Coming to a mobile device near you: An all-new action movie starring the ultimate Ford F-150. Get ready for ‘Race Through Baja.’
What’s the best part of an action movie? Fight scenes are cool, but they’re not what we have in mind. Same for the stunts. If you’re reading this right now, you probably already know our answer. It’s the car chases! That’s what makes this Instagram video from rpgoffroad so great. You don’t have to sit through an hour of setup and dialogue. The whole “movie” is just a Ford Raptor being a badass.
Many auto-focused scenes in movies involve one car chasing another. It’s a great formula that’s worked for decades. “Bullitt” came out in 1968 and its Mustang GT390/Dodge Charger chase is still one of the most famous car chases in cinematic history.
This footage is a little different. For one thing, it stars a truck – and that’s it. There is no other vehicle. But there is a helicopter hovering overhead (we’re assuming that’s so it can capture another angle of the Raptor in action). And a lot of typical Hollywood car scenes take place in cities. This all goes down in Baja California, a place with the kind of rough terrain that the Raptor was built to take on.
The Raptor starts off tearing down a dusty trail as the yellow chopper hangs in the sky, watching its every move. The truck looks like a horizontal rocket leaving an exhaust plume of powdered rock.
The driver keeps their right foot down as they reach the bottom of the path and charge into the pool of water ahead. In slow motion, we see the Raptor turn into a four-wheel-drive Las Vegas hotel fountain. Its chunky tires disappear behind huge plumes of water that spray so high into the air that even the helicopter above gets wet.
We know James Bond never drove a pickup, but this video makes us want to watch another action movie: The Spy Who Loved Me — especially this scene.
Derek Shiekhi's father raised him on cars. As a boy, Derek accompanied his dad as he bought classics such as post-WWII GM trucks and early Ford Mustang convertibles.
After loving cars for years and getting a bachelor's degree in Business Management, Derek decided to get an associate degree in journalism. His networking put him in contact with the editor of the Austin-American Statesman newspaper, who hired him to write freelance about automotive culture and events in Austin, Texas in 2013. One particular story led to him getting a certificate for learning the foundations of road racing.
While watching TV with his parents one fateful evening, he saw a commercial that changed his life. In it, Jeep touted the Wrangler as the Texas Auto Writers Association's "SUV of Texas." Derek knew he had to join the organization if he was going to advance as an automotive writer. He joined the Texas Auto Writers Association (TAWA) in 2014 and was fortunate to meet several nice people who connected him to the representatives of several automakers and the people who could give him access to press vehicles (the first one he ever got the keys to was a Lexus LX 570). He's now a regular at TAWA's two main events: the Texas Auto Roundup in the spring and the Texas Truck Rodeo in the fall.
Over the past several years, Derek has learned how to drive off-road in various four-wheel-drive SUVs (he even camped out for two nights in a Land Rover), and driven around various tracks in hot hatches, muscle cars, and exotics. Several of his pieces, including his article about the 2015 Ford F-150 being crowned TAWA's 2014 "Truck of Texas" and his review of the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider, have won awards in TAWA's annual Excellence in Craft Competition. Last year, his JK Forum profile of Wagonmaster, a business that restores Jeep Wagoneers, won prizes in TAWA’s signature writing contest and its pickup- and SUV-focused Texas Truck Invitational.
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