Ford Raptor R vs Rivian R1S (by DCE Optima Battery) vs Lightning - Drag Race

[teddyang]

Great to see the interest in the video here. Lots of speculation here as well and I can probably fill in some of the blanks. The Raptor R is not the same thing as a Raptor by a long shot, starting with a 700-horsepower supercharged V8, versus the 450-horsepower twin-turbo V6 in the standard Raptor. The R also has slightly larger 37-inch tires. Both the R1S and the Raptor R were running BFGoodrich All-Terrain tires.

We ran a bunch of races out there and the R1S beat the Raptor R in several of them, including one earlier in that video. However, when the SOC dropped below 80%, the Raptor R came out on top. All of the drivers were very experienced. The driver (and owner) of the R1S is Mike Weiss of DCE by Weistec and he has forgotten more about drag racing than most people will ever know.

We had an R1T out there, but it was loaded down with overlanding gear and Mike said the R1S was lighter. Knowing the owner of the R1T and Mike, I suspect the two of them have spent as much time racing those two trucks as any two Rivians in the country.

Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries

Thanks for the context! It's great to know that you're on this forum!

Sponsored

 

[Thedude]

@OptimaJim what else did you guys get up to out there? Been plenty of shit talking about the Optima Rivian that never left the generator on other forums.

 

[teddyang]

just found this vid where you can see the difference between a Raptor R and a Raptor in a drag race (also has a TRX and a Hummer EV but sadly no Rivian)...

 

[OptimaJim]

@Thedude both of our Rivians were out in Johnson Valley for a couple weeks surrounding King of the Hammers. I don't know what people are saying all over the Internet, but these trucks have garnered more than a few critics since they debuted at the SEMA Show last year. It started with people saying they were SEMA Show queens that would never leave paved roads (that happened immediately after the SEMA Show ended). Then we took them on a 20-mile trail run with a bunch of other EV owners, drag raced the R1S on a lake bed and generally beat on these things out in the desert and the goal posts are getting moved again.

We had the R1S drag a 5,000-pound trailer up the hill next to Chocolate Thunder and got it hung up and needed to get yanked out (which we did). Someone may have wanted to make a big deal out of that, but the truth is no one else was even thinking about pulling any kind of trailer up that hill with any vehicle of any kind. We have photo albums with pictures of both Rivians getting driven all over Johnson Valley and plenty of photos of other EVs using the charging stations, so I don't know why anyone would falsely suggest otherwise.

Sponsored