2023 Ford Raptor R REVIEW!

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raptor

r and telling you all about it because 700 horsepower Ed for a 5.2 liter supercharged V8 called The Predator Ford took this engine in the GT500 this thing is a beast, okay this is the Ford Raptor r, as you can see, the interior is nice similar to a standard

raptor

, really the only differences here are the carbon fiber along the dash, this is still the standard raptor steering wheel, although it has some red stitching here, but this black line or, sorry, the red line in the middle, can be found on all the other Raptors you also have the continuous carbon fiber and the door here and as for the seats you have these nice recaros with the Raptor with the red R embroidered here and that's really nice and these um these seats are on all raptors with the 37 inch tire package so they're not exclusive to the raptor r and also something interesting about these seats that a lot of F-150s have is that when they have the system option b or premium, there are actually speakers in the headrest so that's really cool and on the center console here, once again, the red R Raptor R logo looks really cool and other than that there's not much else to do here, uh, that a standard Raptor wouldn't have, you still have the auxiliary switches whether you have anything plugged in or not.

They are a lot of fun to mess with so thanks for that, I really appreciate it and there really isn't much else to talk about in terms of interior features or design, if you want more details on that go check out a

review

on a Raptor Standard F-150 because, uh, this is a great interior, but there's not much going on here that separates it from the rest of the F-Series, so I'm not going to spend much time on that, so now I'm going to take a spin in the Raptor. I now have quite a bit of experience driving Raptors.

I've spent a lot of time on the Gen twos and a little bit of time on a Gen 3 and really on the. road in terms of ride quality steering um this is a very familiar feel this drives um very similar to every Raptor I've been in, which is a good thing. I think these trucks drive really well and I think it's good that this keeps that um that kind of family feel in I'm going to put the exhaust in Baja mode, that's what 700 horsepower sounds like in a truck, so do you need 700 horsepower in a truck at all?

No, 700 horsepower in a truck is absolutely ridiculous now. I've always thought the Raptor has been great with the 3.5 liter EcoBoost. That engine makes 450 horsepower and I've always thought that's been enough power for that truck. In my opinion, it has never needed more in terms of sound. um the 3.5 just doesn't sound good um and with the Gen 3 they obviously developed that new exhaust that makes it sound better but it's always been lacking um it just seems like the wrong sound for a truck like this so with this 5.2 liter V8 um , it feels like this truck always deserved a sound like this and I'm happy that Ford finally put this engine in this truck um because it seems like it was always meant to be this way and as to why Ford put this engine in. on the Raptor, um, we have to thank that, so obviously Ram came out with the TRX, which is essentially a Ram 1500 with a Hellcat and obviously beefed up the suspension, bigger tires, all that, but essentially it was meant to compete with the Raptor .

You know, everyone was looking at Ford saying how are you going to respond and this is their response to the TRX because the TRX makes, I think, 700 to 703 horsepower, this is about 700 horsepower and obviously they're both a lot more. higher than the standard. Raptors 450 horsepower and one thing that's interesting that Ford is doing with this truck is that they are making a fairly limited number of these so it's interesting because they will sell every single one of these. that they build and why they are making them in limited numbers. I don't know, maybe they're starting to phase out this engine and maybe move towards hybrid technology or maybe even electric technology.

Really I do not think so. We're going to see an all-electric Raptor any time soon, but it's entirely possible that perhaps in the next generation there will be a hybrid. I'm not sure, but it's really strange that Ford makes them in a limited quantity because Ram, um, they've made a ton of trxs and they've been very successful, so as far as how this car handles, you know, more weight and different springs and obviously the transmission has to work with this new engine honestly everything feels great here uh just. the raw amount of torque you can see this thing has, I mean cruising down the highway, I'm just hitting the gas right now, and what's really cool is this thing has adaptive exhaust, so right now I'm in the loudest exhaust configuration.

So I can put it on silent and I'm idle right now, but I've had to drive it a lot and it's actually surprisingly quiet when you set it up, so if maybe you have neighbors that you don't. If you don't want to wake up when you go out to work in the morning, then don't worry about it because, this thing really gets a lot quieter, with this adaptive exhaust that's a nice Impala, look at that thing, so what? to talk about when you have to drive a raptor you're under the speed limit well not much going on here um I really feel like I'm in a standard F-150 yeah I'm higher than ever.

