Have you seen the hood of the Ram 1500 TRX? That huge scoop and the front grille are there for a reason, and that’s a lot of air that goes into the supercharged HEMI with 702 horsepower and 650 pound-feet of torque. Now take a look at the hood design of the Ford F-150 Raptor.
Looks a lot like the hood on pre-production prototypes like the one in the photo gallery, doesn’t it? Despite this obvious difference over the Hellcat-ified truck from Ram, some say that Ford is preparing to switch from the EcoBoost V6 to the Predator V8 in the case of the Raptor.
Ford Authority“has learned” about this switch as well as the output of the 5.2-liter engine with a thumpin’ great blower, namely 725 horsepower as opposed to 760 for the Shelby GT500. The question is, how is that engine cooled without a humongous cutout in the hood and as little restriction as possible for the grille? In other words, take this rumor with a pinch of salt.
When it comes to off-road pickups, output isn’t of the essence. What matters are approach and departure angles, suspension travel, and water fording if you feel adventurous enough to take a dip. If Ford still had the Lightning in the F-150 lineup, then yes, the Predator V8 would have made a lot of sense as the next step up from the EcoBoost and Coyote we know and love.
A spy video of the 2021 Ford F-150 Raptor made the rounds only recently, but the induction and exhaust sound of that particular prototype were unmistakably twin-turbo V6. Lest we forget, a leaked document with the powertrains for the fourteenth-generation truck doesn’t list the 5.2-liter engine but the same mills as the outgoing F-150 plus the PowerBoost.
Speaking of the hybridized 3.5 engine, Ford claims it’s targeting the most horsepower and torque of any full-size truck from the light-duty segment. According to estimated, we may be in for 470 horsepower and 525 pound-feet of torque; not enough to fend off the Ram TRX.
Whatever the future holds for the F-150 Raptor, there’s no mistaking that Ford will impress. Given Ram’s new truck, it has to.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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