Two pickup vans with muscle-automobile engines and trophy-truck suspensions rectangular off on the dragstrip, at the avenue, and withinside the dust.No remember which aspect you are rooting for withinside the exquisite 700-hp pickup-truck throwdown of 2023, you need to hand it to the alternative team.If Ford and Ram hadn't goaded every different into constructing more and more more ludicrous vans, there would not be any 700-hp, dune-leaping pickups at all. The manner we see it, with out the authentic 2010 Ford F-one hundred fifty SVT Raptor there may be no Ram 1500 TRX, and with out the TRX there may be no Ford F-one hundred fifty Raptor R.It's a traditional case of opposition enhancing the breed. After thirteen years of escalating stakes as Ford and Ram antagonized every different, the standard pickup truck has advanced right into a street-criminal sandrail with sport-sedan acceleration.Such a selected and precise assignment quick would not depart tons room for innovative interpretation apparently, due to the fact the TRX and Raptor R are conceptually identical. Both vans use supercharged V-8s, with the Ram 1500 TRX making 702 horsepower to the Ford F-one hundred fifty Raptor R's 700. Both vans sure over wasteland washes and move slowly up boulder-strewn trails with thirteen and 14 inches of the front and rear suspension journey. And each vans on this check price six figures. There's a $23,360 chasm among the TRX's $85,785 beginning rate and the Raptor R's $109,a hundred forty five access point, however Ram basically closed that hole with the aid of using handing over a $103,980 truck for this comparison.Those more alternatives make for a greater steeply-priced and greater livable TRX with out changing its overall performance or the using experience.Comparison assessments are not often this flippantly matched.To draw out the variations among the TRX and Raptor R, we flogged them at our Michigan check music after which rocketed 2 hundred miles north to their herbal habitat. On winding, rutted trails crowned with free sand and slick snow, we activated every truck's Baja mode and stood at the throttles.
This is what we determined.Predator Vs. HellcatOriginally designed for the Mustang Shelby GT500, Ford's Predator engine trades electricity for torque withinside the Raptor R, even though you will by no means be aware the 60 lacking ponies. The 5.2-liter V-eight revs to its un-trucklike 7,000-rpm redline as though it is bolted in a mid-engine Italian exotic. Stomp the move pedal, and the R unleashes its fury like a collapsing dam shall we move of water: all at as soon as, after which in a torrential flood. Sixty mph disappears in 3.7 seconds, and the sector mile flashes with the aid of using in 12.1 seconds at 111.eight mph. Neither of these numbers captures the depth of the thrust, though.The Predator is so instantaneous, so linear, so unrelenting in its electricity shipping that you may mistake it for a couple of electrical automobiles if each poke of the throttle did not unharness a heroic eight-cylinder thunder. Even cruising at element throttle, there may be a consistent rumble that can not be ignored. On any motorway pressure longer than 10 mins, you will be thumbing the guidance-wheel-installed transfer for the lively exhaust's Quiet mode.If most effective there have been a comparable button for silencing the supercharger belted to the TRX's Hellcat 6.2-liter V-eight. The Ram's dual exhaust cannons supply a righteous big-displacement boom, however you'll by no means understand it from in the cabin wherein the supercharger's excessive-pitched wail drowns out the fusillade withinside the combustion chambers. You ought to be status outdoor the TRX to pay attention the coolest stuff. It sounds greater fierce from 440 yards away than while you are sitting inner it.At the dragstrip, the Hellcat's -horsepower gain is beaten with the aid of using the more 740 kilos the TRX lugs anywhere it is going. It arrives at 60 mph 0.2 2nd at the back of the Raptor R, with that hole doubling thru the sector mile.From the driver's perspective, the distinction is greater considerable withinside the first few heartbeats after status at the throttle. Where the Raptor R catapults off the line, the Ram builds momentum the manner you will count on a 6,700-pound truck to launch—with the slightest hesitation as all that mass is placed into motion. Once it is rolling, though, the TRX can provide the equal towering mountain of torque we have got come to recognize so nicely in each different Hellcat-powered automobile.The Ford's 10-pace computerized has greater gears than the Ram's transmission and on occasion looks as if it shifts two times as often. The equipment modifications are as a minimum speedy and assertive, and the shift good judgment is sound. Ten without a doubt most effective seems like too many while accelerating from a forestall in heavy site visitors with mild throttle, while the Raptor races to the very best equipment and the upshifts are available rapidfire succession. In another scenario, the Ford's eagerness to downshift comes off as making the nice use of that rev-satisfied engine. Compared to the Raptor, the TRX is content material to maintain a equipment (or as a minimum now no longer downshift to as low of a equipment) and dig from decrease rpm at element throttle.And then there may be the only distinction so significant, it feels philosophical. Whereas the TRX is completely caught in four-wheel-pressure, the Raptor lets in you to clown round in rear-pressure. Actually, Ford appears to inspire it, because the Raptor defaults to -wheel pressure in its Normal mode. In some thing much less than fourth equipment, the Raptor R's BFGoodrich All-Terrain KO2 tires are hopelessly and hilariously undermatched for the Raptor's 640 lb-toes of torque. It's best for flinging fowl tails of dust into the following county and sending up mushroom clouds of tire smoke.The Big Squish.
