Vehicles powered by the Hellcat engine are notorious not only for huge power and quick quarter-mile pulls but also for an unhealthy addiction to gas. While going on a road trip in their new Ram TRX and Ford F-150 Raptor, TFL was curious to see how their mpg numbers compare.
First, let's get the official numbers out of the way. The Ram says the TRX can return 12 mpg combined, 14 on the highway, and 12 mpg in the city (19.6, 16.8 and 19.6 liters per 100 km). In comparison, a Dodge Demon returns 16 mpg (14.7 liters per 100 km) combined, but the truck is obviously much heavier and has that AWD system too.
You might think that the Ford F-150 Raptor is much better because it's only packing a six-cylinder, but it only manages 16 mpg combined (15 mpg city and 18 mpg highway/15.7 and 13 liters per 100 km). We expect to see better numbers from the all-new model. Getting back to the road trip, TFL took their two red trucks from Boulder, Colorado to Moab, Utah.
The reviewers immediately mention that they only managed 10.5 mpg (22.4 liters per 100 km) on the way back from Detroit. But the Hellcat engine is basically broken in, so she might do a little better. As far as the longest trip you can take on a single tank, this isn't really a cliff-hanger, as the Raptor holds 36 gallons (136 liters) of fuel and the TRX only about 33 (125 liters).
After they got to Moab, the father-son duo announce that the Raptor averaged 16.9 mpg (13.9 liters per 100 km) and the TRX 12.3 mpg (19.1 liters per 100 km) according to the on-board computers, though the numbers were a little off. In the end, they find that it cost about $17 more to do the trip in the Ram, and most off-road truck buyers will be happy with that.
The Ford ends the trip with about a quarter of its tank still full, so if you're looking to do long miles, Ford is the better bet. Of course, there are other factors when picking between these trucks. The supercharged Ram is definitely cooler right now, even though both these trucks cost $77,000 to buy. However, we know Ford is getting ready to launch a new Raptor, which is rumored to have a Shelby GT500 engine on a limited edition model.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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