It lacks the intoxicating V-8 roar that seems so fitting in an off-road truck-and which the supercharged TRX does so, so well-but it is a couple decibels louder than before and lends the Raptor the aggressive voice that it's needed since the second generation debuted with a twin-turbo 3.5-liter V-6. Quiet mode is perfect for an early-morning departure, while Baja is great for uncorking a menacing, 85-decibel growl that pleasantly rises in pitch as you stand on the accelerator. Comprising an intricately twisted set of equal-length pipes and electronic valves, the system has four settings (Quiet, Normal, Sport, and Baja) that can be toggled independently of the Raptor's numerous drive modes. But one of the Raptor's greatest improvements was evident before we even left our hotel's parking lot: a more prominent and characterful engine note, courtesy of a new active exhaust system. Our drive time came primarily at California's Dumont Dunes off-road vehicle area, a 7620-acre playground set in the Mojave Desert just west of Las Vegas. Just as important, all of Ram's current pickups have shown that rear coils also can improve ride comfort and drivability without sacrificing much in the way of cargo capacity. The race trucks that inspired the Raptor abandoned the setup in favor of huge coil-over shocks decades ago. While the leaf spring works for the heavy workloads most pickups endure-including all other F-150s, except the Lightning-that old-school setup can't maintain good wheel control in brutal high-speed desert conditions. The updated Raptor ditches the rear leaf springs in this generation and replaces them with coils. Think of the updated 2021 F-150 Raptor as the first strike of Ford's counterattack.įor high-performance off-road trucks that are designed to bomb across open terrain, the suspension's ability to absorb the terrain is as crucial, if not more important, than raw horsepower. But before it can bulk up the engine room with an upcoming V-8-powered Raptor R variant, the standard truck needs to make better use of the 450 horses it has.
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![ford raptor r ford raptor r](https://orwheels.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/maxresdefault.jpg)
As we learned from a 2020 Raptor SuperCrew's comparison-test defeat against that big 702-hp Ram, it's time for the Blue Oval's beast to get serious. It's not lost on Ford that the F-150 Raptor needs to up its game to keep pace with its new crosstown rival, the highly impressive and far more powerful Ram 1500 TRX.
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FORD RAPTOR R UPDATE
UPDATE 11/19/21: This review has been updated with test results.