2024 Ford Raptor R Gets 20-HP Bump To Beat The Now-Dead Ram TRX
Image: Ford
It has been fourteen years since the original Ford F-150 Raptor appeared with 310 horsepower from a 5.4-liter naturally-aspirated V8. All these years later and Ford has cranked up the power to well over double that with the 2024 Raptor R’s 5.2-liter supercharged V8, which now makes 720 hp. The newly-revised Raptor R is the most powerful off-road full-size truck to ever hit the market, even besting Ram’s now-dead Hellcat-powered 702-hp TRX.
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When the Raptor R launched for 2023, Ford cribbed its big-power V8 from the 760-horsepower Mustang GT500, though the company claimed it was forced to reduce output to a mere 700 ponies in the truck platform. Aside from fitting a smaller supercharger and fitting cast exhaust manifolds, the engine was largely unchanged from its Shelby model roots. Raptor R drivers were forced to concede that they were two horsepower less cool than TRX drivers. But if they’d waited just a handful of months to order their Raptor R as a 2024 model, they’d have nothing to be downtrodden about (except their fuel economy and pedestrian impact survivability numbers).
Ford says it found the 20 horsepower between the couch cushions and decided to slap them on its superest of super trucks. Actually, it says the efficiencies were achieved with a smoother flowing intake boot and better engine management calibration, which also results in a wider and more useable torque curve. While I’m sure you wouldn’t actually notice an extra 20 horsepower in a 700-horsepower truck, these numbers are all about bragging rights anyway. The truck’s torque number doesn’t actually change with the new tune, meaning you’ll still have to make do with the same 640 pound-feet.
Is 720 horsepower really going to get you farther off road than the 450 horses of the standard Raptor’s twin-turbo V6? Unless you really know what you’re doing, probably not. The regular Raptor will get better fuel economy, but it’ll sound a lot worse, and can you really put a price on supercharged V8 noises?
