If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a hundred times: a vehicle can have all the capabilities in the world, but it’ll only perform as well as its driver can muster.
That point’s not lost on the Blue Oval, which offers complimentary, hands-on tutelage to buyers of many Ford Performance vehicles. And now it’s extended its high-performance driving school to owners of the new F-150 Raptor.
The latest addition to the Ford Performance Racing School at the Utah Motorsports Campus in Grantsville is the Raptor Assault program. The program includes classroom sessions as well as “extensive course time” to learn how to handle the off-road performance truck on the terrain it’s been designed for.
According to the automaker, that includes instruction in “rock crawling, Baja runs, high-speed driving, side-hilling, descending and braking” techniques, all the while educating owners in the finer points of the six driving modes offered by the vehicle’s Terrain Management System.
The one-day program is offered free of charge to anyone buying or leasing a new Raptor, and includes use of a vehicle (and the requisite safety gear) on-site. Travel and lodging are up to the participating owners, who can also opt (at extra charge) to take a second day of instruction on track behind the wheel of a Mustang GT.
Of course the Raptor Assault program isn’t the only course offered at the Ford Performance Racing School. Hot-hatch buyers have the similar opportunity to take part in the ST Octane Academy or RS Adrenaline Academy, while owners of the Shelby Mustang are invited to the same facility to enroll in the GT350 Track Attack program. That takes care of just about every car and truck in the Ford Performance lineup – short of the Ford GT, owners of which, we’d expect, will be offered an even more extensive program.
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