Watch Ken Block Abuse a 2017 Ford F-150 Raptor in the Desert

The Gymkhana master and rally expert took Ford's off-road monster to the sand dunes for some fun.
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As awesome and tough as the original Ford F-150 Raptor was, some of its owners were writing X-Games-inspired checks the truck couldn’t quite cash—leading to hilarious videos like this one. For its second generation, Ford was able to beef up the Raptor’s structure significantly, due to reduced weight elsewhere—namely, aluminum body panels and a lighter 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6. 

To see just how beefy the new Raptor’s frame is, Motor Trend‘s Jonny Lieberman recently enlisted the help of “Chief Hoonigan” and star of the Gymkhana series, Ken Block. 

On this week’s episode of Ignition, Jonny and Ken evaluate the 2017 Ford Raptor’s off-road capabilities through the California desert. Jonny talks us through the various updates and improvements Ford has made to its new super truck and takes it for a top speed run on a dry lake bed, before meeting Ford’s Hoonmaster General in the Dumont Dunes near Death Valley to inevitably take the Raptor off some sweet jumps. 

So, what have we learned? That bar the way it sounds, the new Raptor is better than the old Raptor in pretty much every way; the new Raptor can be jumped repeatedly over sand dunes without being structurally compromised; and that Ken Block is a terrible passenger.