F-150 Raptor Leaves the Colorado Bison for the Buzzards
Chevy’s new truck may be quite the rock crawler, but the Raptor is meant for those who prefer to fly above the muck.
Before the mammals took over, the raptor made quick work of rat-like creatures and other prey, thanks to its small size, and the enhanced aero its feathers provided for extra speed above hills, dunes and the like.
The mammals may have grown since then, but so, too, has the Raptor. TopSpeed recently pitted the F-150 Raptor against Chevy’s new off-road wonder, the Colorado ZR2 Bison. The results should surprise no one.
First, let’s look at this thing. Unlike the in-house effort Ford put into building the Raptor, Chevy turned to off-road outfitter American Expedition Vehicles to build its Bison. That means things like custom front and rear bumpers and a five-piece skid-plate setup. It also has a pair of powertrain options, one gas, one diesel. The gas V6 is slightly bigger than the Raptor’s 3.5-liter V6, but it doesn’t pack the punch of the EcoBoost, coming in at 306 horses and 295 lb-ft of torque. The diesel option is worse (195 horses and 396 lb-ft of torque), and none are backed by anything like Ford’s 10-speed automatic.
Meanwhile, the Raptor’s twin-turbo V6 acts like its namesake’s feathers, pushing the pickup over sand dunes and bumps with 450 horsepower and 510 lb-ft of torque propelling the big all-terrain tires. The Raptor also hauls and tows more than the lumbering Bison, pulling 12,200 pounds and carrying over 3,000 pounds in the bed compared to the Bison’s weak 7,700 pounds towing capacity and 1,000-pound payload.
While the Bison does one thing better than the Raptor (be a lumbering rock crawler), the Raptor bests the metal ungulate in every other way, from having a better interior to a more powerful engine. We think there’s going to be plenty of bison on the menu pretty soon for Ford’s high-performance reptile.
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