“Sainz.” Sainz was always the answer when the Ford reps in Morocco asked me who I would like to ride with in the Raptor T1+ race car. An absolute legend, Carlos Sainz Sr. has always been my hero, having watched him since his WRC days where he won two world championships. Many an early morning was spent with my dad on the sofa as El Matador masterfully weaved his car through countless turns on his way to winning multiple rallies.
With my dad gone, it would have been an honor to have been driven around by our hero. Unfortunately, fate and fat got in the way of this pipe dream. Lucas Cruz, his co-driver, probably has one of the smallest body frames in racing and this meant, for the life of me, I just could not fit in the co-driver’s seat (I’m sure it was for that reason why I just couldn’t slot into the Recaro buckets, and it had nothing to do with my big bum). Sainz just looked at me and dryly asked, “what, your as*hole does not fit in the seat?” Sadly, no sir, it didn’t. Because of this, it would not be safe for me to ride in his car if I could not sit securely, as this would mean that I would be bounced around the interior and hit all sorts of important roll bars and systems with my noggin.
Thankfully, Sainz’ teammate, Mattias Ekström, an absolute legend in rallycross and DTM, who was finished doing rides for the day, graciously agreed to let me ride with him instead. I am equally thankful that his co-driver, Emil Bergkvist, had a seat 3cm wider than Cruz’, which meant I was able to slot my butthurt, well, bum, into the seat for what turned out to be one hell of a ride.
The Ford Raptor T1+ interior
The first thing that literally hit me upon attempting to climb in was the roll cage. Because it hit my head quite hard (thankfully my helmet did its job). The second thing I noticed is just how tight the entire interior is. Yes, getting into the seat was a literal squeeze, but the rest of the interior was equally in your face. The co-driver’s seat has a massive electronic road book (a new addition to this year’s races) the size of iPads in front and within touching distance.
The touchscreens, as well as all the buttons accessible to the co-driver, need to be within an arm’s length from where he/she sits, since the harness straps you down pretty tight. Speaking of the harness, this is a five-point affair, and once all the straps were pulled tight, there was literally no way of moving from my shoulders up to my thighs. I was locked in.
Now I wouldn’t say I have claustrophobia, but I have to admit that the moment I was strapped in and the door was closed, there was a moment where I may have started hyperventilating from the tightness of it all. Thankfully, the car actually has an air-conditioner blowing cold air down my back, so it was a good consolation.
Once my helmet comm system was connected and I could speak to Mattias, he could clearly hear my labored breathing. I calmed down, gave him the thumbs up and my bravest smile, and he pushed the button that started up the Ford Coyote V8 engine. It barked in that special way that only a naturally aspirated V8 with what is more or less a straight pipe exhaust can, and we were ready to go.
The Ford Raptor T1+ experience
My newfound claustrophobia aside, I have to be fair to the race car. It has one job: to go as fast as possible over any terrain presented before its driver, and it is very hard to put into words just how utterly mind-bending the experience was, but I will try.
Once Mattias lined up the car at the start of the off-road circuit, he put the 6-speed sequential gearbox into gear with an almighty thunk, and you could hear the gears engage with that sound that only a race-spec gearbox can provide. Whatever motorsport knowledge or experience I thought I had, having done this job for more than 13 years, went out the window as he dumped the clutch and the massive 37-inch BFGoodrich tires sunk their teeth into the planet and propelled us forward at an ungodly velocity.
It is generally easy to make a fast car, but to feel a car have this much grip, this much acceleration off the line, when that line is made up of soft sand and rocks is a wholly transcendent experience. We quickly made our way up the gears, with each shift a violent break in power as the single AP racing clutch tried to cope with the torque being force-fed through the system.
The desert, which had seemed so vast just seconds before, felt smaller; the corner that initially seemed so far away, was immediately upon us. Something funny happened when something did not happen—Mattias did not brake for the first corner, with about 30 meters to go. At almost top speed, he twisted the wheel, put the Raptor T1+ into a massive slide before the corner, and with a quick downshift, let the V8 pull the nose around the corner without any drama whatsoever.
It seemed like a real-life video game
We then came upon a series of dips, holes, and jumps. You know that feeling where your butt puckers up when you're right about to hit a big hole? Well my butt puckered, but to my disbelief, we hit a ditch that was about half a meter deep, and nothing. No drama, no hard bump, nothing. It was as if the Fox suspension had turned the Raptor into a hovercraft. We were blasting over bumps you would take at 20kph in your normal off-roader at speeds in excess of 150kph, and the Raptor was loving it.
The last thing that did not compute was how hard the Raptor T1+could shed speed. There was one particular dip followed by a jump we had to take at about 60kph, which was still ludicrous. But then you realize it was a turn at the end of a long straight, and we were hurtling toward it at about 150kph when Mattias drops the anchors hard. The 355mm Alcon ventilated disks, combined with the insane grip from the Raptor’s tires, meant that when he needed to brake, it really did brake. The Raptor’s deceleration was almost as violent as its acceleration (I have the bruises from the harness on my shoulder to prove it), as the car dropped speed so hard and so violently, that you would not believe we did all that on a completely loose surface.
The rest of my ride was just a blur of speed, drifts, jumps, and laughing out loud at the absurdity of it all. Climbing out of the Raptor, I had the stupidest grin on my face, which was followed by the dread that I may not be able to put into words just how insane this experience was.
It was fascinating, violent, emotional, and a dream come true, all rolled into a four-minute explosion of determination. The determination of the drivers to prove that they had what it takes to win in Dakar, and the determination of the Ford M-Sport team that engineered, built, and tuned the Raptor T1+ into an instrument that will forcefully make that dream come true.
For this motoring writer, it was a fulfilled dream as well: To meet my heroes, to experience their machines, and to see just how a group of extremely talented individuals coalesce into a team that can hopefully get things done come January 2025.
