2023 Ford F-150 Raptor R Bring V-8 Fury

UPDATE 12/27/22: This review has been updated with device test results.

The day begins with weather that scares Gordon Lightfoot, as early November winds arrive at Michigan’s Silver Lake Dunes. The rain finally stopped, but the towering sand dunes were so soaked that there was almost too much traction. Not too much for the guy in the rental Buick Encore, we guess, but enough to make even the steepest dunes a minor inconvenience to the user. Ford F-150 Raptor R 2023. When you have 700 horsepower and 37-inch grain-lock tires, wet sand can also be a foot-long lane of interstate plate.

The Raptor R is the long-awaited, but perhaps not inevitable, pinnacle of the Raptor brand. In a world without TRX RAM, will Ford ditch the Shelby GT500 engine in the Raptor? Science tells us that the mere act of observation will influence the outcome, and we must think that Ford observed Ram selling all the $90,000 worth of trucks it could build and said, “You know, maybe we should do it.” And while Ram didn’t say how many TRX it sold, Stellantis’ trophy truck got off to a good start. CHEAP raptors—we completed our 40,000-mile test in Our Long Term TRX.

Look at the photos

On the orange truck, the orange “R” graphic makes you look like you’re driving a Raptor.

So it’s a bit curious, given the obvious competition of the Raptor R, that Ford didn’t take the right to brag about horsepower. With the TRX making 702 hp, why not give the Raptor R 703? That would be hilarious, and probably something Ram could do. Instead, Ford puts out even 700hp at 6650rpm, and its powertrain engineers are perfectly right in saying you can’t tell the difference between 700hp and more. 700 hp a bit. But trucks like this don’t make any sense, unless you’re commuting to Mike’s Sky Ranch in Baja. They talk about big numbers and loud noises and take the land on one side and throw it on the other, then do some sweet jumps. The Raptor R is spectacularly well equipped to handle all of that, even without boasting about horsepower.

For Raptor duty, Ford’s truck-tuned 5.2-liter turbocharged V-8 enhances the torque curve, delivering 640 lb-ft at 4250 rpm. The 5.2 sips of air were blown so violently that Ford had to reinforce the Raptor’s intake manifold because the EcoBoost-spec duct system deformed under strong throttle impact. A new supercharger pulley provides quicker acceleration, all the better to spin those four 37-inch BFGoodrich All-Terrain KO2 tires. Because the V-8 adds 100 pounds to the front end, the spring rate is increased and there are some sturdier frame supports, but the suspension remains mostly unchanged. Base Raptor, with 450hp twin-turbo 3.5-liter V-6, available with 35-inch tires or 37s, but the Raptor R only gets 37 seconds. That consumes an inch of front suspension travel but gives it 13.1 inches of ground clearance and, Ford admits, just helps it look great. At 35, it’s rational, and at 37 it says “Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!And even though your ticket buys the entire seat, you’ll only need the fringe.

The blue parts mark the parts that are exclusive to the Raptor R – so mainly the rear racks.

The Raptor R, like its EcoBoost counterpart, has great adaptability to any terrain you want to attack. The transmission offers rear-wheel drive, automatic four-wheel drive, high-altitude four-wheel drive (physically locked from front to rear) and low-range four-wheel drive. You can also manually lock the rear differential, though not in two-wheel drive mode. Steering force, Fox Live Valve dampers and exhaust sound are all individually adjustable via buttons on the steering wheel, including an R button for your favorite presets. And there are a variety of driving modes to respond to the right response to the current situation. Baja is our favorite. Wandering around in Drag/Drag mode will startle you to realize—oh yeah, this is a truck, a useful thing that can be towed and/or hauled! It’s not just about sending the Raptor R into low orbit off Silver Lake Dunes, although it’s also very good at it. But so is the EcoBoost Raptor.

