Modified Ford F-150 Raptor Pickups Try to Dethrone Ram TRX in Drag Race

By Brett Foote - February 1, 2021

Can a supercharged first-gen F-150 Raptor or tuned second-gen take down the mighty quick, brand new Ram TRX?

Much ado has been made about the new Ram TRX, currently the world’s most powerful and quickest production pickup. The TRX is also a thinly-veiled shot at the Ford F-150 Raptor, bearing a couple of Easter eggs that hint at its supremacy over Ford’s venerable off-roader. That pole position is bound to change when the 2021 F-150 Raptor debuts this week with Predator power, but what about folks that own a first- or second-gen model?

Well, the good news is, the aftermarket has more than a few solutions for making an older Raptor more competitive with the Ram TRX. That much is clearly on display in this video from The Fast Lane Truck, which pits a stock 2020 Raptor, a tuned 2018 Raptor, and a supercharged first-gen 2012 Raptor against the brand new Ram TRX in a drag race showdown for the ages.

The two second-gen Raptors utilize Ford’s twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6, which provides 450 horsepower in stock form, but around 600 when tuned. The modified Raptor makes that extra juice thanks to an MPT tune, Corsa cross-pipe exhaust, and E30 fuel. On the other side, we have the blown first-gen, which pumps out 700 horsepower from its modified 6.2-liter V8 with a Roush supercharger and JDM tune.

All three of these trucks have one specific purpose on this particular day – take down the TRX, which is powered by FCA’s 6.2-liter Hemi V8 that produces 702 horsepower and 650 pound-feet of torque. Transmission-wise, it is running an eight-speed automatic gearbox, while the first-gen Raptor has a six-speed and the newer Fords have 10-speed transmissions.

The first in a series of bracket-style drag races pits the two second-gen Raptors against each other, with predictable results. The tuned pickup simply trounces the stock one, and then it also surprisingly takes down the supercharged first-gen by a country mile. So it moves on to face the TRX, and those results are surprisingly close as well, as the Ram takes the win by a mere bumper the first time the two line up.

There are two caveats here worth mentioning – the first-gen Raptor has 200,000 miles on the clock, and the tuned second-gen is running larger 37-inch tires, which TFTL thinks made the difference here. “The Raptors did well, but not well enough,” TFLT concludes. “You had me just by like a foot, you know, two feet. I think if the tuned truck didn’t have those big 37s it would be a different story.”

Regardless, it’s encouraging to see the tuned Raptor come so close to beating a truck that has roughly a hundred more horsepower, and it only has us itching to see how the third-gen Raptor performs when it arrives later this year.