The 2024 Ford F-150 Raptor R Is What Happens When Batcrap Crazy Goes to Finishing School

“Guys, try and keep it under 70 miles per hour,” the Ford Performance engineer’s earnest voice crackled over the radios. Pretty sage advice, given the road into the famed Johnson Valley OHV Area has a speed limit of 65 mph. True, a five-strong group of us were all behind the wheels of the refreshed-for-2024 Ford F-150 Raptor R, and the Baja behemoth’s 5.2-liter supercharged V-8 had been given a boost from 700 to 720 horsepower. What was also true was our little group wasn’t on the road that leads into Johnson Valley; we were parked at the starting line of an off-road race course.

I happened to be at the front of the pack, inside a Raptor R painted Shelter Green, a new color this year. While I’ve long had a priori problems with authority, the improved 2024 edition of Ford’s ultimate off-roader is masterful at filling the driver with confidence. Nothing against the hardworking Ford engineer, but on dirt, redline in fifth gear happens at 95 mph.

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What’s New With the Raptor?

From the outside, the biggest change to the “base” Raptor—which still packs a 450-hp, 510-lb-ft 3.5-liter twin-turbo V-6—is the face. The widebodied supertruck gains a squared-off version of the new DRL design from the conventional F-150. With the new grille, the 86.6-inch-wide pickup somehow looks even wider than last year’s model. (It isn’t.) The giant “FORD” stamped across the dechromed prow is now textured, and the black plastic power bulge atop the hood has been revised. Functionally, the steel bumper is new and winch-ready, and the center section is shared with the Raptor’s rock-crawling sibling, the F-150 Tremor. The two trucks get different bumper end caps, with the Raptor’s being slimmer and showing more front tire. The taillights have been fiddled with, and the Raptor cannot be ordered with the new Pro Access tailgate available on other F-150s. Yet another reason not to tow with a Raptor.

What’s new under the aluminum skin is of much more importance when we’re talking Raptors. As mentioned, the 3.5-liter engine remains the same, while the blown 5.2-liter gains 20 horsepower via improved air intake and retuned software. The R’s 640 lb-ft of torque is unchanged, but the torque curve is wider. But power or lack thereof was never a third-generation Raptor problem; suspension was. Specifically, the long-travel electronically controlled Live Valve Fox dampers simply weren’t as good as the Bilsteins Ram used for the TRX. The quicker-acting shocks on the TRX were smoother over big whoops than the Ford's solution. To address this, the 2024 Raptors get dual-valve shocks, with one spool valve controlling jounce/compression and a second spool valve tasked with handling rebound. These new dampers are good for half an inch more suspension travel. There are also new steering knuckles, new tie-rod ends, and a quicker steering rack (16:1, improved from 17:1), which together contribute to a claimed 60 percent better on-center feel. 

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Hit the Dirt!

We began our off-road cruise in the Raptor R (we never drove the “regular” Raptor) on some packed dirt and shallow sand. Even running at a moderate pace with the huge 37-inch BFG KO2s aired down to 21 psi, I was as amazed as always by just how precise this hulking, three-ton beast of a truck is off-pavement. Thanks to the quickened steering, even tiny inputs result in precise wheel placement. One thing to note: The 16:1 rack means that when your sidewall inevitably hits an obstacle—like a halfway buried rock or a good rut—the kickback is now more severe, trying harder to snatch the tiller away from you, so keep two hands on the big, fat wheel at all times when running fast, and maybe start doing some bicep curls. Ironically, one of the very few things we complained about with the 2023 model was how big and fat the steering wheel was. Looks like Ford was just planning ahead.

This next part will surprise no one, but dude, the Raptor R’s beefy V-8 is so good. I’m not going to claim I noticed the small increase in horsepower, but the Predator engine is just as mean, potent, and antisocial as ever. You’d never guess it’s 40 hp down from GT500 duty. New for 2024, you can actually hear a little bit of supercharger whine, something Ford’s NVH team had previously squashed. Hurray! The 10-speed automatic transmission is superlative in Raptor R duty. Crisp, fast shifts are always just a tug of an aluminum paddle away. The paddles function in a semi-manual fashion, meaning that if you pull one, the transmission is in manual mode for a period of time before reverting back to automatic. Quite a convenient and intuitive way to pull your own.

After a tiny bit of rock crawling (we left it in the Off-Road drive mode, never needing the low gears that activate when in Rock Crawl), the Ford Performance team turned us loose on some sand dunes. Hurray times two! Even with all that heft (Ford claims the lightest Raptor you can buy is 5,950 pounds; we’ve weighed two R’s, one at 5,960 and the other at 6,060), never for a moment did the truck feel like it struggled. The Raptor R had no trouble whatsoever blasting up hundreds of feet of dunes, turning, and then jamming down to the bottom. Off-Road mode automatically locks the rear differential (you can manually unlock it), which meant big, stupid rooster tails were a done deal. The only bad part? It was a tightly scheduled morning, and we only had 10 minutes to hoon in the dunes.

Might as Well Jump

Ford created the production Baja truck segment when it unveiled the original Raptor as a 2010 model. As fate would have it, I happened to be there in late 2008 when Ford introduced the Raptor to shocked and awed media just south of the outlet mall in Barstow, California. They threw us inside the trucks and had trophy truck racers launch us way up in the air, something most if not all of us had never experienced before. We were wowed, and I remember writing something hyperbolic like, “Even more than, say, a Lamborghini, the Ford Raptor is the most impressive production vehicle in the world.” I mean, a flying truck anyone could go out and buy? Who’d ever heard of such a thing?

