Ford’s engineers also benchmarked the exhaust note against the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio.
The next-generation 2021 Ford F-150 Raptor is finally here as the Blue Oval lifted the wraps off its redesigned performance pickup this week. As expected, the new Raptor packs a 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6 just like its predecessor. Surprisingly, Ford hasn’t confirmed the power output but it should have more power than the outgoing model, which is rated at 450 horsepower and 510 lb-ft of torque.
Thanks to an active valve dual exhaust, the Raptor’s EcoBoost V6 sounds more ferocious than ever before. Speaking with Road and Track, the Raptor’s powertrain system engineer, Jeff Nichols, revealed that Ford engineers spent a lot of time and investment to make the Raptor’s roar sound more aggressive.
Ford
Ford
“We went and looked at some traditional equal-length systems and some exhaust characters we felt were very good within the industry. We looked at the Alfa Romeo Quadrifoglio series of vehicles, and we did some benchmarking on the Nissan GT-R as well,” said Nichols. To make the new Raptor sound more savage, engineers fitted an equal-length dual exhaust system and an X-pipe but this layout wasn’t easy to engineer.
As a solution, Ford added a “trombone loop” on the passenger-side exhaust to give the two sides the same length. Packaging these components also proved to be challenging without compromising the truck’s ground clearance and departure angle.
“Typically, you put the mufflers at the rear, you’ve got four sets of tailpipes, and you have a quiet side and a loud side. We really didn’t want to impact the departure angle for the truck. The packaging meant that we wanted to put everything in the middle of the truck where we thought was best,” Nichols explained.
Four settings are available for the Raptor’s new active exhaust: Quiet, Normal, Sport, and Baja. No matter which setting you choose, Nichols is confident the Raptor’s exhaust note is “very loud” and “sounds really, really good.”
After the standard Raptor arrives, Ford will launch an even more extreme V8-powered “R” version next year that will take on the Ram 1500 TRX. This high-performance version is expected to utilize the same supercharged V8 as the Mustang Shelby GT500 tuned to produce around 750 horsepower.
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