Hark! Is That a V8 Inside the 2022 Ford F-150 Raptor?
With the Ram 1500 TRX assumed to arrive with a V8 making oodles of power, Ford’s F-150 Raptor may round out the year with egg on its face. In 2017, the Blue Oval ditched the model’s 6.2-liter V8 for a 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6 and added a quartet of gears — pissing some die-hard fans of the model right off. Baja boys bemoaned the decision to put a more complicated motor into a vehicle that’s designed to be abused largely off-road, while others were just mad they were missing out on that V8 sound. However, most of those who weren’t obsessed with SVT badging agreed the changes hadn’t ruined the truck and that the second-gen suspension upgrades ultimately made for a better off-road vehicle.
That said, Ram dumping a model onto the market that targets the same audience, and with a V8 on board, is bad news for Ford. But it doesn’t have to be, especially if the noises we hear coming from the tailpipes of the latest test mule are what some listeners claim.
On Friday, F150Gen14 shared a video clip of a camouflaged F-Series pickup (h/t The Drive) sounding as if it’s packing a V8 beneath the hood. The footage features genuinely terrible audio throughout, but there are several moments where you can hear the vehicle pull away clearly (especially with headphones) and it doesn’t sound like the stock V6.
We already know Ford plans to equip some 14th generation F-150s with the brand’s 395-horsepower 5.0-liter V8, so it’s totally plausible the company hurried to whip something together for the Raptor once they knew Ram pulled the trigger on the TRX. But the outlet suggested this is to be the 2021 model year Raptor, despite Ford previously telling us the unit would take a year off. That was before leaked info, as well as some helpful VIN decoding that made it seem as though the pickup actually would be with us in 2021 — possibly equipped with a hybridized gas-electric V6.
Still, that seems like a lot of complicated components (and weight) to put into a truck whose greatest strength is flying off sand dunes. There’s plenty to speculate about here, but we’re mostly interested in borrowing your ears to help us decided weather we’re hearing a V8 in the video, or if Ford just outfitted the truck with a trick exhaust to keep everyone guessing.
[Image: Ford]
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Meanwhile over at GM:
The Raptor and its Fiat and GM competitors are not "real" off road vehicles. They are too big. Way too big. Unless you are running around in the wide open deserts of the American SW chasing illegals. If, like I, you lived in CO and spent a lot of time on the old wagon roads and railroad grades in the Rockies that have become jeep trails, then you know that these Raptor and Raptor-like behemoths are non-starters. You want a two door Wrangler or equivalent. That aside, so long as Ford makes the Raptor as an F150 and not as an F250 (as it should), the 5 liter V8 should be adequate. Or maybe Ford should consider resurrecting the supercharged 5.4L v8 it made for a while. Now that would be a nice engine for a Raptor ...