{"id":35545,"date":"2026-01-18T13:26:38","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T17:26:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=35545"},"modified":"2026-01-18T13:31:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T17:31:26","slug":"bronco-raptor-country-spills-thrills-n-crazy-drivers-across-the-arabian-desert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/bronco-raptor-country-spills-thrills-n-crazy-drivers-across-the-arabian-desert","title":{"rendered":"Bronco Raptor country: Spills, thrills &#8216;n&#8217; crazy drivers across the Arabian Desert"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\"><em>Riyadh, Saudi Arabia<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 At over 400,000 square miles, the Empty Quarter in the Arabian desert is the world\u2019s biggest continuous sand ecosystem. It\u2019s the natural habitat of the Detroit-born Ford Bronco Raptor, where the off-road beast can really flex its V-6 muscle, all-terrain tires and sophisticated suspension.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">And its state-of-the-art safety systems.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">I got a behind-the-wheel taste of the Raptor\u2019s sand-storming capabilities here \u2014 including a mouthful of air bag when I miscalculated a dune. I have raced cars all my adult life and hammered off-road vehicles across extreme off-road environments from the Rubicon Trail in California to Utah\u2019s Moab rock to Holly Oaks ORV Park, but the desert is unique for its high speeds, disorienting landscape and extreme temperatures.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.detroitnews.com\/gcdn\/authoring\/authoring-images\/2026\/01\/09\/PDTN\/88107365007-bronco-raptor-desert-down.jpg?width=660&amp;height=376&amp;fit=crop&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"The Ford Bronco Raptor takes on the Empty Quarter dunes in Saudi Arabia.\" width=\"534\" height=\"304\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The Ford Bronco Raptor takes on the Empty Quarter dunes in Saudi Arabia. <em>Henry Payne, The Detroit News<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.detroitnews.com\/story\/business\/autos\/2026\/01\/10\/bronco-raptor-country-spills-n-thrills-across-the-arabian-desert\/88106545007\/\">Read full story here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Riyadh, Saudi Arabia\u00a0\u2014 At over 400,000 square miles, the Empty Quarter in the Arabian desert is the world\u2019s biggest continuous sand ecosystem. It\u2019s the natural habitat of the Detroit-born Ford Bronco Raptor, where the off-road beast can really flex its V-6 muscle, all-terrain tires and sophisticated suspension. And its state-of-the-art safety systems. I got a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35545"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35545"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35546,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35545\/revisions\/35546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}