How do you improve the best off-road racer on the road today? Well, if you’re the Ford Motor Company, you add just one little thing: More.
Beneath the Raptor’s hood, that means more power. Namely, an optional all-new 6.2-liter V8 that puts out 411 horsepower and 434 lb-ft of torque. The big mill, available now, starts with the same hardware used in the Ford F-150 Super Duty, including a cast-iron engine block and four-bolt main bearing caps, aluminum cylinder heads, and an overhead camshaft with a roller-rocker shaft drive and dual-equal variable cam timing. Ford engineers then specifically tuned the new powertrain for use in the Raptor and recalibrated its off-road transmission mode to hold gears longer. This significantly improves throttle response for more dynamic performance when heading off the beaten track.
Other key performance enhancers included revising the engine block’s cylinders with a larger bore and shorter stroke. The former lets Ford use bigger intake and exhaust valves for better engine breathing, while the latter is an enabler for the faster engine speeds needed to boost the Raptor’s horsepower.
Even the new V8′s exhaust note was retuned, and its cylinder-firing order revised, for a sound that better matches the Raptor’s aggressive outlook on life.
Of course, when you’re dealing with a hot performer like the Raptor, the last thing you want is to be slowed down by an overheating engine. But Ford’s got you covered here, too. The company’s gearheads put the truck and its new engine to the test in the desert wastes outside Borrego Springs, Calif., and the results will leave any Raptor rivals cooling their heels.
“We spent a lot of time developing our desert durability test so that it’s very close to replicating the Baja 1000,” said Kerry Baldori, Ford Special Vehicle Team (SVT) chief functional engineer. “Desert testing proved to be a very quick way to learn about the reliability of the truck and it put another level of extreme loads on the engine that our normal durability testing doesn’t cover.”
And later this year, there’s going to be still more “more” for the Raptor: Ford has now confirmed it will offer extra room on the inside of the Raptor thanks to a SuperCrew version of its ultimate off-road machine. With a cabin boasting four full-size doors and the powerful 6.2 V8 as the only engine, that means the SuperCrew Raptor will be ready to bring its high performance to a bigger crew than ever before.
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