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UPDATE: 2017 Ford F-150 Raptor Producing "Nigh On 600 Brake Horsepower"

Slated to be built at the Ford Dearborn Truck Plant and going on sale fall 2016, the 2017 Ford F-150 Raptor dropped the SVT moniker and a couple of cylinders compared to its forerunner. Despite this, what we’ve been dealt with by the Blue Oval is, all things considered, the best factory-spec full-size pickup truck sand dune runner ever made.
2017 Ford F-150 Raptor 11 photos
Photo: Ford
2017 Ford F-150 Raptor2017 Ford F-150 Raptor2017 Ford F-150 Raptor2017 Ford F-150 Raptor2017 Ford F-150 Raptor2017 Ford F-150 Raptor2017 Ford F-150 Raptor2017 Ford F-150 Raptor2017 Ford F-150 Raptor2017 Ford F-150 Raptor details from BBC Top Gear Cars of The Year 2014 via HorsepowerKings.com
So here’s the deal with the 2017 model year - it’s got both all-wheel drive and four-wheel drive (not kidding), the old naturally aspirated V8 has been swapped for an all-new 3.5-liter V6 EcoBoost (we hear the 2017 Ford GT uses the mill too, slated to push “over 600 horsepower” with this application), and cog-swapping is dealt by a new 10-speed automatic transmission.

When it was presented at the Detroit Auto Show, the 2017 Ford F-150 Raptor was detailed as having an “all-new, high-output 3.5-liter EcoBoost engine with more horsepower and torque than current Raptor’s 411 horsepower and 434 lb-ft 6.2-liter V8.” As you and any other petrolhead would expect, the all-new unit has what it takes to push a lot of force-fed horsepower on the sand dune-grade pickup truck.

Naturally, Blue Oval engineers will never crank out the output to the “over 600 horsepower” promised for the 2017 Ford GT. Our expectations were further solidified by the latest issue of Top Gear Magazine’s Cars of the Year. As discovered by HorsepowerKings, this issue of Top Gear alleges: “early numbers suggest they are already producing nigh on 600 bhp.” In American money, 600 bhp equals to 591.7 HP. Excited much?

Editor’s note: be it under 550 HP or over, the 2017 Ford F-150 Raptor is the new off-road truck yardstick.

UPDATE: in a televised interview on Fox Sports, AutomobileMag's Joseph Capparella claims that Ford global product development vice president Raj Nair let the cat out of the bag: 450 horsepower. That's it!

It's not the 550-pony truck we were expecting, but still, it's better than the old SVT Raptor's 411 HP. Speaking of the outgoing Raptor, the 6.2-liter V8 made 434 lb-ft (588 Nm) of torque. Considering the highest torque figure produced by the 3.5-liter EcoBoost of the 2015 F-150 stands at 420 lb-ft (569 Nm), there's a lot to look forward to with the all-new 3.5-liter V6 EcoBoost of the 2017 Ford F-150 Raptor.

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About the author: Mircea Panait
Mircea Panait profile photo

After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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