Yeah, the era of limited run ‘Cobra R’ models has past in this context. There is actually competition for the Raptor now and everyone who isn’t objectively looking at the two trucks is ragging on the TRX for being fast, but not handling well, but the recently posted comparison here didn’t show the TRX to be that weak, and in fact it may not handle as well as the Raptor, but then again, the Raptor isn’t as quick or fast.
The 2 trucks are not that radically apart from one another. So, Ford could
build limited run, streetable off road, s/c v8 powered F150 based Raptor, MSRP of low 6 figures. IMO this would be a sales and marketing fail. TRX is less expensive and, they’re not going to sit on their laurels waiting to be one upped by Ford.
Build a really limited run- less than 1000 units truck there’s no way the TRX can match. MRSP 130-150k. They would sell, but they wouldn’t get the market share from the TRX.
Shoehorn the 5.2 SC into the existing Raptor changing only what needs changing - priced even with the TRX, to no more than 5k over. This would retain market share from Raptor loyalists and poach TRX customers away who used to be Raptor loyalists.
Ford has a ‘slow moving’ target here. The TRX is out there and Ford already has most of the platform readily available to them. The question is how much these potential sales mean to them.
Bragging rights don’t pay bills, truck sales do.