The 2021 Ford F-150 Raptor will launch on February 3, and Ram isn’t too concerned about being a challenger to his recently launched TRX muscle truck. On social media, Ram dares the Blue Oval to “flip open the hood” of the performance pickup to see which has the more powerful engine.
In terms of displacement, the TRX is the easy winner with its 6.2-liter V8, versus the 3.5-liter V6 expected in the Raptor’s engine bay. The Ram also boasts 702 horsepower (524 kilowatts). The Ford’s power is still a mystery, but probably not much more than the 450 hp (336 kW) of the previous generation truck.
We’re not sure yet which gearbox the new Raptor uses, but it probably has a 10-speed automatic like the previous one. Meanwhile, the TRX has an eight-speed automatic transmission.
From what we know so far, it seems likely that the Ram TRX will be the faster straight-line truck by hitting 60 miles per hour (96 kilometers per hour) in 4.5 seconds. The previous generation Raptor took 6.0 seconds to reach the same speed. The new one could save a little this time.
Where things get interesting is when these trucks go off road. The previous Raptor was a technological powerhouse with features such as the Trail Control off-road cruise control system. It also has high-tech adaptive dampers that are smart enough to detect if the pickup is jumping and stiffen things up accordingly.
The TRX also has a number of tricks. It has Bilstein Blackhawk E2 adaptive shocks with external reservoirs. Like the Raptor, the system can detect if the truck is in the air.
