Second-generation F-150 Raptor can conquer mud, sand, and rock. This poor little snowman doesn’t stand a chance!
Building a snowman is a fun activity. It brings friends and families together to create a cheery symbol of the winter season. Unfortunately, a snowman doesn’t have a long life span. Unless you build one in the Artic Circle, it’s inevitable that a snowman’s life will end when temperatures rise.
The snowman in this video clip from Instagram user Lee Houston (aka leehoustonx) meets its demise much sooner.
It was going to die sooner or later, anyway. Consider what Houston does in his second-generation Ford F-150 Raptor SuperCrew speeding up the process and plowing right through the eventual heartbreak.
The footage opens on a small snowman in the foreground and the powder-covered wilderness of Vail, Colorado behind it. He’s on the small side, but otherwise mostly conventional: two dark eyes, a nose, a smile, sticks for arms, and a couple of “buttons” down the middle of his unevenly round stomach. He’s even wearing a festive bright green hat.
Houston approaches in his Raptor from the right. Given his initial position, it seems as if he can the make the left turn and leave the tiny local alone.
Yeah…that doesn’t happen.
Houston suddenly kicks the Raptor’s back end out, turning his truck into a giant baseball bat. And Houston gets every piece of the ball (actually, all three of them) he’s swinging at. He somehow lines it up so that the exact middle of his back passenger-side wheel slams into the unsuspecting sculpture. The initial blunt force of the side impact takes out the snowman’s legs first and his torso and head immediately after.
As those pieces are rocketing toward the camera, the rotation of the Raptor’s wheel further disintegrates them into a spray of powder and chunks of snow indistinguishable from the acres of it in the background.
We don’t like the fact that almost every snowman has an inescapable fate, but at least Houston sent this one out in dramatic and badass style. It sure beats watching the little fella just melt away.
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.