The Raptor R rides on a suspension as squishy because the Pillsbury Doughboy's breadbasket, taking pokes, prods, and complete-pressure sucker punches from the terrain with a satisfied giggle.It'll depart you cackling like a lunatic primarily based totally at the manner it skims throughout the panorama wholly unfazed. How is that this aspect so right? And who desires a truck designed for using off-avenue at motorway speeds?No one with out a expert racing license desires a truck this succesful, however the magic of the Raptor R is that it is so pleasing irrespective of how or wherein you pressure it. It's supple and settled at any pace, over any terrain. By making the small hits so inconsequential, the Raptor lulls you into pushing tougher and quicker, wherein the larger hits also are inconsequential, so that you push even tougher and quicker till your self-protection intuition kicks in otherwise you do some thing silly sufficient to head viral on TikTok.Compared to the pillowy Raptor, the TRX feels sports activities-automobile stiff. Treading over lumpy, rutted trails at a walking pace, the Ram's frame rocks and pitches over small activities that the Raptor irons flat. Just using down a Detroit parkway will have you ever doubting each TRX soar image you have ever visible. Surely dampers this unforgiving might punch thru their mounts on touchdown, you think.Speed enables the Ram's suspension relax. Driving quicker sends greater pressure into the suspension, which makes use of greater of the Ram's journey to clean out the bumps and chuckholes. You simply ought to be assured sufficient and dedicated to get to that point, which makes the TRX's off-avenue athleticism much less on hand than the Raptor's.The Ram steers higher than the Ford, with a faster rack it is greater responsive each at the pavement and withinside the slough. There's a shocking quantity of precision for any pickup, not to mention one with knobby all-terrain tires and a penchant for off-roading.The Raptor's prodigious suspension compliance comes with an undesirable aspect of guidance slack. You may not be aware it off-avenue, due to the fact who expects a three-ton truck to show on a dime withinside the sand? On dry pavement, though, there may be a lag among delivering and cornering forces constructing. Ford engineers have made a valiant attempt to masks this with the aid of using making the guidance company and weighty on-center, in order that your palms get hold of the quick remarks your eyes and internal ear count on.The Raptor's BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A KO2s are broadly appeared because the benchmark all-motive off-avenue tire for right reason. In addition to digging into the dust and locating grip, they may be nicely behaved at the roads, consisting of being distinctly quiet at motorway speeds. We have been similarly inspired with the aid of using the Ram's Goodyear Wrangler Territory AT tires withinside the free stuff, however they struggled to locate buy on snow-protected floor streets.These chassis attributes are wherein the variations among the Raptor R and TRX are maximum simply defined. Even with a further 250 horsepower over the same old Raptor, the R maintains the engine and chassis in balance, similar to the nice sports activities cars. In the TRX, you get the feel that—like each different Hellcat-powered automobile—the chassis turned into at nice a secondary priority. The Ram turned into designed across the engine, with the income parents having complete self assurance that a massive electricity variety might be sufficient to get our lizard brains salivating.Living With Monsters.We ought to admit that it works. The styling, the stance, the electricity, the sounds, the marketing—it all works. We lust after vans just like the TRX and the Raptor R despite the fact that we recognize they may spend the bulk in their miles trundling thru the tamest using environments we have. To hold the myth from ruining reality, a a hit Baja basher desires to now no longer suck to pressure while the most effective dust they may contact is determined at the lowest of potholes.The Raptor's elegant suspension is going an extended manner in pleasing that quick. Turns out that tuning a truck to overcome the ungroomed wilds of Baja additionally units you up for fulfillment at the jagged highways and arterial roads of the world's richest country. Forget Rolls-Royce and its pretentious "waftability." The Raptor R proves that, with the proper hardware, you could make a glorified farm device go with the flow over the avenue, too. The Ram team, though, hasn't figured that out yet. With its stiff trip, the TRX would not come near in on-avenue trip comfort. Even apparently degree growth joints excite a consistent up-and-down oscillation that makes it sense like you are using a Shake Weight.The length of those beasts is each a blessing and a curse. The expansive cabs provide a number of the maximum snug rear seats this aspect of a Mercedes-Benz S-Class. But the huge tracks, fats fenders, towering floor clearance, and limousine lengths make the TRX and Raptor a chore to pilot in suburban parking masses and on metropolis streets.
