2023 Ford F-150 Raptor R Debuts With No Direct Chevy Silverado, GMC Sierra Rival
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The 700-horsepower 2023 Ford F-150 Raptor R has made its official debut. As our sister site, Ford Authority, reports, the new truck arrives as the “fastest, most powerful, most extreme high-performance off-road desert Raptor yet,” according to GM’s cross-town rival. The F-150 Raptor R is a direct rival for the 720 horsepower Ram TRX, with both Ford and Stellantis now offering ultra-powerful off-road pickups and leaving the Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra as the odd ones out.
Under the hood of the Raptor R is a supercharged 5.2L V8 engine, which is rated at 700 horsepower and 640 pound-feet of torque. This is the same engine found in the current Mustang GT500, however it’s been recalibrated for the unique demands of the Raptor R platform and features a different pulley, changes that Ford says will offer more performance at the RPMs and speeds where off-roaders spend most of their time driving. A dual exhaust system with a pass-through muffler and active valves is also standard, as is a recalibrated version of the Ford and GM-developed 10-speed automatic transmission.
Suspension is equally if not more important than power in a vehicle like this. Compared to the standard Raptor model, the Raptor R gets a modified five-link rear suspension setup with extra-long trailing arms and 24-inch coil springs, which are joined by electronically controlled Advanced FOX Live Valve dampers with suspension height sensors.
The truck comes standard with 37-inch tires and boasts 13 inches of wheel travel out front and 14.1 inches of travel in the rear, while ground clearance sits at 13.1 inches. Performance is further enhanced by the standard adjustable drive mode system, which features a MyMode setting that allows drivers to adjust drive, steering and suspension settings, among others. A custom profile can then be mapped to the “R” button on the steering wheel, giving the user quick access to their customer performance mode.
Moving inside, the Raptor R features standard Recaro sport seats with Alcantara accents, genuine carbon fiber trim and a standard 12-inch touch screen with Ford SYNC 4 technology and standard Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Like the regular Raptor, the Raptor R comes standard with a suite of smart technology designed to make off-roading easier, including Trail Turn Assist and Ford Trail Control. A total of eight exterior colors will be offered from launch, including new Avalanche and Azure Gray Tri-Coat options.
Order books for the F-150 Raptor R open immediately, however, Ford is not publicly disclosing pricing, advising interested parties to contact their dealer. Production will begin this fall at the automaker’s Dearborn truck plant in Michigan.
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Personally a 700hp 4×4 seems like a roll over waiting to happen. I would rather see GM build a Silverado with the LT4 in a lowered single cab 2wd version. Now that would be fun.
I really don’t get crazy horsepower trucks. It’s a truck. Just another way for your teen to kill himself.
Mitch – I had a lowered 67 c10 shortbed with a 383 and it was a blast to drive. It’s was nowhere near 650hp, but 3.73 posi made it squirrelly. No parent should ever let a teen drive a vehicle that has 650hp anyways.
It will self destruct or catch fire soon…
Long wait for an order and sky high markup for the smallest package men….ever!!…
It’s good and all but I rather see Ford come out with a sedan, preferably an rwd from 2.3 EB, hybrid to 5.2 v8.
Well it should be good for snow plowing anyway…700 ponies on tap…sure beats my old
eggbeater…put a mortgage on the house and the the dog out to stud for insurance money and a case of beer…and let it hang
Look at all the old vehicles still on the road. Check out what the used car jockeys have on their lots. Look at the crappy apartments what is still on the road the majority of them are all GMs from the pickups to the buicks and Pontiacs and chevy cars and suvs suburbans and Tahoes so again tell me what GM is doing wrong.
I like the looks of gm products a lot more, I’d rather mod a Silverado ZR2.
Maybe GM needs to drop kick Mary Barra out of GM and retire her with what will surely an amazing amount of a retirement fund that could rival some Third World Countries. You see, GM has no direct competitor to many Ford products, and that is because you’ve go no real GM leadership with that ability to stay ahead of the game. If this doesn’t plausible, then consider Chevy and GMC trucks have no (as of this writing) competitor to the Mustang Mach E, the Maverick and the Lightening EV’s.
