Join us as we get an on and off-road look at the 2023 Ford F-150 Raptor R and 2022 Ram 1500 TRX.

Fans of old-school American muscle may weep and gnash their teeth at the advent of modern, electrified powertrains. But despite protestations to the contrary, there’s maybe never been a better time to be a supercharged V8. Blown eight-cylinder engines now appear in everything ranging from muscle sedans to track-ready sports cars, from family-sized SUVs to desert-ready supertrucks.

It’s the latter category that’s piqued my interest most lately. The Ford F-150 Raptor has been a fixture of high-speed off-roading since its debut in 2010, but for its second generation, Ford ditched the V8 in favor of a downsized and twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6. That move left some enthusiasts cold, but luckily, Ram and its parent company Stellantis dropped the legendary Hellcat 6.2-liter V8 under the hood of the TRX, a wide-body, long-travel version of the 1500 pickup. The Raptor suddenly had some company, a rival whose supercharged engine note inspires a lot more hoonery than the powerful, but aurally challenged, Ecoboost V6.

The Blue Oval soon returned volley with the 2023 F-150 Raptor R, which also gets a heart transplant courtesy of a muscular corporate sibling – in this case, the supercharged 5.2-liter V8 from the Ford Mustang Shelby GT500. With 700 horsepower under the hood, the Raptor R is down (barely) on the TRX, but it compensates with 400 fewer pounds of body fat. With nearly identical ground clearance and wheel travel, picking a winner from only a spec chart is all but impossible. Guess I’ll have to hit the road (and the dirt) to figure out which of these dinosaurs is the best.

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