Ford's 700-hp V-8 F-150 Raptor R: It’s totally badass, brother.
Some reviews write themselves. Words flow like rivers from your fingertips. When that happens, and it doesn’t happen often, that flurry is “inspiration.” Or “excitement.” Maybe both. I dunno, words that flow forth in rivers aren’t always well organized.
As the Raptor R’s powertrain engineer Brian Lizotte explained, this engine is a derivative of the Mustang GT500’s. But “derivative” undersells how similar the two engines are. Other than a smaller supercharger drive pulley to shift torque down low, the engines are more like identical twins, separated only by freckles and birthmarks.
So the first run up the hill I aimed for the nose of the dune head, set the truck into its “Baja Mode,” and slammed the awesomely loud pedal. Better to leave nothing on the table than face the cackles of industry colleagues crackling over the radio.My God, the sound. It’s something like a sonorous chainsaw cross-ripping hardwood or a two-stroke blast across a bed of steak knives. There’s a sharp roar at the top end hovering above a rolling boil down low, where the engine makes torque.
In transit between the dunes’ many obstacles, there were opportunities to switch into 2WD, turn the traction control all the way off and slide along like a mountain togue. Again, the suspension is so capable, the chassis so considered, the engine so responsive and sharp, that a big stupid grin comes with every long lairy drift that sashays into another. I could do that all day and never get bored.
What else? This Raptor R keeps the 37” tires from the V-6 truck’s higher trim levels, which allows for 13 inches of suspension travel, equivalent to what you’d find on an honest-to-goodness trophy truck that the Raptor attempts to translate to road driving. Visually, the Raptor R wears its heft far better than the TRX. Maybe it’s because I mostly drove the TRX around Seattle’s narrow residential streets rather than Michigan’s broader avenues , but it’d be easier to navigate the real world in a Raptor of any flavor than the TRX. I was more enthusiastic tossing the Raptor into paved corners than when I had the TRX. Both of them showcase superfluous talents off-road.
Then, of course, there’s price. The RAM undercuts the Ford here. The Raptor R’s MSRP sits at $109,145, nearly $37,000 more than the cheapest V-6 Raptor and about $32,000 more than the 702-hp TRX. To reach a comparative level of equipment that comes standard on the Raptor R, however, you’ll need to add considerably to the RAM’s base price. In their online configurator, I got the TRX to about $92,000 before everything seemed equivalent on paper.
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