Can the new Toyota Tundra actually beat the monstrous Raptor?
Right now, we’re in the middle of our TFL Best Truck challenge — pitching some of the upcoming year’s brand new trucks against each other to see which one is the best. These new trucks are taking on the Ike Gauntlet and we’re putting them to the test off-road over the coming weeks. But before that, you know we have to put them through their paces with a classic TFL drag race!
The new faces in this challenge include the Hyundai Santa Cruz, Ford Maverick, the redesigned Nissan Frontier and the brand new (twin-turbocharged!) Toyota Tundra. Now, the Ford F-150 Raptor belongs to our friend Thomas and it’s technically new for this year rather than 2022, but it’s a solid performance benchmark for the Tundra, and it looks pretty sweet rolling on beefy 37-inch all-terrain tires from the factory.
We’re starting off with the small trucks, and working our way up the brackets depending on which trucks are the quickest. So the Hyundai Santa Cruz takes on the Ford Maverick, the winner of that race takes on the Nissan Frontier and so on. Before you count the small trucks out, bear in mind the turbocharged Santa Cruz does actually pack some respectable punch for its size. With a 2.5-liter engine, there’s 277 horsepower on tap along with 311 lb-ft of torque. It does have an 8-speed dual-clutch transmission, though, so getting off the line could prove a bit more challenging. The Maverick, with 250 horsepower and 275 lb-ft of torque is still fairly close — and (small spoiler alert) the race actually came out closer than I thought it would.
You can check out all the drag races in sequence below, and find out whether the new Tundra (granted, this is not the TRD Pro on aggressive A/Ts) is quicker than the Raptor, or at least can keep up with it.
Check out all the races and 0-60 results below!
