2024 Ford F-150 Raptor R Quick Spin: Still the Ultimate Grin Machine

A fresh Ford F-150 is always cause for celebration, as the perennially bestselling pickup truck in the land only ever seems to get better, more useful, more efficient or more feature-packed with each new generation. Ford just put its 2024 F-150 through what’s called a “mid-cycle refresh,” where it received mild styling updates, some new interior bits and some new technology and features, but it stops short of what we’d call a “major redesign.” But this sucker here — the Raptor R — is still something special.

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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. The Raptor is insane, a sport truck that creates legends and songs with what it is and what it can do. Others have tried to copy its formula, but they can’t match its sheer presence or unflappable ability.

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.

Still Lookin’ Raptory

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.

It’ll never be mistaken for anything other than a Raptor in the F-150 family, that’s for sure, but that’s OK. It looks wild ‘cause it is wild.

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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.

Raptor Does What Raptor Does

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. My drive of the Raptor R was entirely in the dirt, however, so my experience with the new suspension was “limited” to flinging the Raptor R down an off-road race course used in the King of the Hammers race, drifting and sliding across a dry lake bed, and crawling over some rugged terrain in and around Johnson Valley, Calif.

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.

And all the while, you’re nestled in a massive, cushy, supportive, leather-clad throne that features some nifty embroidering and Raptor-specific accents. 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. It’s just as good as the last Raptor, it just now features more kit and capability than ever.

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Ain’t Any Cheaper

It had better be good for what Ford is charging for it, too. If you’re looking for a base 2024 F-150 Raptor with the twin-turbocharged EcoBoost V-6 making 450 hp and 510 pounds-feet of torque, that starts at $80,435 (all prices include destination fee). This is considerably more expensive than the upcoming 2025 Ram 1500 RHO, which starts at $71,990 and features a twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six-cylinder Hurricane engine that outguns the standard V-6 Raptor rather significantly with 540 hp and 521 pounds-feet of torque.

But upgrading to the Raptor R with its supercharged V-8 (meant to take on the now-discontinued Ram 1500 TRX) will set you back at least $112,360, an eye-watering sum for any vehicle that’s intended to go out in the dirt and get scratched up along a trail. Thirty grand is a massive premium to pay for the privilege of a V-8 engine and some extra horsepower, but we can’t say if it’s worth it until we also have a chance to drive the basic V-6 Raptor in similar conditions.

Until then, what we can say is that the 2024 Ford F-150 Raptor R brilliantly continues the brand’s tradition of providing a no-excuses, incredibly capable, factory-built Baja racing truck that can go from the showroom straight to the dirt and blow just about anything else away. I’ve always found it to be the best F-150 in the lineup, providing surprising on-road comfort with apocalypse-level survivability should you need it. Its do-anything, anytime, anywhere nature just might justify its price all on its own.

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