Yahoo Autos 2023 Ford F-150 Raptor R revealed with Shelby GT500's supercharged V8
Here it is, the 2023 Ford F-150 Raptor R. Ford finally put a V8 engine back into the Raptor, but it’s not just any V8. This ultimate Raptor is powered by the supercharged V8 engine from the Mustang Shelby GT500.
Of course, it’s not exactly the same as the engine out of the Shelby, because Ford had to modify it for off-road pickup duty — Ram had to do the same when it dropped the Hellcat engine into the Ram 1500. Ford installed a new pulley and recalibrated the supercharger to optimize low-end and mid-range torque, since that’s where pickup owners will be spending most of their time. It’ll benefit you in around town driving, low-speed off-roading and when towing (max towing increases by 500 pounds with the R). Both the exhaust and intake are changed, too. Ford developed new cast stainless steel exhaust manifolds, citing better durability. The exhaust system features a new valved pass-through muffler design — deleting the trumpet design from the V6 — that allows both quiet and (very) loud modes. Plus, it gets a wider air intake inlet to increase air volume by 66% along with a new conical air filter. The last changes it made from Mustang to truck involve oil management. Ford added a unique oil cooler and filter, and it’s also using a deeper oil pan that enables you to send it up steep grades while still maintaining proper engine oil cooling.
All of the above results in an engine that Ford rates at 700 horsepower and 640 pound-feet of torque. For those counting, that’s 60 horsepower less and 15 pound-feet of torque more than the GT500’s version of this engine. Ford says that it’s shifted the torque curve down into the lower rpms with the supercharger changes, which explains the new priority for torque over peak horsepower. Of course, these numbers put it just barely shy of the Ram 1500 TRX’s output of 702 horsepower and 650 pound-feet of torque. Ford doesn’t get the bragging rights of “most powerful,” but it is claiming “most torque dense engine” in an off-road pickup. As a reminder, Ford extracts this amount of power out of a notably smaller engine than the Ram — the Ford V8 is a 5.2-liter engine, whereas the Ram’s Hellcat engine is a 6.2-liter.
If you wanted acceleration numbers, tough luck. Ford isn’t saying what the Raptor R can do in a vacuum or versus the EcoBoost-powered Raptor. All it would say is that the R is significantly quicker than the base Raptor, which, duh.
