Sam CarLegion has recently tested a badass Ford Bronco in the form of the Raptor, which is the most powerful application of the Ford Motor Company's 3.0-liter Nano V6 engine. Derived from the 2.7-liter mill that's available in the Bronco as well, the biggest member of the family produces a hugely respectable 418 horsepower and 440 pound-feet (597 Nm) of twist in the rather expensive Raptor.
Sam couldn't end his review of the Bronco Raptor without racing it against another 3.0-liter Nano V6-engined sport utility vehicle, that SUV being the Ford Explorer ST. A unibody rather than a body-on-frame design, Explorer ST is officially rated at 400 horsepower and 415 pound-feet (542 Nm).
Both of them feature 10-speed autos from the 10R family, as in the 10R60, with the 60 suffix meaning around 600 Nm (443 pound-feet) of maximum torque. Said tranny is a development of the 10R80, whose heavy-duty sibling is dubbed 10R140. Despite its name, this fellow can handle the 1,627 Nm (1,200 pound-feet) produced by the Super Duty's high-output Power Stroke turbo diesel V8.
Turning our attention back to the six-cylinder sport utility vehicles, it goes without saying that Explorer ST is more at home on the road. That makes it far superior to the go-anywhere Bronco Raptor in a straight line, and we also have to remember that Explorer ST is quite a bit lighter. Ford quotes 4,631 pounds (around 2,100 kilograms) with rear-wheel drive, but Sam CarLegion sourced an all-wheel-drive specimen for this quarter-mile showdown.
When it came out for model year 2022, the Braptor was advertised with a base curb weight of 5,733 pounds (2,600 kilograms). In other words, we're dealing with a tremendous curb weight difference. Also remember that Braptors come with four-wheel drive rather than all-wheel drive, for the Bronco Raptor is desert running and boulder crawling.
Given the aforementioned, it's quite surprising to see a Braptor digging better than an Explorer ST in a drag race. However, the unibody sport utility vehicle immediately catches up and proceeds to put a serious distance between it and the Bronco Raptor as they approach the quarter-mile marker.
Photo: Sam CarLegion on YouTube
From a rolling start, it's even more obvious that Explorer ST is the better performance-oriented SUV for straight-line shenanigans. Had Sam CarLegion raced these vehicles on a longer stretch of tarmac, Explorer ST would have shamed the Bronco Raptor with its higher maximum speed.
Explorer ST is limited from the factory at 146 miles per hour (235 kilometers per hour), whereas the Bronco Raptor can't do more than 114 miles per hour (183 kilometers per hour) without defeating the limiter. Part of the reason why Ford limits the Bronco Raptor to 114 miles per hour is the sheer weight of the damn thing, and the other part comes in the form of 37-inch rubber of the A/T variety.
The BFGoodrich tires are shared with the F-150 Raptor 37 and F-150 Raptor R, whereas the Ranger Raptor comes with 33s in all markets where it's available. There's no 35- or 37-inch tire package to speak of, at least not for the time being. Emphasis on for the time being because of the Braptor, which is closely related to the 2024 Ford Ranger Raptor.
Although Sam has many words of praise for the Bronco Raptor, the proverbial elephant in the room is pricing. $90,035 from the outset is a lot of money for this kind of vehicle, and the same can be said about Jeep's 392 HEMI-engined Rubicon 392. That kind of money would get you an F-150 Raptor 37, whereas the Ranger Raptor kicks off at $55,620.
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. Full profile
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