The Ford F-150 has been outselling the Chevy Silverado by a substantial margin for over 40 years and unless you add the GMC truck line, these sales figures are only then up to and sometimes ahead of the F-150. Same goes with the Pony Car line, with Mustang outpacing the Camaro line for many years now and although these cars don’t sell like the truck line, Chevy is constantly falling farther behind Mustang AND Charger (Challenger) and this is because GM doesn’t see a need to compete on that level, and while Ford keeps reinventing the Mustang and adding various models and drivetrain combos Chevy seems to be content just letting the Camaro line die a slow, and agonizing death. This is just pathetic, GM could have done so much more with the Camaro, maybe added a hatchback, raised the roof a touch and given it a larger backseat and trunk space, and most of all, listen to what the previous customers and road test editors complained about with each and ever year….and yet, GM basically produced the same car but worsened the styling and would not improve the vehicle line. Too bad as the Camaro has a good following, but when you start removing various top engineers from the cars programing and not attempt to improve the product, bets are on that the Camaro is doomed, what a shame.
Anyway, complaining to GM about their obvious failings is an exercise in futility, they’ll do what they feel is right for them and not necessarily give the customers what they really want. GM never listens to their potential customers, they never take a chance and produce a vehicle that (except for the Corvette lately) is constantly being acknowledged as “first class and ahead of the rest of the pack”. Always a day late and a dollar short, conservative GM seems to always watch what others do (like Toyota years ago bringing out a hybrid car, the Prius) and instead will wait years sometimes attempting to match their rivals and by that time, GM’s rivals have gone onto something else that might be very well received.
It’s a game that GM plays…let your opponent take the first step, watch what they do but don’t intervene and if they are successful…then make a pathetic attempt to match them but keep the cost down and never, ever jump ahead with a design that’ll make the others stand up and take notice.
I could go on, but won’t…no need, GM seems to be content not paying attention to what potential customers really want and need. GM is coming to the EV market well behind Tesla and even Ford, and yet they are already “BS-ing” the public by proclaiming that they’ll be overtaking Tesla within two years in the EV marketplace. It ain’t going to happen, because GM’s competitors have already taken steps to compete also and as always, GM’s coming late to the party and no one is going to notice how well your dressed, typical GM way of doing things and all it ever does is (usually) is leave GM in second or third place in many segments of the marketplace. Just my opinion, but it comes from watching GM make mistake after mistake year after year, and keeping “Queen Mary” Barra as your CEO seems to be a waste of time and while she “talks a good talk” in truth, she’s so far behind her competition it’s pathetic, but OMG can the girl make money for the company, and that’s the name of the game as far as she’s concerned. Time to address the failings of current GM and to kick thing’s up a notch
or two or keep falling further behind with vehicles that are “just good enough”, stop that sort of 20th century thinking and take steps to get ahead and stay ahead of the game or maintain your status quo behind all the others, it’s your call GM.
GM did went bankrupt with many performance cars and trucks ….
Also as mention before many don’t care about Ford’s R performance trucks if they have to wait a year for one and pay a ridiculous sticker price along with the mark-up, a more attainable performance vehicle would really get attention, not a showroom queen.
Not saying things can’t be better at GM but let’s not mount high horses..
Many performance vehicles?
During their bankruptcy mess, GM was putting SS badges on anything and everything with absolutely nothing in the way of performance. The only SS variants that were justified were the Cobalt SS and the HHR SS. All of the others were garbage. A set of wheels and cheap stickers do not warrant the mighty SS badge. On top of this foolish choice, GM was rebadging dozens of their vehicles and actually competing against themselves. The Cobalt, G5 and Ion were all the same, just with a different badge glued to the front. The Chevy Trailblazer, Oldsmobile Bravada, Saab 9-7X, Buick Ranier and GMC Envoy were all the same with different badges. The quality of GM’s vehicles at this time was also very poor.
There are many reasons why GM went into bankruptcy, but these three are at the forefront, IMHO.
SS Monte Carlo had a ls4, SS silverado had a lq9 6.0, and the SS trailblazer was a ls2. Idk what your talking about, those where the coolest modern SS variants GM ever build. Talkin about cobalts and HHRs. Lol
Somehow, I forgot about the Trailblazer SS and the Monte Carlo SS.
The Trailblazer SS was a very impressive machine and with the AWD system, it could really dig and go. The Monte Carlo SS with the 5.3L was not bad, but being a Monte, I wish it would have been RWD. As far as the Silverado SS, it had a 6.0 with 345hp and AWD. Although it was a sharp looking truck, the SS badge wasn’t warranted, IMHO.