I've driven Raptors before, like I said, but nothing with 37, so I can't say I'm any higher. This thing is very mild at low speeds, although if you can look at my gauge cluster here, you can see that I. m averaging nine and a half miles per gallon and for some that may be hard to accept and for others you may not be surprised. I think if you are someone who has the money to buy a raptor, then fuel economy might not be an issue. for you, um, but if you're curious, yes, the Raptor Arc has terrible fuel economy, um, what are you telling me now?

No it was just beeping, it could have been a lane keep alert or I could have seen something who knows and yes. The Raptor is wide, you've been driving it around here, you can barely tell where you are in this lane, if I'm honest it feels like driving a cruiser, something I haven't, uh, checked yet. it's the adaptive steering so now I'm in Normal and here's a first setting and I can already tell things have loosened up uh things are already much lighter in the steering let's move on to Sport and I know I'm going relatively straight but I can still feel a little change, so let's try the sporty steering.

I'm going to keep going until I get back on the road, okay let's hit it again because it's so much fun, oh man, thanks Ford. I mean, I have no idea who in their right mind ever thought that 700 horsepower in a truck was a good idea, but whoever it was, thank you very much, thank you very much, Ram, I guess let's do it again, keep pulling, oh my god, it's okay. Now we're going to look at the exterior of the Raptor R and I'm going to tell you everything that sets this truck apart from a standard Raptor, so we'll start with the front.

The first thing I notice is The grille now has the same design as a standard Raptor, but instead of this black plastic finish, it actually has a gloss finish over the Ford logo and on this top and bottom line and it also has a gloss finish. darker on the bumper here and As you can see, you have these rigid lights on here and I think you can remove these covers and expose that second light and that is on both sides of the truck and in the middle here we have these type of tow hooks from orange red color.

I think it's only black or silver on the standard Raptor. The only thing that really gives this away, uh, being a raptor, is the red R badge here, so it's very subtle on the front and on the hood there's a much larger bulge. The hood hiding the supercharged V8 is a slightly different design for this piece of plastic, but it's generally the same idea here on the hood. I don't know if you can make out the profile here, but it's definitely bulkier than the standard Raptor and Underneath these fenders are 37 inch tires, they're BFG ko2 and they're wrapped around this nice beadlock wheel.

I think this wheel is not exclusive to the Raptor. I think you can get this on a regular Raptor with the 37 inch tire package. On the side here nothing has changed, you have a nice side step that doesn't really hang too low, so if you are offroading and are worried about this scrape you might consider removing it, but I really don't think so. It hangs very well and you've forged a traditional keypad into the door, another big 37 on the back of the rear bumper. Not much has changed here. You have dual exhausts on the Raptor. I notice these mufflers look different than a standard Raptor.

I'm not sure if that has to do with getting a different sound from this V8 or if there's actually something mechanical about it being an adaptive exhaust on the tailgate. Here is the standard Raptor tailgate, however the r at the end of the Raptor is red. you know what you're packing under the hood and there's really not much else outside of the Raptor that lets you know that this is different than the standard truck, so if maybe you're looking for something subtle, a raptor although it's not a very subtle car, this one is going to fly maybe a little more under the radar than something like a TRX or something like that and another thing I forgot to mention is that the raptor r obviously has the heavier V8 in the front.

The springs are a little stiffer. so this thing doesn't have too much lean and on the road I can feel that stiffness but it's not jarring in any way if anything the body feels more controlled with these rack springs and that's really it for the exterior of the raptor . r and one more thing I wanted to show you how the exhaust sounds from the outside. We are going to do a remote start overseas and in my opinion that is a little better than the EcoBoost and I'm sure you'll probably agree to conclude. the raptor r video I would say this is a truly special truck, it's the same Raptor that you know and love, but it just has a magic power plant, this thing, this 5.2 is just something else, the way it sounds and just the pure power.

This is kind of cool, why is there a video of me opening the Ford Raptor tailgate? Well, I wanted to do a voiceover at the end of this video because cool videos have that right anyway, just as Ford was forced to make this silly tailgate. Because of GM and Dodge, Ford was forced to release the 700 horsepower Ford Raptor and I'm grateful for that, it's an awesome truck and if you can get one then you should thank you for looking.