2023 Ford F-150 Raptor R Review: Completely Unnecessary, but Tons of Fun

You don’t need a Raptor R. But if 700-hp super-trucks are your thing, it won’t disappoint.

Published June 2, 2023

Back in 2009, Ford debuted the high-performance, highly off-road-capable F-150 SVT Raptor. It was unlike anything anyone had ever seen from a production pickup truck — and it has been profoundly influential, redefining expectations for both trucks and the off-road category as a whole. The Raptor was the undisputed apex predator in the stock pickup truck world for 11 years … until Ram launched the 1500 TRX.

The Ram 1500 TRX packs a supercharged 6.2-liter Hemi V8. It put out 702 horsepower — 252 more than the Raptor’s 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6. And it did not just steal the dinosaur motif; it launched with a graphic of a T. rex chomping on a smaller dinosaur that bears a distinct resemblance to the raptors from Jurassic Park.

Ford had to respond — if not for the honor of the Raptor nameplate then simply because the market dictated it. And they did so, a year after the facelifted version of the second-generation F-150 Raptor launched, with the V8-powered, 700-horsepower Raptor R.

We’ve driven the Raptor R twice now: once when Ford brought us and other journalists to the sand dunes of cold, rainy western Michigan in fall 2022, and again on an 800-mile round trip from New York to Vermont in spring 2023. After driving it in several states on both familiar and unfamiliar roads, we can confirm the F-150 Raptor R is in no way a truck anyone needs. But it’s exactly the pickup a significant chunk of the Ford Truck family has been waiting for.

2023 Ford F-150 Raptor R: What We Think

The F-150 Raptor R lives well beyond the realm of practical needs. The standard F-150 Raptor was already more than enough truck for just about everyone. If you’re leveling up to the Raptor R, it’s a decision driven by id, not superego — by animal desire, not cool rationality.

But if this monster truck is what sets your heart on fire, then it’ll be damn rewarding. Buy the F-150 Raptor R because it looks cool, because it’s ridiculously quick, because it sounds absolutely maniacal … and you have a lot of cash to spare for both the monthly payments and the gas. And really … isn’t that the basic justification for buying any car that costs over $100,000?

The F-150 Raptor R is less powerful than the Ram TRX, but don’t hold that against it

The Raptor R packs the supercharged 5.2-liter V8 from the Ford Mustang Shelby GT500, which puts out 700 horsepower and 640 lb-ft of torque in this use case. Riding high on standard 37-inch tires and serving up 13.1 inches of ground clearance, the Raptor R is the most powerful truck Ford has produced.

But it’s not the most powerful truck Detroit has produced. The Ram 1500 TRX offers 702 hp and 650 lb-ft of torque. When the truck was being rumored, we thought Ford would exceed those numbers by whatever means necessary (if even by a pony or two) just so the marketing team could shout “best-in-class” from the metaphorical rooftops. They didn’t.

During our first drive, Ford didn’t directly explain why they were content to leave output at 700 rather than find extra three horsepower; instead, they effectively argued it doesn’t matter. A vehicle’s power-to-weight ratio is more important than power alone, and the F-150 Raptor R is more than 400 pounds lighter than the TRX.

The F-150 Raptor R is a beast off-road

Like any vehicle, the Raptor R has physical limitations. Most owners, however, will never approach them. The boundaries for the Raptor R are set by external factors. There’s the driver: compared to this aluminum-bodied monster with a steel skeleton and the heart of a race car, your body is a Faberge egg. (While off-roading in the sand dunes, Ford made us wear racing helmets and HANS safety devices.) And there’s geography: At more than 80 inches wide and almost 233 inches long, this F-150 will be too big for most conventional off-road trails. You need a lot of space — the sort generally only found in deserts — to find out what the Raptor R can do.

Lacking any proper deserts in the Midwest, Ford took us out to the Silver Lake sand dunes in Michigan. We popped the truck into Baja Mode, which is designed for high-speed travel on sandy terrain, and rocketed up and down the aforementioned dunes. We flew over bumps. Ford even let us jump the truck, with the pleading caution to do so below 45 mph. Granted, our wave of media members had favorable conditions for traction, with overnight rain compacting the sand right before we went out; still, the Raptor R — with aired-down tires — handled everything the sand threw at us.

The overarching concern with the dunes wasn’t climbing, but sending it too hard over the lip and taking an unplanned aerial adventure. Things like this that would be considered “events” in other off-road vehicles simply, well, aren’t in the Raptor R; as the suspension eats giant bumps without it registering too much in the cabin. You get about an inch less of suspension travel than you do with the standard Raptor (a tradeoff for the 37-inch tires), though you’ll seldom if ever be at a limit where that would make a difference.

The ultimate question is whether the added 250 horsepower from the powertrain does anything. The answer…is probably not. I only used about half the throttle at any point during off-roading.

