The alluring realm of off-road driving is one of the great freedoms we have as drivers. You can take a sports car to a racetrack and have your fun feeling like a jet-fighter pilot, or take an off-roader beyond the pavement and explore to your heart’s desire, reaching places, and experiencing views rarely seen by most who stick to urban environments. The Ford Bronco Raptor and Jeep Wrangler 392 represent the ultimate expressions of two of the world’s already exceptional off-road vehicles, ready to take you, quite literally, wherever you might want to go.
Loud, brash, excessively in-your-face monsters that reject the concrete world in favor of any other terrain, all for the sake of quenching the thirst that is human curiosity. It wasn’t that long ago the Bronco was a mundane SUV, albeit with a sporty two-door look, its off-road capabilities were not up to the task of the world’s most fierce competitors. Certainly not as capable as a Jeep Wrangler, which has been the long-time standard for all-terrain driving.
Now though the tables have turned and Ford has produced a monster of a wrangler competitor, and the folks over at Jeep just couldn’t help themselves but take things a notch up by shoving their coveted Hemi 392 V-8 under the hood. Luckily for Ford, they have an engineering team dedicated to a line of off-road focused vehicles, and applying the Raptor treatment to the Bronco has proved to be the right move to keep this off-road SUV battle pretty spicy.
10 Suspension Travel is Key
Raptor is first and foremost about suspension technology. It’s what set the original F-150 Raptor apart from the rest of the competition, and it’s more of the same here with Bronco. A raptor must not only be over-prepared for what drivers might endure on nearly any terrain, but it must overshadow the competition in travel, and capability.
The Bronco Raptor does not disappoint as its Fox Racing suspension setup gives you 13 inches of travel or 60% more in the front and 14 inches of travel or 40% more in the rear as compared to a “regular” Bronco which is already a mighty impressive machine. An added benefit of so much suspension travel is an exceptionally smooth ride, something F-150 Raptor drivers often brag about, and rightfully so. Yes, you can also jump Raptor models to a certain extent.
9 Classic Raptor Color Scheme
Code Orange on a Raptor is a must! Since 2009 the famous bold and metallic color has been associated with go-fast off-road Fords. Along the way orange accents and now a sophisticated deep blue interior accent the bright exterior. It may not seem important to some, but this has become a signature Raptor look that has built upon the last 14 years of off-roading excellence. It’s a color scheme that is synonymous with an all-terrain capability and high-speed off-roading prowess, ultimately stemming from Ford’s racing involvement with the Baja 1000 in Mexico.
Ford originally used the race as a test for the Ford F-150 Raptor to prove its brawn. Ultimately the beefed-up pickup proved to be the brute Ford set out to build, and it was the Molten Orange trucks that led the Raptor’s rise to fame. It’s no wonder with a vehicle as capable as the Bronco Raptor, Ford had to bring back the Orange in some way, and they didn’t disappoint.
8 Wider Body/ Wider Stance
Old school is new again. The only reason Ford has wide-body fenders is to contain the 8.6-inch wider physical footprint of its stance. It isn’t some visual trick to make drivers think they are getting something they aren’t. This is the real deal. In fact, it is rumored the SUV is too wide for some of Ford’s manufacturing tooling, perhaps a reason the fender extensions aren’t painted.
These are hilariously fantastic tidbits about performance vehicles that add to the Raptor's badass reputation. In all seriousness, the added width in the Raptors track helps with both high-speed stability and low-speed rock crawling while taking advantage of the larger tires, something that can’t be said about the 392 variant of Jeeps Wrangler Rubicon.
7 Ecoboost, Emphasis on The Boost!
Gone is the 2.7 liter V-6 in favor of Ford’s more potent, more anti-laggy 3.0 V-6 putting out 418 horsepower and a healthy 440 foot-pounds of torque. It really does have anti-lag too, borrowing tech from the flagship Ford GT, the Bronco Raptor is able to keep the throttle open during certain driving situations to keep boost pressure up and ready for your next request for power.
