If there’s one thing SEMA guarantees every year, it’s a maximalist paradise with full sensory overload—chrome that burns under event hall lighting, bass thumps that rattle the floor, and trucks so tall you already know the guys who would buy them. But even amid the neon chaos of Las Vegas, Ford managed to drop jaws with something truly buck wild: a 900-plus horsepower F-150 Raptor R straight from the blue oval’s own skunkworks.
Ford’s 900-HP F-150 Raptor R
The Ford Performance Parts team rolled into SEMA with a project truck that redefines the phrase “factory-backed insanity.” It starts with the Raptor R’s already outrageous 5.2-liter supercharged V-8, a powerplant lifted from the Shelby GT500 and detuned (if you can call 720 horsepower “detuned”) for off-road duty. Then Ford’s engineers went bananas and bolted on a 3.0-liter Whipple supercharger—the largest ever fitted to a factory Ford—and cranked that output north of 900 horsepower.
This isn’t some vaporware build meant to live its life under display lights. Ford says the Whipple kit is being engineered to the same durability standards as anything rolling off the production line. When installed by a Ford dealer or an ASE-certified tech, it’ll even come with a 3-year, 36,000-mile Ford Performance Parts warranty. Oh, and it’s expected to be 50-state legal. So yes, you could theoretically drive your 900-horsepower desert destroyer to a California smog check without breaking a sweat.
Ford Did More Than Just Add Horsepower
Of course, a truck this wild deserves the full SEMA treatment, yet Ford pulled up a little short. The Raptor R project wears a gloss carbon fiber appearance package, but the paint scheme is pretty understated. The Raptor R looks more like a local pressure washing business’s truck than a racing truck.
Sounding its arrival is a Borla extreme cat-back exhaust that sounds like it gargles with swamp water. METHOD Black wheels tie it all together, ready for anything from Baja blasts to valet duty at the Wynn. And because no one should fear the dark, the truck’s been outfitted with a RIGID lighting suite bright enough to summon UFOs—hood hinge-mounted beams, underbody rock lights, the works.
Ford Didn’t Bring A Concept Truck To SEMA
Matt Simpson, Ford’s Executive Director of Accessories and Personalization, summed up the build with the kind of understatement only a Ford exec can pull off: “We wanted to create a blueprint for the ultimate factory-backed Raptor.” Translation: this is the muscle truck equivalent of Ford flexing in the mirror.
Now, before you start wiring money to your dealer, a reality check: this exact truck isn’t for sale. It’s a one-off showpiece meant to demonstrate what’s possible through Ford Performance Parts. But the message is clear—Ford’s not content with letting the aftermarket have all the fun.
In a sea of over-the-top builds at SEMA, the Raptor R project stands apart for one simple reason: it’s not pretending to be wild. A 900-horsepower, warranty-backed, emissions-legal reminder that Ford still knows how to make us feel something for our cars and trucks again.
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