As far as you laughing at the Cobalt SS and HHR SS, these vehicles didn’t have much less punch than the 303hp Monte Carlo SS. They each had ~260hp and ran very hard.
My 2008 Silverado Z-71 MAX 6.0 is worthy of the SS badge. With half a million miles, it will still beat the socks off a few stangs. I removed the limiter, added true dual exhaust, and a cold air induction system. My old truck is a sleeper.
Rick LaGrasta you really are out of touch, I am not going to address that long winded whine fest but most people just see you complaining about GM not having a direct Raptor competitor that is an absolute waste in a saturated market that will maybe allow 10-15k in units sold at a much high development cost. This is completely one sided, what about all the money makers that GM has that Ford is lacking? Marry has been running a tight ship and in terms of profitability and stock price GM is winning and set up well for the future. They are also not rushing to market with EV’s and just adapting like Ford is current lines which is a huge plus. So maybe take a look at both sides and not focus on one item, just because you can’t have a “Raptor Fighter” to drive to starbucks and your kids soccer game doesn’t mean they are behind the times or don’t have their eye on the ball…
I’ve ben a die hard Chevy man for 50 years, and Rick LaGrasta has it EXACTLY right! I’ve seen the exact same things he described. The final straw for me is when the Camaro goes. I will be gone too! They want loyalty? Where is their loyalty to the customer/consumer??
Why does gm need a “direct competitor” to the Raptor R, or for that matter any other boutique vehicle from any other maker? The short answer is they don’t. They don’t need to match everything that every car maker does with respect to lineup. It’s short-sighted and isn’t always going to make economic sense.
Are you aware the Raptor sells less than 10k units per year? GM has better things to do with their time and it’s far more important to stay in their lane to build their brands.
Nailed it! That “O’bummer era appointee needs to be eliminated with extreme prejudice” she’s taken GM down the wrong path and wasted billions of GMs funds in Asia….if she’s not delt with? GM won’t exist 10 years from now….And who the hell needs a 700HP truck….what a JOKE! 450HP with good suspension and front/rear locking differentials is plenty!
Mary “Get Woke” Barra is more interested in converting every vehicle in GM’s library to an EV and creating more cookie-cutter, boring and anemic CUV’s for soccer moms everywhere.
I don’t get it. A large portion of your loyal fans/buyers enjoy performance vehicles (Camaro SS & C7 GS owner myself). For four generations, my family has purchased nothing but GM vehicles, but I am slowly getting turned off by this company because of their many perplexing decisions. I may join my wife and convert into a BMW buyer. Over the past 6 years, we have bought two new SUV’s from them. The buying experience is always top-notch, as are the fit and finish of their products.
Please get it together, GM. No Raptor/TRX fighter, no Wrangler/Bronco fighter, no performance models/variants to speak of, outside of the C8 and Camaro (which is going away very soon because of poor marketing and ridiculous pricing, etc.). All people in the vehicle market are not Star Bucks sipping, woke yuppies. Everyone is different and so should your product lineup.
I agree with the long post by Rick. Ford has done a better job thus far with some of their product offerings like the Mach E and the upcoming F150 Lighting BEV. The low volume Raptor and GT 500 are awesome but make very little revenue. On the other hand the C8 Corvette is a revelation in sports cars that Ford has no answer. I also think the new Tahoe/Suburban are better than the Ford large suv offering and the new Chevy and GM pickups are comparable if not slightly better than the F150 line as shown by the combined higher sales numbers (after all they are all GM products). My son has a 22′ Camaro 1SS 1LE with a manual and frankly at $46k msrp the Mustang can’t touch it. The new GM BEV’s like the Lyriq may help them continue to more success. Hopefully Ford and Mopar will also continue to make cool and relevant cars.
Hey “Common Sense”, I do apologize if I seem to “Long winded” at times, but reviewing some of the letters following my letter you might see that I’m not that far off base here. So I promise in the future to keep my feelings more direct and I am not totally anti GM, quite the contrary, I retired from GM with almost 40 years seniority, was instrumental in bringing the F Body 1986 Camaro RS to fruition while working at the GM Van Nuys, Assembly Plant from 1966 to it’s closing in 1992.