Thus it wouldn’t be a Raptor introduction if we didn’t send it. The Ford Performance team set up a nice jump and mentioned that a good launch velocity would be in the 60–65-mph neighborhood. Perhaps the single best improvement of the 2024 Raptor is the large, legible, multicolor head-up display. I floored it, and even through polarized sunglasses I was able to see I was about to hit the ramp at 72 mph. I cowardly lifted and left the earth at 66 mph. A decent jump but not exactly something to brag—or write—about. The long-travel dampers did make for a soft landing, however. We got a second attempt, and this time I flew quite a bit higher. Hurray times three! After I landed (a bit harder this time but still totally safe and sound) and climbed out of my Raptor R to snap pics of the other journalists getting airborne, an engineer shouted, “You were going faster than 65 mph that time, huh?” I thought for a second and then replied, “Hard to say.” To put a pin in it, flying trucks rule.

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Hit the Dirt, Fast!

“Guys, try and keep it under 70 miles per hour.” That totally ignored warning bears repeating here. Consider just for a moment how crazy it is that a multibillion-dollar multinational corporation is not only building machines capable of running that fast on dirt but that it also holds a press junket to show off such shenanigans. Will wonders never cease? The Ford Performance team set up a course for us that used a section of actual racetrack, as well. This is where it became obvious how improved the new dual-valve dampers are. I’d driven the 2023 Raptor R on the same set of trails, and at higher speeds, the lack of rebound control made that thing too bouncy. Now? It’s a much more controllable and comfortable beast. Again, 95 mph (sorry, Ford) wasn’t even hairy. The truck loved it. So did I.

As analog as you may be tempted to think the Raptor is, I can assure you countless lines of code are working below the surface, expertly dealing with every single bump, rut, slippery surface, and off-kilter angle we were throwing at it. We were running in Baja mode now, and the Raptor R felt impervious to any and all obstacles. Perhaps most impressive is the off-road-calibrated ABS, which allows the 6,000-pound beast to slow from 95 mph in dirt to make a second-gear 90-degree turn. Back to the head-up display, not only does it clearly display the vehicle’s velocity, but it also shows what gear you’re in and the approaching redline, essential for driving as fast as possible. The one weakness that remains is at certain speeds across whoop-de-doos, the Raptor R still bounces too much. Thirty mph seems to be where the truck is most in the zone, but ye olde Ram TRX is better at smoothly skating over such things. A minor annoyance in an otherwise brilliant wannabe trophy truck.

On my third lap, I cut a corner a bit short, and the Raptor R reared up on its left tires. My default instinct was to panic, but as I rode through the event, I realized the truck was totally and completely handling the situation. It’s so capable, so controlled, so well-engineered that I became more confident in the truck’s abilities. I was reminded of when I drove the Bronco Raptor on its Johnson Valley launch. Ford should let the Ford Performance team build everything. The course ended with a downhill section leading back onto a dry lakebed. I was repeatedly able to run that section at 85 mph and then easily whoa it down to a safe stop. Amazing. Ford also set up an autocross course on the dry lake, which I naturally ran in 2WD with the rear axle locked. Days at work don’t get much better.

The final part of our Raptor R drive was a dry leg dragstrip, stop box to stop box. I was able to hit about 70 mph in 4Hi. Switching back to RWD, I saw an indicated 78 mph, meaning that on the loose dirt, the rear wheels were spinning faster than the truck was traveling. I can’t think of too many ways to have more fun inside a vehicle.

In Conclusion, Bro

If you stop and think about it, Ford Performance didn’t have to do anything to the Raptor. The Ram TRX has been put out to pasture (though it’s probably coming back), and while the new 540-hp Ram RHO outpunches the 450-hp 3.5-liter V-6 Raptor, Ford need only point to the huge numbers under the Raptor R’s hood and say, “So what?” Instead, Ford did the hard thing and actually polished up an already pretty dang shiny diamond. Would it have been nice to spend some time with the refreshed six-cylinder Raptor? Sure, but considering the two weigh roughly the same, it’s easy to imagine what a slower truck would feel like. As for the value proposition—about $80,000 for the V-6 and nearly $113,000 for the V-8, $4K price bumps—these types of toys are not cheap. Worth it? Based on the fun I had in the Raptor R, hell yeah, dude.

Plus, where’s the competition? Ram is taking a year or two off, and General Motors is steadfast in its refusal to compete in the segment. Yes, GM builds the Hummer EV, which should be in the conversation, but anti-EV hysteria is fast and furious these days, especially around Raptor folks. That rules out the basically as capable (and much quicker) Rivian R1T, as well as the rolling meme that is the Tesla Cybertruck Beast. Toyota doesn’t make a fast Tundra, and Nissan, well, come on now. The point is that at the moment, the Raptor R doesn’t have any competition in the full-size, inmates-running-the-asylum supertruck sense. Ford could be selling these for even more money if it wanted to, as evidenced by the nasty markup charges many (if not most) dealers are happily asking and sadly getting. After spending several smile- and adrenaline-filled hours with the improved 2024 F-150 Raptor R, it's unlikely prospective buyers will see relief anytime soon.