The horsepower war among pickups have been pretty heated these last couple of years. It’s not just midsize pickups like Hiluxes and Tritons we’re talking about here. Over in the US, their full-size trucks are packing serious firepower under the hood.
You could say it all started with the Ford F-150 Raptor. The first-generation model came out in 2010, making the idea of an off-road ready, dune-bashing muscle truck mainstream. It was the top-dog truck in terms of power, but the folks over at Ram knocked the Raptor off its perch with the Ram TRX. Even with the Raptor R that was introduced last year, it still couldn’t match the TRX’s 702hp rating.
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But Ford is back with a vengeance. As you know, the F-150 received heavy updates for the 2024 model year. That also means the Raptor gets some of the changes from the standard model. But the most important update here is the engine.
While the standard Raptor continues to use a twin-turbo 3.5-liter engine, the Raptor R will get an uprated version of the 5.2-liter supercharged as seen in the Shelby GT500. The outgoing Raptor R made 700hp and 867Nm of torque, but Ford says they’re bumping up the power for the new version. The company’s target is to go beyond 700hp.
If Ford wants to beat the Ram TRX in the horsepower race, the Raptor R should at least have 702hp and 884Nm of torque. It seems petty that Ford is determined to overtake its rival for just two horsepower, but everything counts in the numbers game. As for the standard F-150 Raptor, its twin-turbo V6 is good for 450hp and 692Nm of torque. We wouldn’t call the standard Raptor underpowered, but R’s power figure takes it to a whole different dimension.
There are other updates to the 2024 Ford F-150 Raptor and Raptor R. Aside from the styling tweaks, it also gets interior revisions and, more importantly suspension upgrades. It now comes with FOX dual live valve shocks. Ford says the suspension modes have new algorithms, making it more responsive on tough terrain.
