A few leaked photographs seem to confirm that the Predator V8 will be the engine of choice for the highly anticipated Ford F-150 Raptor R. While we wait on official figures from Ford itself, we can be sure that this engine is capable of overtaking the RAM TRX when it comes to brute horsepower. Many past reports here have highlighted the fact that a V8 would ultimately be under the hood of the new F-150 Raptor R. What has been unknown is exactly which V8 Ford would use for the new beast. Theories about an all-new V8 or major changes to the Predator V8 swirled but now they’re all as dead as the dinosaurs.
These two leaked images from Instagram
user Raptor Connection show both the engine and the official build rotation
sheet in a Ford facility. In the first post, uploaded just three days ago, we
see the build sheet with the words Raptor C and 5.2L listed. Cody, the guy at
the forefront of that Instagram account, confirmed that he didn’t
have any doubt that these images are the real deal.
That 5.2-liter engine is going to be the
Predator V8 which makes 760 hp in the Shelby GT500 Mustang. That’s notably more
than the 702 hp created by the supercharged V8 in the RAM 1500 TRX, even though
we do not know the state of tune that will be chosen for the Raptor R. At this
early stage there’s also really no way of knowing what Ford plans to charge for
the F-150 Raptor R. Still, we can confirm a couple of details. Firstly, the
engine used for the Shelby GT500 is actually a performance part that can be had
on Ford’s own website.
There, it goes for US$ 27,295, so it’s
possible that the Raptor R will be close to the RAM TRX’s price around US$ 70,000
or more. Secondly, we’re pretty sure that despite Ford CEO’s warning against
markups, the new Raptor R will likely be hard to find anywhere close to MSRP.
