Everybody knows that trucks are big these days—bigger than ever. A lot of people will say it’s for the worst, while others are just happy to be alive in a time where off-roaders come with 35s from the factory. By the looks of it, those in the latter camp will be thrilled with the Ford Bronco Raptor. Photos posted to the Bronco6x Facebook group show the rig towering over normal traffic.
That’s largely because of its 37-inch BF Goodrich tires, which are spotted all around and on the back of the prototype that was near Detroit a few days ago. Now, we’ve seen photos of the Bronco Raptor before—Ford itself has released some, while its in-house Bronco Nation blog already shared a few others. It didn’t look small in any of those images, but then again, we never had a Ford Escape or even a Jeep Gladiator to scale it up against.
The difference between the Gladiator and Bronco Raptor at the top of this post wouldn’t be so stark if the Jeep was a Rubicon or Mojave model. Since it’s neither of those, it rides a little lower, but it’s still a 4×4 truck. At a stoplight, the high-po Bronco nearly dwarfs it.
It’s hard to say exactly how tall the new Ford will sit off the ground, but we know that Broncos with the Sasquatch package tout 11.6 inches of ground clearance. Figure in tires that are even taller and it wouldn’t be surprising to see that stat exceed 13 inches. What’s more, a normal Bronco Sasquatch’s roof is roughly 74 inches high, so the Raptor variant could easily crack 76 inches.
To give you a better frame of reference, a 2022 Honda Civic is 55.7 inches tall.
Since the Bronco Raptor has three amber lights mounted in the middle of the grille, we also know it’s more than 80 inches wide. These are required by law for any vehicle exceeding that width, and the huge fender flares seen here are also a pretty good indication. They’re boxy as all get out because they kinda have to be.
It hasn’t been announced yet exactly which powertrain the 2023 Bronco Raptor will pack, though we know it’ll be a turbocharged V6. Ford could decide to hop up the Bronco’s already available 2.7-liter EcoBoost, or slap in the Explorer ST’s 3.0-liter. Either way, we’re expecting more than 400 horsepower, and it wouldn’t be a huge surprise to see nearly 500 pound-feet of torque.
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