My work within the GM engineering organization was an amazing and sometimes fun job, but trust me, we had so many obstacles that kept us from really producing the Camaro back then that could have been even more successful. I do understand your feelings, everyone has their own opinions on every subject, just expressing my thoughts after so many years of working for GM. Have things changed for the better at GM today? I dunno, why don’t you enlighten us one way or the other and maybe put a more positive spin on the way GM is operating today. I’d love to hear your comments.
Your thoughts were exactly correct in the “long winded” comment earlier. See my response to Commonsense.
“The F-150 Raptor R is a direct rival for the 720 horsepower Ram TRX, with both Ford and Stellantis now offering ultra-powerful off-road pickups and leaving the Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra as the odd ones out.”
It seems to me that you forgetting about the Hummer EV pickup that will leave this thing in the dust.
EV’s are boring.
Have to agree…unless of course you can afford the high end toys but thats pushing $200K. Entry and mid level are boring and bland, and price still doesn’t justify the purchase when you have a perfectly good 4 banger. I thought electric motorcycle would be a hit but that whirring noise like a cordless drill or remote control toy car would drive me insane, even the cars sound that way, hopefully not on the inside.
GM don’t be stupid and chase these idiots. Talk about a small market and waste of sheet metal. GM spend your resources on electric truck. Stay focused on future truck with massive engine is a dead end road..
GM don’t waste your time on pure EV vehicles….GM once had the best hybrids….Volt and 1500 Silverado….Sadly like usual you abandoned that market….Typical GM! Hybrids will be the perfect market until the huge task of creating the power generation (nuclear) and infrastructure to support pure EV’s is actually in place on a scale large enough to be a viable alternative. With limited ranges and long recharging times….EV’s are not ready to replace ICE vehicles and in many applications never will!
I would do it. My perfect Garage:
Corvette C8 – fun
Prius – long range practical
Tesla – Short Range practical
Raptor – the perfect truck
Several motorcycles, BMW, Yamaha, a Harley for social gatherings.
Interestingly my friends who were long time Chevy die-hard truck fans, could not find trucks to satisfy their needs on the last go-around and ended up going to ford. My best friend, driving GMC/Chevy for 40 years, got a Raptor. I drove it.
His description was it satisfied his feelings when driving in such a way as it replaced his Porsche and his Silverado.
And I agree, fast as a whip, and all truck.
With today’s gasoline prices, who gives a damn (oops, sorry ’bout that rich people)
While these fringe performance models are cool they futures of these companies are dependent on them.
Sadly it is the boring cars that pay the bills and keep stock prices up.
GM had a number of performance models under GM performance badge like the SS, V Series, Red line GXP and more. Yet GM did still needed to be bailed out.
Often when car companies are struggling they rely on models like this and while it helps the image they add little to the bottom line.
The ZR2 will sell better and make more money as most off road people build their own trucks. The Trail Boss has done well and brings in the money.
I’ve been a long time 3rd generation Chevy die hard. I have been waiting…..And waiting….. And waiting…. for chevy to step up to the plate and come out with a Raptor -ish truck for years…….Im so disappointed. Why can’t they take the crew from the
C8 corvette room ( which I own one of ) and move them the *F over to the Silverado Dept and make a Dam Truck with the Z06 motor in it, and put some wheels and coil overs under it and get in the *F in the game!!
send your Silverado 6.2 to Lingelfelter to get a supercharger just like the raptor and trex.
You won’t get the same horsepower. I enquired about adding one to my 2018 Silverado Z-71 6.2 and was told that for 15K I would get about 150 more horses.
I think an article I just saw says pricing is 108K. Plus dealer markup gets to what 150K. Crazy money.
Another truck for those with TDS.
Just another way over-powered/over-priced “Hooligans” death vehicle with no real practical value or use in everyday life. Other than running around the desert mainly with sh!tty gas mileage but nonetheless still. You’ll definitely get what ya paid for aesthetically and those Tic Tok.. Instagram “cool points(laughter also)” from the court of public opinion for walking 5 miles to Chevron, Shell or BP because you ran of out 91+ in the middle of no where..
God Bless America!!
The Ford has it’s Raptor R while GMC is on the way with it’s AT4X-AEV along with the Silverado ZR-2 Bison, of course neither one of those two trucks while pack 700hp, but they will definitely give the Raptor a run for it’s money when it comes Off Road capabilities.