking outside the kit car box!
Now, if they'd made this for Toyota trucks with rusty frames...
I like it. I've been a big fan of FF for over 20 years now and have been to the factory a few times for their open houses. Great company, great community. An FF Roadster (Cobra) is on my bucket list.
Keith Tanner said:Now, if they'd made this for Toyota trucks with rusty frames...
Agreed. Part of the fun of a kit car is buying a mechanically sound drivetrain from a junk car and putting it in a new body.
I don't know of any Raptors that meet both requirements.
"...the performance of its XT-1 “exceeds even the most extreme Raptor-R, and is both streetable and off-road capable.”
With a dead-stock F150 drivetrain? Doubtful. Kit car companies always do this, picking and choosing which "facts" to state while ignoring other necessary changes. Far less exciting would be buying a used Raptor and just be happy, but what do I know!
Raptors aren't exactly cheap donor vehicles. I don't see this being much of a success.
I like the concept of turning a regular truck into a Raptor-esque truck but it still just sort of looks like a debadged f150 to me.
I would think that for cheap donor purposes, they would have looked to 04-08 F150s with the guaranteed-to-rust frames. Or the Tundra or Sequoia with similar rust problems.
They're using a regular F-150 as the donor, not the Raptor.
The donor vehicle can be a regular 2015 to 2020 F150, not necessarily the Raptor.
That's a pretty neat truck. And actually pretty tempting.
I guess FF has a history of using Ford but I don't think I would have designed it for a Ford donor. I would have used Chevy to get all the iterations of the LS powerplant from 4.8L to 7L and their leggo-building capabilities.
kb58 said:"...the performance of its XT-1 “exceeds even the most extreme Raptor-R, and is both streetable and off-road capable.”
With a dead-stock F150 drivetrain? Doubtful. Kit car companies always do this, picking and choosing which "facts" to state while ignoring other necessary changes. Far less exciting would be buying a used Raptor and just be happy, but what do I know!
I see where you're coming from but FF has a pretty dang solid reputation. I remember when they said that their Cobra roadster kit built off an old 5.0 push-r0d Fox body would out perform a genuine 196X Shelby Cobra. Turns out it really could in most cases.
A 401 CJ said:kb58 said:"...the performance of its XT-1 “exceeds even the most extreme Raptor-R, and is both streetable and off-road capable.”
With a dead-stock F150 drivetrain? Doubtful. Kit car companies always do this, picking and choosing which "facts" to state while ignoring other necessary changes. Far less exciting would be buying a used Raptor and just be happy, but what do I know!
I see where you're coming from but FF has a pretty dang solid reputation. I remember when they said that their Cobra roadster kit built off an old 5.0 push-r0d Fox body would out perform a genuine 196X Shelby Cobra. Turns out it really could in most cases.
Doesn't the real raptor have like 700 hp though? Gonna be hard to make that difference up in weight savings alone.
wae said:I like the concept of turning a regular truck into a Raptor-esque truck but it still just sort of looks like a debadged f150 to me.
I would think that for cheap donor purposes, they would have looked to 04-08 F150s with the guaranteed-to-rust frames. Or the Tundra or Sequoia with similar rust problems.
Don't worry. For real budget work, his brother smyth will come along with a ute kit for 02 explorers or something...
Not sure about the EB but the 5.0 Coyote can get its wick turned up pretty high pretty easily. Wasn't there a dealer recently just slapping on a blower and selling them as 7 - 800 hp? What did Cleetus' make? Pretty near that.
That's pretty cool.
I would have gotten really excited if it were smaller. Way smaller.
I think the donor will make more sense in 10 years when the frames are rusty but the aluminum body still looks good. Around here you can find lots of cheap older trucks with rusty frames but you'll still have to replace rockers, cab corners and bed sides while you're at it.
I think its a pretty smart move. A guy can buy a complete wrecked 2015+ F150 3.5 Ecoboost for under $10k, like this one.
https://www.copart.com/lot/55829623/salvage-2016-ford-f150-supercrew-id-boise
Looks like it needs some bodywork on the cab but the bulk of the damage would be thrown away anyway. The 3.5 Ecoboost is a straight up ripper, even the earlier ones. 400 horse with just a canned tune, should be able to wring a reliable 500 horse out of it with a few more bits and bobs.
The F150 cab is such a nice plate to spend time it doesnt really make sense to re-engineer a complete cab just to have all the creature comforts of a 2001 Toyota.
iansane said:That's pretty cool.
I would have gotten really excited if it were smaller. Way smaller.
That's what she didn't say 
Their press materials said that their tube frame was actually about 100 lbs heavier than the stock frame, so no weight savings.
It's really cool but I never understood full-size pickups for serious offroad use. Just too big for a lot of trails and situations if you're going to do the really technical stuff. I agree with Keith that a Tacoma/Ranger sized option would have been better. That said, I think a lot of these are destined to become mall crawlers that never leave the pavement.
ShinnyGroove (Forum Supporter) said:Their press materials said that their tube frame was actually about 100 lbs heavier than the stock frame, so no weight savings.
It's really cool but I never understood full-size pickups for serious offroad use. Just too big for a lot of trails and situations if you're going to do the really technical stuff. I agree with Keith that a Tacoma/Ranger sized option would have been better. That said, I think a lot of these are destined to become mall crawlers that never leave the pavement.
For "trails" you are spot on. Full size doesn't work so well. These are meant to look like and function somewhat like open desert racers. In the desert there is no better civilian platform than a full-size pickup. Ask Parnelli Jones. The fist year of Baja they thought they'd be smart and use a Jeep CJ5. Small, compact, easy to soup up, and 4 wheel drive. He later said that if someone had set out to purposely design the worst platform possible for Baja, they would have probably arrived at the Jeep. To run it hard you need wheelbase, track width, long travel, all the stuff that I full-size can accommodate. And the VW guys are just VW guys. I can't say anything else about that 
In reply to ShinnyGroove (Forum Supporter) :
With that much width, they may be able to crawl the mall, but they'll have a heck of a time finding a parking space!
Personally I want (but probably can't afford) the prerunner version of this:
A little inspiration:
So with the GRM version of this, anyone thought about taking a Locost chassis and making it off road capable?
Long travel front and rear suspension? Oddly enough, the one I worked with uses the same rear suspension design as the Fox Mustang- two long lower trailing arms and two diagonal upper.
And the core chassis would need beefed up.
But it's not that far off of what it would need to be for a 2wd off road vehicle.
From a CA resident- why not make the body a pre-75 look. Could fall under sb100 to make it street legal and badass. Lots more customer base too.
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