It’s a neat way to keep the engine feeling naturally aspirated during spirited driving which is a characteristic you’d want especially in off-road applications where a request for power can make or break the execution of a high-speed maneuver. This engine has proven to be plenty powerful on boost, while relatively fuel efficient when less boost is required.
6 Raptor Gets 37-Inch Tires
Drive over anything, or at least feel like you can with the Bronco Raptor's monstrous 37-inch BF Goodrich KO2s. These are widely regarded as the industry standard for high-performance off-road tires. 35-inch tires used to be the largest available option on off-roaders, even Ford's F-150 Raptor, but that now too offers a 37-inch tire package.
This, however, is not an option on the Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 392, so Raptor owners can safely say they have the more capable tire. Lager tires typically allow for more ground clearance, more capabilities in softer terrain, and better absorption of bumps and obstacles as the added sidewall protects the rest of the vehicle as it traverses.
5 The Jeep Has The V-8
Jeep says, enough with the V-6, what the people really want is a V-8. In the case of the Jeep Wrangler 392, they are absolutely correct. The 392 is the loudest, most in-your-face Wrangler ever put into production. With 470 horsepower and 470 foot-pounds of torque unleashed from its 6.4 liter Hemi V-8, Jeep isn’t messing around. This powertrain far surpasses even the anti-lag equipped Raptor turbocharged engine in power, torque, and perhaps the most important in an off-roader, the noise!
4 Wrangler is Already an Off-Road Legend
The 392 V-8 is one of the biggest upgrades to the Wrangler in decades. It might be all the Jeep needed to be seriously competitive with the Raptor as the Wrangler is, and has always been an off-road dominating vehicle. With its aggressive approach, break over, and departure angles the Jeep Wrangler Rubicon is best known for its ability to cross terrain not usually advisable for other vehicles. Other technologies/ off-road solutions are Jeep Wrangler selling points like the locking differentials and aggressive gear ratios (Raptor does this too, but Jeep has been refining these features for decades).
3 The Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 392 is Fast Off-Road And On-Road
A naturally aspirated Hemi is the perfect type of power you’d want to get you out of deep snow, sand, or any other muddy, sticky mess. The great byproduct of having all that power is, not only is it quite brisk off-road, but utterly bonkers quick on the pavement too. 0-60 mph, amazingly in a Jeep Wrangler is done away with in just 4.5 seconds.
The quarter mile is over in 13 seconds flat. These are incredible numbers from a vehicle that comes bearing the coveted, “Rubicon” name, a beacon of rock-crawling and obstacle-domination. The Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 392 really can do it all, high-speed, low-speed, off-road, and on-road.
2 Half Doors For Those Who Want Open Air Exploration With Safety
The Wrangler Rubicon 392 isn’t all danger and speed though, when it comes to safely exploring the world around you, there are times when you want some safety built in. Jeep knows this and understands we like to have open-air experiences. To compromise, Jeep has created the half door which, in conjunction with some of the convertible top options, can create the open-air feeling that naturally comes with the Jeep Wrangler experience, while still providing a level of protection.
This would be a fantastic option for those with small children, or if you tend to do off-roading in territories with brush-heavy obstacles. A little added protection from the outdoors can go a long way toward making passengers more comfortable with the experience of driving out in the wild.
1 Wrangler Offers More Top Choices
Although it is also removable, the Ford Bronco Raptor’s hardtop is the only option when it comes to controlling your roof, or inevitably, the lack thereof. Ford has struggled to make their removable tops as tough as Wranglers. This is an issue Jeep has created five different solutions for. You have the choice of a Dual-Top that offers a removable hard top section leaving drivers with a sunroof-like effect. Choice two is a Sky One-Touch power-operated roof that acts more like an electric convertible.
Options three and four are either a Mesh Sunbonnet or Solid Sunbonnet which are more like the old-school Jeep soft tops. The Final option is a flip-back style Sunrider Hardtop that is manually foldable. Some of these tops are available with Jeeps Half Doors, so the options in open-air driving are plentiful with the Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 392.