Ford F-150 Raptor R Acceleration is Wild but Strange | Daily News Byte

This is what we’ve been waiting for. From the moment Ford announced the Raptor R—its 700-horsepower hypertruck and direct competitor to the 702-hp Ram 1500 TRX—our inner ears filled with excitement to see how the two would stack up. The Ford’s 3.6-second romp to 60 mph makes it the fastest gasoline-fueled truck ever strapped to our test gear. So does a 12.0-second trip through the quarter-mile trap at 112 mph, besting the fastest TRX we’ve seen and wresting the title of fastest F-150 from the electric Lightning. (The Rivian R1T remains the fastest pickup ever, with a 60-mph dash in 3.0 seconds and an 11.5-second quarter-mile.) But the Raptor R’s record-setting run doesn’t quite tell the whole story.

Normally, when launching these high-powered behemoths, a big brake torque to generate boost and revs is the quickest way off the line. Unlike the TRX, the Raptor R is not equipped with an adjustable launch-control system or any launch assistance for that matter. If a certain amount of brake pressure is applied, the computers tell the engine to stop and reduce the amount of torque delivered through the driveline. Ford says this is to prevent the engine from over braking. If and when you take delivery of the Raptor R, follow these two easy steps to achieve maximum acceleration: Select Sport mode (this automatically places the transfer case in 4Auto) and turn on the Auto-Hold function for brake system. Get on the throttle and off you go. Simply flat-footing it from rest without using Auto Hold is a tenth slower. But that’s right, the Raptor R runs to 60 mph in 3.6 seconds from idle to the line.

Given its massive 700-pound weight advantage, we expect the Raptor R’s 6077-pound advantage to overcome the 0.3-second gap it puts on the TRX in the quarter-mile. The blame lies with the 37-inch BFGoodrich All-Terrain KO2s and their 112-mph speed rating, which didn’t allow Ford to unleash the supercharged 5.2-liter V-8’s true potential. From 100 to 110 mph, each mile per hour clicked by about 0.2 seconds. The Raptor R hits 110 mph in 11.1 seconds and then pulls the power as the truck approaches the 114-mph speed limiter. It takes another 0.9 seconds to reach 112 mph and the quarter-mile, when it should take half as much time. If the Raptor R rolls on 35-inch wheels and has the same 120-mph speed limiter as the twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter version, it will deliver the TRX the biggest beatdown Detroit has seen since the 2012 World Series. Still, the Raptor edges out the quarter-mile win by 0.3 seconds, and the F-150’s svelteness is reflected in the rolling-start 5-to-60 mph acceleration test, where it bests the Ram by 0.5 seconds. .

Braking, as expected, is not a strong point for desert-ready trucks that run their tires with large, sticky tread blocks. The Raptor R stops from 70 mph in 205 feet and reaches that distance in 430 feet from 100 mph, trailing the best TRX numbers we’ve seen by 16 and 12 feet, respectively. The Raptor R rolled on the skidpad at 0.71 g, a less impressive number, but slightly better than the TRX.

Seven hundred horses must be thirsty. On our 75-mph highway fuel-economy loop, the Raptor R returned 14 mpg, 1 mpg short of the EPA’s highway estimate. Still, it’s better than the 13 mpg we observed in our long-term Ram 1500 TRX. But does anyone buying a $100,000 truck worry about fuel economy? Our guess is not.

Of course, there’s an inevitable head-to-head comparison test to get these factory-built monster trucks out in their natural habitat to sort out who’s who. But for now, Ford’s Raptor R is the performance king.