What sets the Raptor R apart is when you flatten the accelerator and the two 4-inch exhaust cannons fire off a flurry of furious V-8s, and your shoulders burrow into the Raptor R embroidery on the upper seat backs while The 10-speed automatic shuffles the gears faster than a blackjack shoe rearranges the cards at the Golden Nugget. The front end points to the sky and the steering wheel wobbles a little in your hand as the Raptor looks for traction. The passing power is explosive, with the towering Ford accelerating from 30 to 50 mph in 2.2 seconds, the same time we recorded from Ferrari 488 Pista 2019. Even on the sand, it feels intensely fast. What it feels like, really, is a Extended Range F-150 Lightning with more noise and drama. The Ford engineers present agreed that the Raptor R versus the Lightning would be a good race.

But the Raptor R is even better than the TRX, and Ford holds a narrow edge in acceleration tests. The Raptor R hit 60 mph in just 3.6 seconds, 0.1 seconds ahead of the TRX, and crossed the quarter-mile in 12.0 seconds at 112 mph, passing a 12.3-second run. of the TRX at 111 mph. And those numbers don’t fully convey the Raptor’s advantage, as Ford’s 114 mph speed limiter starts off partying before completing a quarter mile. Rewind the tape and we see that at 110 mph, the Raptor takes a wider lead, needing just 11.1 seconds, compared to the Ram’s 11.8 seconds. In addition, the Raptor lacks a launch control mode and says no to the brakes. Instead, strangely, The fastest launch occurs using the auto-hold function. These two things explain why there’s no wider gap than a 6077-pound truck — 704 pounds lighter than the TRX. However, that relatively light curb weight doesn’t translate to stinginess at the pump, with the Raptor R only matching the TRX’s observed fuel economy of 10 mpg.

With the watery condition of the dunes, stimulating our young children to throw sand needs to run in rear-wheel drive mode. That’s how we discovered that, in addition to the electronic lock, there is also a brake-based limited-slip function for the open rear differential. The brake-based system operates when one side or the other is subject to increased wheel speed, and braking on that side generates a squeeze to transmit the force back to the other side. The system is operating in the background even when AdvanceTrac stability control is completely disabled. So let’s say, if you want to cross some sand dunes on a two-wheeler where the rear lock can’t be engaged, the rear brakes will be trained.

Yes car and driver was driven by a bunch of lunatics, half mad, half mad, and no ordinary driver could have had this particular problem (we’re paraphrasing what Ford told us). We say 700-horsepower pickups don’t really appeal to the left-minded among us, and that Raptor R owners will want to drive it in rear-wheel drive, probably. on the way out of the dealer’s parking lot (maximum horizontal acceleration is only 0.71 g). So why not allow differential locking to enter two-wheel drive? Ford says that’s not how it works right now, but the company always listens to its customers. So, if you want rear-wheel-drive locking, consult your local Ford representative. What do we want? Roosty drift! When do we want them? The more often the better!

Off the pavement, the Raptor’s stopping power is — surprise, surprise — very close to that of the TRX. Stopping the Raptor R requires 205 feet at 70 mph and 430 feet from 100 mph, both of which are slightly longer than the TRX’s stop. Ram is seven feet better than the Ford from 70 mph and three feet from 100 mph.

If you’re looking for a Raptor R in the wild, it won’t be easy. First, except for the bulging hood, the Raptor R looks a lot like an EcoBoost Raptor with its 37-inch tire package. The trucks at Silver Lake are also decked out with a graphic pack based on the Raptor’s “digital mud” model by building out the black portion of the graphic from small 8s. On the driver’s side of the truck, the Raptor logo shows a second “R” in Raptor Orange, which looks great unless the truck is the same color, in which case it looks like you’re driving a Raptor. (On the passenger side, the first R is orange, so on that side you have an “aptor.”) But you can remove the graphics at no cost if you want to let the 5.2-liter Predator speak for itself. that. Which, at extended throttle, it operates at 83 decibels below — the same number we measured from another supercharged four x four supercharged pickup.

There won’t be a million Raptors to be discovered either, as the base price is $109,145. Whether that’s about $30,000 more than the base Raptor (and $26,000 more than the TRX) sounds worth it or completely ridiculous depending on your point of view and maybe whether your neighbors have TRX and have It’s overdue for FoMoCo to counterattack at 6 a.m. or not the cold Hellcat begins. It’s tempting to conclude that since Ram built the TRX and Ford built the Raptor R, that’s where this ends, but we suspect not. GM, what do you say?