The Baja-racing-truck-inspired Raptor off-road trim remains the most capable off-roader in the F-150 portfolio, but that’s like saying a Kansas tornado can be a little breezy.
When the Raptor R came along for 2023 and added a supercharged 5.2-liter V-8 out of the old Mustang Shelby GT500, that just made it even more nuts (and more expensive). For 2024, it gets a mild redo but some significant new parts, and we got a spin in it at high speed out in the California desert to see if it’s still as unreal as the original.
The changes that the 2024 F-150 got in the styling department carry over to the Raptor, but like just about everything else in the truck, they got turned up to 11. The front-end styling is unique to the Raptor, but it shares its bumper with the F-150 Tremor, where the “accessory bumper” is an option. It’s a modular piece that allows owners to swap out components for light bars or winches, or even to remove the end caps for better approach clearance. There’s the traditional all-caps “Ford” grille seen on off-road models, which is given a “woven” Raptor treatment here, and there are big optional stickers down the wider fenders, as well. My time in the ‘24 Raptor was exclusively in the V-8-powered Raptor R, which has some of its own styling uniqueness.
What’s Changed for ‘24
The bigger changes for the Raptor are under the hood, and they’re a result of the ethos that every successive Raptor should be quicker, better and more capable than the one before it, according to Ford Performance Chief Engineer Carl Widmann. To that end, the new Raptor R gets some updated components: First is a new hood that allows for better breathing, which allows the supercharged 5.2-liter V-8 to now make 720 horsepower, up 20 hp from the prior version, and 640 pounds-feet of torque. There’s an updated front suspension, as well, with unique knuckles and revised half-shafts, which has helped increase wheel articulation. The unique Fox shock-absorber system that allows the Raptor to do what it does gets an update, too, with a new dual-valve system (optional on the base Raptor, standard on the Raptor R) that electronically controls both compression and rebound now using the truck’s forward-looking sensors to anticipate terrain changes in literal microseconds.
That change allows even greater control over the truck’s responses to changing terrain, and allows for an even finer tuning of the electronically assisted steering as well. What all that translates to is an even more controlled, more refined driving experience whether cruising some two-lane blacktop or blasting down two-track scrubland.
In every situation, the additional control and comfort was evident. If you’ve never had an opportunity to drive a Raptor in the environment for which it’s intended, and have only ever kept it to the pavement and done some heavy-duty mall crawling, you owe it to yourself to do so. No amount of pavement pounding can make you appreciate the sheer ability of this truck to do things that should seem impossible for a showroom-standard, fresh-from-the-factory vehicle. Want to do 60, 70 mph across a field? Easy. Power-slide in a huge spray of dust and dirt sideways across the firm packed clay? Bring it on. Dune running and jumping in deep sand? Absolutely no sweat, just air down the enormous 37-inch tires and go for it. The Raptor R doesn’t bat an eye, you just set the Terrain Mode selector to whatever you plan on doing (Off-Road for slower-speed rock crawling or trail riding, Baja mode to open up the stops and get max response for all off-road systems) and go.
The supercharged 5.2-liter V-8 sounds incredible at full chat and delivers acceleration like being punched in the spine by an MMA fighter. Immensely torquey yet imminently tractable, it’s a gorgeous powerplant, combining its massive exhaust bellow with the supercharger’s banshee scream and producing Space X levels of thrust. This isn’t some poser “brodozer” pickup truck with silly wheels and a fat can exhaust meant to try and intimidate lesser traffic. It’s the real-deal, genuine-badass, off-road monster apex predator. It does amazing things, whether those things are climbing rock faces or bounding over washboard savannah at breakneck speeds.
The interior of the Raptor is very much off-road-themed, featuring a unique performance screen in the 12-inch digital gauge cluster and a new head-up display that also shows a bunch of off-road info if you want it to. Interior upgrades are minor but positive, although the interior of this insanely expensive truck still doesn’t quite match up to the Ram 1500’s level of materials goodness. There’s plenty of room, front or back, and no lack of headroom, storage or features at all.
