The Ford Raptor is the world's most extreme pickup - here's what it's like to drive

Ford has a Performance division that does exactly what you'd expect from a performance decision: create go-fast vehicles, ranging from the Fiesta ST at about $21,000 to the ultra-exclusive $400,000-plus GT supercar.

In the mix, remarkably, is a pickup truck: the Raptor.

Makes sense. Ford Performance also sells stonkingly outfitted Mustangs, so why take a pass on kitting out what is the company's bestselling vehicle, the F-150 pickup?

The Raptor is anything but an F-150 with a few exotics bells and whistles. It's an F-150 that goes to 11 and then goes some more. It's a pickup for adrenaline junkies, and I've always been curious about it, so when Ford said I could borrow a $62,500 test vehicle, I said, "Heck yeah!"

Mind you, I wasn't going to be tackling sand dunes or rock-strewn trails with this loaner Raptor. So I had to devise different criteria. I already knew the Raptor could handle the worst. But how would it do in the suburbs?

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