Send it! Ford went big on this F-150 Raptor jump—real big. So big, in fact, that a screenshot of the red 2021 Ford F-150 Raptor at the height of its skyward trajectory looks fake. Ridiculously photoshopped. It’s not, though. It’s for real. We grabbed some screenshots of the action, too, but you can see the video all over Instagram, where it’s been shared around after being deleted by the original poster. We’ve watched it a thousand times and still can’t believe our eyes. Forget the usual debut—we think Ford should have led with this clip when unveiling the all-new Raptor this week (not to say we weren’t fervently absorbing all of the new Raptor’s details anyway, but still … ).
The dirt approach transitions into a soft, sand-dune launch, kicking the nose of the off-road-oriented F-150 pickup sky high before the truck levels out for the landing. With all that hang time, the driver had time to think about life, the future, or quantum physics, for starters. Despite the big air, the landing is remarkably smooth and uneventful—but then again, we weren’t aboard to know the true impact or suffer the back compression. Hopefully, these astronauts didn’t spill any drinks or scatter any popcorn in the rig’s interior.
The landing is somewhat hidden by onlookers and a truck (that also appears to be a Raptor) with a professional camera boom mounted to the roof. The original Instagram post divulged this Raptor jump was performed as part of a commercial shoot that took place several weeks before the official debut of the 2021 Ford F-150 Raptor. It was allegedly one of eight jumps that the completely stock Raptor performed, although remember, it’s built for that sort of thing.
Word is the truck finished filming appearing to be no worse for the wear, but this sort of thing doesn’t always work that way. (Remember the viral TRX and Raptor jumps by non-professional types?) Without caution and proper preparation, you can really mess up both the human and the machine with these types of jumps. Now we wait to find out when we’ll see the official footage and/or images of this jump—or try something similar for ourselves. We can’t wait.