In Vermont, opportunities for off-roading were far more limited; the best we were able to do was fire it down some mud season-scarred dirt roads as quickly as we could. Unsurprisingly, the Raptor R handled it with the ease of LeBron playing pickup basketball. Thanks to those epic Fox shocks, the faster we drove, the smoother the ride became; at 55 mph, the bumps all but vanished. And the angry roar of the supercharged V8 proved handy at alerting any cyclists or pedestrians to our arrival long before they could see us. As Harley folks like to say, loud pipes save lives …

But the Raptor R is a sweetheart on the street and highway

Custom-built monster trucks can be onerous to drive, but Ford’s highly skilled engineers did an excellent job making the ride on 37-inch off-road tires feel smooth, seamless and remarkably like every other F-150.

During our Michigan drive, we took the wheel for two 45-minute on-road stints — mostly cruising from Muskegon to Silver Lake and back on U.S. 31 with a 75-mph speed limit. Even in heavy rain and with substantial winds coming off the lake, the truck felt composed. Our trip to Vermont offered far more time behind the wheel on the highway, and the Raptor R proved a genial companion, offering a panoramic view, plush seats, ample creature comforts and plenty of power to pull off passing maneuvers. Again, pretty much like every F-150 these days.

700 horsepower sounds overwhelming — and it is when you uncork it, even when battling a curb weight just shy of three tons. But the long travel of the gas pedal means you aren’t going to tap the full brunt of it unless you intend to.

One thing to note about the Raptor R is…it’s LOUD. The V8 is why you buy the Raptor R, and Ford wants you (and whoever is in a fairly large radius around you) to know you have it. It’s noisy when you’re driving. Hell, Ford actually started our trucks for us in the morning so we wouldn’t all do it and wake up our entire hotel.

The Raptor R is also very wide. This didn’t come into play in our driving, which didn’t involve any intricate urban maneuvering. But the faint buzz from the lane centering warning became a more or less constant feature of driving on the highway.

Don’t expect great fuel economy, obviously

Will Sabel Courtney

The EPA rates the Raptor R at 10 mpg in the city, 15 mpg on the highway, and 12 mpg combined. Hardly great — okay, just plain bad — but it’s not as big a hit as you might expect, at least for road trippers. The standard F-150 Raptor on 37-inch tires without auto stop/start is rated for 14 mpg city, 16 mpg highway and 15 mpg combined, by comparison.

Our first test vehicle, with about 1,200 miles on the odometer, had an 800-plus mile trip stored as Trip 1; we can only vouch for our portion of that, but it read 10.8 mpg over that span. The second trip to and from Vermont was roughly as long, but with less off-roading and more highway driving on the menu, fuel economy improved … to 13.8 mpg.

You could use the sports car defense here. The Raptor R is the truck equivalent of a high-end sports car; it will be sold in low volumes, and removing every Raptor R from the streets wouldn’t resolve global warming. But that argument works much better for a sports car that is used sparingly. Few masochists out there are putting 15,000 miles on their Lamborghini Aventador every year, but a lot of people will daily-drive a comfortable pickup truck.

The Raptor R sure isn’t cheap

The Raptor R starts at $109,255 with the destination fee. That is a hefty premium over the standard F-150 Raptor, which starts at $78,670. But the $30K upcharge brings a few tweaks beyond the big engine: there’s the beadlock wheels and 37-inch tires, alcantara-and-leather Recaro bucket seats, carbon fiber interior trim, and a whole lot of orange “R” badging.

The Ram TRX’s pricing begins closer to the regular Raptor, starting at $86,350. But that price point gets you a very spartan version of it. If you want all the goodies to match the Raptor R— and hey, you don’t buy a truck like this to not treat yourself — you’ll be staring at a six-digit pricetag. (And, should you love hooning, be warned that the TRX never lets you drive around in two-wheel-drive, so burnouts are out of the question.)

Still, even in this car market, where the average new passenger vehicle sold in the U.S. costs around $48,000, the Raptor R is far from cheap. (And, considering the average F-150 makes around $8,000–$10,000 in profit for FoMoCo, it’s safe to assume the Raptor R is bringing home plenty of bacon for Jim Farley et. al.) But it’s not meant to be: it’s a halo car, like the Corvette Z06 or the dearly departed Ford GT. The Raptor R sells, sure, but just as importantly, it sucks in buyers who in turn will buy a Ranger or lesser F-150 instead of a Canyon or a Ram.

2023 Ford F-150 Raptor R Alternatives

Aside from the aforementioned Ram TRX, alternatives are fairly few. The GMC Hummer EV SUT is similar in size, performance and capability, but it only runs on electricity, which is either a pro or a con depending on your point of view. The Rivian R1T is likewise as quick or quicker, and its slightly tidier size makes it better for some forms of off-roading — but again, electrons only. Chevy’s Silverado ZR2 Bison is as off-road-focused (or even more so), but its 420-hp smallblock makes it more of a competitor for the regular Raptor.

Or, in all honesty, if you’re open to used vehicles, a pre-facelift non-R F-150 Raptor like the silver one seen above will do 95% of what the R does for about half the price. But, come on … you know you’ll always have wished you’d had a V8.