(upbeat music)
The wildest F-150 is back.
Meet the 2021 Ford F-150 Raptor.
And I've got good news, and I've got bad news.
The good news is that the Raptor
is still a phenomenal machine
thanks to significant upgrades to its suspension,
a new dual-valve active exhaust system
and a much higher-tech interior.
The bad news is that the Ram 1500 TRX exists,
and until Ford answers with the Raptor R,
coming sometime in 2022
and allegedly with a V-8 derived from the
Shelby Mustang GT500,
the current off-road truck battle
looks something like the ending to "Jurassic Park,"
a much larger and more powerful T-Rex
fending off the challenges of some clever
but ultimately weaker Raptors.
I'm sorry if I just spoiled
a nearly 30-year-old movie for you.
You can check out what I did
in the TRX at a drag strip elsewhere,
but I'm here to talk about the Raptor,
and I really wanna focus on the good
because while the Raptor was already a delight to drive,
except on crowded city streets,
the updates have only made it better.
Inside, that starts with an impressive
12-inch digital instrument panel
and 12-inch touchscreen display
running Ford's Sync 4 operating system.
We really like Sync 4, the graphics are clear and crisp.
The menus are fairly easy to use.
They can be a bit deep
given all the information that's presented
but also great about Sync 4 is,
would you look at that?
Physical controls.
You get physical controls for volume and tuning,
climate and a whole host of other things.
Ford's newer Sync 4A system that we're starting to see
on things like the Mustang Mach-E
and the upcoming F-150 Lightning,
uses a more portrait-oriented screen
and moves a lot of these physical controls
into the touchscreen.
Call us old-fashioned,
but we'll take physical climate controls any day.
You also get a lot of nifty features here
like wireless charging, USB-A and C ports,
and Sync can run Apple CarPlay
and Android Auto wirelessly.
These are the standard front seats in the Raptor
and they've got a decent amount of bolstering.
I found them quite comfortable on longer drives,
and they do a good job of holding you in place.
Backseat room in the crew-cab-only Raptor is also great.
Tons of legroom, tons of headroom,
tons of shoulder room,
just like any other crew-cab F-150.
Visibility in the Raptor is kind of a mixed bag
at least for me.
From my seating position,
the A-pillars can kind of get in the way,
and the sheer width of the vehicle
and the big power-dome hood
kind of makes you feel more like you're driving
a heavy-duty truck than just a full-size pickup.
But Ford makes up for that with some great camera systems.
This has the available 360-degree camera system,
very clear and crisp resolution.
And it's also useful for off-roading.
In certain off-road modes,
you can get forward-facing camera and even tire lines
to help you show where you're going
when your view is obscured.
One feature that made it over from the regular F-150
is the built-in work surface,
where you fold down the gear selector
and then the center console flips forward into a table.
Not sure why Ford felt like including it on the Raptor,
but hey, if you're bombing through the desert
and you got to stop do some work, eat some lunch,
you get a nice little flat surface to do so.
If Ford wasn't going to update the Raptor's powertrain
right away, they certainly didn't just upgrade the interior
and call it a day.
The rear suspension is an all-new five-link setup
with extra-long trailing arms,
a Panhard rod and 24-inch coil springs.
That means, with the standard 35-inch tire package,
you get 15 inches of rear suspension travel.
Ford also gave the Raptor new Fox Live Valve active shocks.
They're 3.1 inches in diameter.
That's the largest ever on a Raptor.
They're adaptive.
They can process changes at up to 500 times per second
and produce over 1,000 pounds of damping force
at each corner.
Available on the Raptor,
but not on this model, is a $7,500 37-inch tire package.
It obviously upgrades the tires from 35 inches to 37 inches,
so ground clearance increases to 13.1 inches
from the standard 12.
What all those suspension upgrades really boiled down to
is that, according to Ford,
this is the most capable and comfortable Raptor
on- and off-road.
Unfortunately, we didn't really get to put the Raptor
through its real paces doing high-speed off-roading.
We did get to do some low-speed stuff,
which, as we've experienced in other Raptors,
this is more than capable,
low-speed rock crawling and dealing with other obstacles.
It's not super happy about doing that.
It always kind of has sort of a Ricky Bobby,
"I wanna go fast" feel to it,
but despite that, it is actually fairly easy to modulate
the throttle in low-speed off-road situations.
And if you prefer, there is
Ford's Trail Control off-road cruise control
as well as Trail One-Pedal Driving,
which basically lets you use just the accelerator pedal
to control your forward momentum.
