2022 Ford Bronco Raptor: This Big Bronco Is Here

Jun 20 2022

Roadshow

Speaker 1: This truck should not be able to do this. And here we are doing it. Like Speaker 2: It’s nuts.

Speaker 1: You guys today is finally the day. I’m finally getting my chance behind the wheel of the Ford Bronco Raptor. And I couldn’t be more excited.

Now we’ve come out here to Johnson valley, home of the infamous king of the hammers race. Now we’re gonna do some high speed stuff. We’re gonna do some rock crawling and I’m talking real rock crawling, and I might even get to jump it.

So put on my helmet, let’s [00:00:30] go have some fun. Speaker 1: So Ford really wanted to model this vehicle after the ultra four rigs of king of the hammers. And what’s cool about that is that those rigs, they have to do both high speed desert running and low speed rock crawling.

So they have to be jacks of all trades and kind of masters of both. So what I’ve got here is a three litter twin turbo V6 pushing out 418 horsepower and 440 [00:01:00] pound feet of torque. And with these massive 37 inch tires that are standard by the way, standard BFG K oh 2 37 inch tires.

That means that I’ve got really great approach departure and ground clearance. Ground clearance here is about 13.1 inches approach angle about 47 degrees. Breakover angle 30 degrees and departure angle of 40 degrees.

And that’s even with this four door, body style. Now this thing is a lot wider than your standard Bronco, about 10 inches. Speaker 1: And I’ve got a crawl ratio of, [00:01:30] uh, 67 68 to one.

So it’s gonna be able to scramble pretty much anything that you can throw at it. Of course, I’ve got all the standard modes, right? Like normal sport.

But what I’m really interested in here is Baja mode and rock crawl mode. So rock crawl, mode’s gonna put this thing in to low gear automatically. I don’t have to do anything and it will also disconnect my swaybar.

So I’ve got a little bit more articulation because when you’re rock crawling and you’ve got an independent front suspension, sometimes [00:02:00] that makes it a little bit harder. But having that swaybar disconnect gives you just a little bit more articulation so that you can keep bolt tires on the rocks, get the most grip possible and get up and out of your way. So where we’re on our way to right now is a trail called her problem.

And this is part of the king of the hammers race. And you guys, it is no joke when they told me we were going up this, I was like, there, no way, we’re gonna bring a stock up that like you guys are crazy. And yeah, it’s called her problem because all of the trails out here are named like by 12 year old [00:02:30] boys.

So there’s like chocolate thunder, backdoor. Like they’re all ridiculous, but they’re all very, very challenging. Speaker 1: All right, I’m done with my awesome rock crawling.

And I wanted to give you guys a quick walk around because this is the Raptor, right? And as such, it is way bigger than your standard Bronco. I mean, look at how wide this thing is with these massive fender flares on it.

It’s so wide that it actually makes the greenhouse look just proportionally a little tiny bit too small. But what I do love about the [00:03:00] Bronco Raptor is that everything on here is functional. I mean, I’ve got side vents here for cooling.

These are functional vents in the hood scoop completely functional. There’s no fakey MC Faine that’s happening on this vehicle tires, like I said, 37 inch BFG, K O twos. Now these are great for all around desert running, right?

You can do sand, you can do dirt, you can do rocks, but they’re not so great in the mud. Speaker 1: So if you know, you’re gonna get into some of the wet, sticky stuff, you’re gonna wanna update your tires. Uh, we do have a side step here.

You can easily take it off. I highly recommend [00:03:30] doing that when you get into the rocks, because it does hinder your angles just a tiny little bit. And my only problem here with the 30 sevens is that it really hinders your visibility in the rear.

I mean, from the driver’s side, all I see is like a third of a tire and then a giant brake light. I can’t really see what’s happening behind me, but you know what? That doesn’t matter.

Cuz we’re gonna head out here onto the flats. We’re gonna do some high speed stuff. Speaker 1: All right.

Ford’s put me on an auto cross [00:04:00] course in a chip on helmet. So let’s see what happens. And here we go.

3, 2, 1 full thro go. Now we’re gonna be hard on the brakes to test on this abs. Oh, that’s pretty good.

Normally you get abs and it’s like, that was actually really, really smooth. And I was very happy with that. All right, here we go.

A little bit more so there’s no, whoops, here. There’s no ruts. There’s no bumps.

So this is all just about handling I’m in Baja mode. <laugh> [00:04:30] and I’ve kept it in four wheel drive because if not this thing is gonna drift around like a son of a bitch. I’ll tell you that right now. <laugh> oh, I should been whiter. There should have been whiter there.

Yep. That’s a push. That’s a push.

Here we go. All right. Now, is this an auto cross vehicle?

I mean, no. Is it still fun? Heck yeah, you can actually hear those BFG squealing a little bit.

All right. You into with little slalom. Let’s see how we can get this weight transfer wound. [00:05:00] You see that on the camera?

I can feel in my body. Speaker 1: Oh, that’s fun. I wanna do it again.

All right. So it wouldn’t be a Raptor if I didn’t get to drive really super fast in the desert <laugh> and here we go. Now here’s where these Fox 3.1 inch live valve shocks really do their magic because they can like react and fix the dampening like 500 times a second.

I mean, before I’ve even registered [00:05:30] a change in the terrain, these things know what’s going on, which is awesome. Now I’ve got 13 inches of travel in the front 14 inches of travel in the rear. So I can really get through these wolves and still keep a contact patch on the ground.

So I’m gonna have a lot of good grip and I’m gonna feel really stable. I mean, right now I’m going through here at 62, 66, 70, 70 miles an hour. And like, I feel fine.

I’ve been Baja mode. Speaker 1: So it means that I’ve blocked out the [00:06:00] top five years. So it’s really good at staying in the power man.

Everything is Baja mode. So sports doing really good suspension. Let’s slow down a little bit faster for this turn.

Shall we? Yep. So I guess the big question on the lake bed is how does this compare to the Jeep Wrangler 3 92?

I mean, that’s up on power, but when you look at the specs, I’m not sure which one is gonna come out on top.

I can tell you however that the Bronco Raptor starts it right around £70,000, including destination.

And you’re [00:06:30] gonna see it in dealerships real soon.