Ford is waving the white flag at Jeep. The Bronco Raptor R and Ranger Raptor R that Blue Oval fans have been waiting for? Looks like they’ll stay a fantasy. Ford Racing Production Vehicles Chief Engineer Carl Widmann told Road & Track flat-out there are no such plans. And then he dropped something even more telling: the Ranger Raptor, in his view, is already too powerful.
Too powerful? We’re talking about a pickup with a 3.0-liter EcoBoost V6 making 405 hp and 430 lb-ft. For the midsize segment, that really is outer space. Chevrolet Colorado, GMC Canyon and Nissan Frontier top out at 310 hp, Toyota Tacoma at 326 hp, and Jeep Gladiator is stuck at 285 hp. Widmann is basically right — the Ranger Raptor has no real rivals in its class.
The Bronco is a different story. Here Ford runs straight into Jeep Wrangler — and loses. The Wrangler 392 packs a 6.4-liter V8 with 470 hp and 470 lb-ft. The Bronco Raptor answers with 418 hp and 440 lb-ft. A fifty-horsepower gap isn’t the kind of number you can spin away in a press release.
Both trucks start at the same line — $79,995 before destination. Same price, same charisma, same buyer. The V8 belongs to Jeep alone. As long as Ford refuses to build a Bronco Raptor R, the Wrangler 392 rules the top of the 2026 off-road SUV class unopposed. And by Widmann’s own words, it’s going to stay that way for a while.