So you push it down and you go a little faster,
you let off the gas, it brakes for you.
I personally prefer doing everything myself,
but it's a nice feature to have if you want it.
The biggest obstacle facing the Raptor
is actually its massive width.
It's nearly 87 inches wide,
that's far and away the widest F-150
and that's not including the side mirrors.
Interestingly, with the side mirrors extended,
it is just as wide as any other F-150.
Those marker lights you see on the front
that have been copied time and again just for style
are not for show here,
they're required because of just how wide the F-150 is.
On the street, the Raptor is plenty quick.
I'm not certain
it's quicker than our own F-150 Limited hybrid,
but it would definitely give it a run for its money.
The 3.5-liter twin-turbocharged V-6 makes 450 horsepower,
that's the most of an F-150,
and 510 pounds-feet of torque.
That does trail the PowerBoost 3.5-liter hybrid.
While those power figures pale in comparison to the TRX,
one trade-off for that
is significantly better fuel economy.
It's not great by any means,
but at 15, 18, 16 miles per gallon,
it is a bit less thirsty than the TRX.
It is also worth noting
that for the stated power figures
for the Raptor, Ford recommends premium gas
which, with the 36-gallon fuel tank, can get kind of pricey.
Steering feel on the Raptor
is geared a little bit more towards off-roading,
so it does feel a little loose,
not too much looser than a regular F-150,
and it's not really that spongy.
If you do want a tighter experience,
you can always switch the steering over to Sport mode,
that'll tighten things up a bit for you.
Regardless of driving mode,
the suspension will just devour Chicago potholes
and road imperfections like these,
but it is worth noting
that there are some noticeable differences.
Normal gives you a bit more side-to-side motion.
Off-Road gives you a lot more.
It does feel more playful in Off-Road
at least to me,
and this setting, which is Sport currently,
really eliminates almost all the lateral movement.
It makes it feel about as much as a sports car
as something of this size can.
One complaint about the previous-generation Raptor
was that it just didn't make a very good sound.
People were missing the signature V-8 sound
that Ford's were known for,
and their placement of the 3.5-liter twin-turbocharged V-6
just didn't give you the same noise.
Ford's answered some of those complaints
with this new active-valve dual exhaust
with a equal length of 3-inch pipes.
You get multiple selective modes.
This is Quiet.
(car engine revving)
And we can go from Quiet to Normal.
(wind whooshing)
(car engine revving)
Above Normal,
we have Sport.
(car engine revving)
And then last and extensively for off-road use only
is the Baja mode,
which really gives you a nice little growl.
(car engine revving)
Now, it still doesn't sound as good as the TRX.
It just doesn't.
(car engine revving)
But it sounds better and that's a plus.
Hopefully when the Raptor R comes out,
we'll get some really nice exhaust notes.
Also worth noting, with these big off-road tires,
you're gonna get some tire noise,
that's just the nature of off-road tires.
It's much more noticeable in quiet environments,
driving this up in Wisconsin
where there's not a lot of ambient noise,
it really stood out.
Driving it here in Chicago
where there is constant noise, not really much of a thing.
One other nifty feature
that carries over from the regular F-150
is the optional Pro Power Onboard generator.
Now, the Raptor isn't a hybrid,
so this maxes out at 2 kilowatts, whereas the hybrid
you can get up to a 7.2-kilowatt generator,
but this should still be enough
to power things like camping lights or any other toys
you might bring into the wilderness with you.
It's also worth noting
that this very subtle graphics package is optional
and costs over a $1,000.
If it's not your thing, and it's not mine,
you don't have to get it.
The same applies to the graphics package
that comes with the 37-inch performance package.
The 2021 Raptors towing and payload have also been increased
by 200 pounds each over the previous generation.
Towing is still on the lower end of the spectrum
but not the lowest,
while payload is still very much the lowest
among all the F-150s.
All of this off-road gear comes with a cost.
And speaking of cost,
the 2021 Raptor starts at almost $66,000
including destination,
and this example clocks in at over $78,000.
That's a significant leap from the prior generation,
and there's some overlap with the TRX.
And that's really the Raptor's problem, the TRX still exists
And in a very narrow segment
where bragging rights are everything,
Ford has seated the high ground to Ram.
That's not to say the Raptor's bad,
it's a great machine,
it's much improved and I love driving it.
But until Ford gives us the Raptor R
and presents a more serious challenge to the TRX,
Ram is still king of the dinosaurs.