A Ford Raptor is not exactly in the same league as the Jeep Wrangler Rubicon, but it still makes for a fun drag race.
Just about the only thing these two vehicles have in common is the fact they’re both turbocharged and they both have all-wheel-drive. Everything else couldn’t be more different.
For starters, the Raptor is a big full-size pickup truck while the Wrangler is, at best, a mid-size SUV (although most Jeep owners cringe at the thought of calling their beloved utility vehicle a mere SUV). The Raptor also has two turbochargers compared to the Wrangler’s single turbo that forces air into a fuel-efficient 2.0-L four-cylinder motor.
The Raptor usually makes 450 hp from its 3.5-L twin-turbo V6, but the one featured here in Carwow’s video has actually been tuned by Clive Sutton to produce 520 hp and 515 lb-ft of torque. This likely weighs down the Raptor a teensy bit more than usual, but that’s still almost twice as much power as the Wrangler’s 272 horses.
You don’t have to be a mathematician to see where the numbers are going here. If a Raptor has twice as much power but only weighs less than a quarter more than the Wrangler, then it’s going to win almost any race between the two.
However, the Wrangler has a superpower. Unlike the Raptor, Jeep’s iconic 4x4 allows the driver to remove almost everything. Doors, roof, and spare tire can all be ejected in the name of greater speed.
Or more accurately, in the name of weight reduction. Not having doors or a roof means that the Wrangler also makes a lot more drag as the car accelerates, so the benefit to removing all those bits and pieces to make it go faster is questionable.
And as you can see in the video above, it didn’t do a whole lot to help the Wrangler against its larger foe. Although we hasten to point out that the Raptor didn’t absolutely crush the Jeep, it was still a foregone conclusion who would win this race.
But which truck has the better brakes? Ah, for that you’ll have to click the video above.