The Ford, with its humongous 50-foot turning circle, struggles to turn a U-flip withinside the area of a five-lane avenue. The Ram is most effective marginally higher.The Raptor R comes with wellknown strolling forums that make mountain climbing aboard smooth sufficient, however in case you are shopping for a TRX to treatment a Napoleon complex, you must recognize that at 6-foot-3, I felt quick whenever I needed to hoist myself into the cabin. The truck on this check wore optional $995 rock rails that provide a slim ledge to grasp a toe on, besides they may be too excessive to almost use as a step and completely vain as soon as they may be caked with dust or snow. We advocate you spec right strolling forums or convey your personal step stool.Finally, there may be the problem of rate, the most effective aspect greater outrageous than the skills of those vans. The Ford's $109,a hundred forty five beginning ask can most effective be justified with the aid of using the reality that sufficient humans will nonetheless purchase it at that ridiculous sum. That variety in general seems like a person at company is seeking to get their reduce of the outrageous provider markups we have got visible withinside the beyond years. The Raptor R is not simply the maximum luxurious non-GT Ford you could purchase today, it is greater luxurious than each Lincoln keep for the Navigator Black Label. And yet, inner and out, the Raptor R seems like it have been designed first and primary in order that it may in the future be faithfully re-created in a 56-piece Lego set. The blocky styling and primary substances do not stay as much as the rate.The Ram's greater muscular outside and greater suave indoors are greater our style. Unfortunately, meaning residing with Ram's infotainment device. Once a bastion of simple, practical design, Chrysler's FCA's Stellantis' Uconnect isn't ageing nicely. As the touchscreen has grown to twelve inches, the icons seem to have shrunk, requiring greater eyes-off-the-avenue time to locate and tap. A sizable swath of unused display actual property is full of a hokey diamond-plate pattern. The device has additionally validated to be reliably unreliable in quite tons each current-technology Ram we have got driven. This unique truck suffered from the disappearing audio syndrome, wherein Uconnect randomly refuses to play sound from any audio supply for numerous mins at a time.The King Of The Dirt.Picking a winner on this contest is without a doubt only a formality. In the conflict of TRX vs. Raptor R, anybody wins. Well, perhaps now no longer the environment. The Raptor R and TRX sucked down $650 really well worth of dino juice in much less than 36 hours—and that does not encompass the fueloline that powered 12 complete-throttle runs to triple-digit speeds we made for the duration of our overall performance testing.Anyone who receives at the back of the wheel of both truck has received the lottery of life, even though it is fleeting. Flogging the Ford F-one hundred fifty Raptor R or the Ram 1500 TRX throughout the earth is one of the quickest approaches to natural joy. Remember the way you used to thrash your vans withinside the sandbox as a kid? You'd bury them, splash thru puddles, and pressure up walls. In a Raptor R or TRX, that kid's play is supersized and made vividly actual.The Ram 1500 TRX packs a bruiser of an engine and a menacing, creatine-filled presence. But whether or not you are shopping for for the muscle-automobile engine or trophy-truck suspension, the Ford F-one hundred fifty Raptor R can provide higher overall performance and a fuller experience. The Raptor R is so monstrously succesful and wildly detached to the terrain that there may be truely not anything else like it.second Place: 2022 Ram 1500 TRX
Pros:Hellcat V-eight
Hellcat V-eight
Did we point out the Hellcat V-eight?
Cons:
Unforgiving trip quality
Whiny supercharger
Fussy infotainment device
Verdict: Following the Hellcat playbook, Ram's 702-hp pickup prioritizes the engine mainly else.1st Place: 2023 Ford F-one hundred fifty Raptor R
Pros:
Terrain-conquering chassis
Intoxicating engine
Bananas rear-wheel-pressure mode
Cons:
Steering can be greater precise
Priced like a luxurious vehicle
Doesn't appearance or sense like its rate
Verdict: Even a 700-hp V-eight can not scouse borrow the display from the F-one hundred fifty Raptor's brilliant, pressure-over-some thing suspension.
