New Truck News | V8 Powered F-150 Spied, 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz Interior Spy Photos, and The All New 2021 Jeep Gladiator Texas Trail

V8-powered 2022 Ford F-150 Raptor R spied testing alongside Ram TRX

These spy photos indicate that Ford is benchmarking Ram’s Hellcat pickup

Spy photographers captured Ford engineers testing what appears to be a 2022 F-150 Raptor R alongside a Ram TRX this week, giving us a sneak preview of the first major battle in the coming war for super-pickup dominance.

Ford has remained tight-lipped about the Raptor R’s performance specs. We know only that it will be powered by a V8 (likely a variant of the 760-horsepower, supercharged 5.2-liter unit from the Ford Mustang Shelby GT500), and that it’s due to break cover some time later this year. Given that the 702-horsepower Ram TRX will be the Raptor R’s only competition (and pretty much the only reason it exists in the first place), Ford’s decision to benchmark the fast Ram is a bit of a no-brainer.

The Blue Oval’s performance engineers have years of practice when it comes to building high-performance off-road trucks, so despite Ram’s first-strike advantage and Hellcat trump card, the TRX might actually be the underdog in this fight. Why? Well, based on what we’ve seen of the EcoBoost-powered 2021 Raptor so far, it should weigh at least 500-600 pounds less than the TRX, and while we expect that gap to shrink with the addition of the bigger engine, it’s likely that it will still favor Ford, and perhaps significantly.

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2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz interior captured in new spy photos

It’s a whole lot of Tucson, but with a few obvious differences

Today we got a pretty good look at the 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz pickup Sport Adventure Vehicle from the outside ahead of its official reveal April 15, but fittingly, spies have managed to catch one in the wild sporting what appears to be a complete interior. While quite a bit of it is still exposed, these shots give us plenty to work with.

For starters, if there was any lingering question as to just how big this pickup is going to be, we appear to have settled it. A great deal of what we see here appears to be lifted directly from the 2022 Tucson crossover, meaning the Santa Cruz should be a true compact pickup in the vein of the also-new Ford Maverick, not a midsize like Honda’s Ridgeline.

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2021 Jeep Gladiator Texas Trail attempts to win the heart of Texas

It’s available exclusively in the Lone Star state

Ram isn’t the only Stellantis brand that gets a Texas-themed truck anymore. Today, Jeep joins the fray with the Gladiator Texas Trail. It’s a special edition Gladiator pickup with a specific set of equipment and an appearance package to match. Plus, it’s exclusively available in Texas.

“The Jeep brand recognizes that Texas and America’s southwest are the center of the truck universe,” said Jim Morrison, vice president of Jeep Brand North America.

The Texas Trail can be picked out by its “Texas Trail” hood graphic and “1836” tailgate decal. While the latter is not visible in these initial photos, Jeep does promise it’ll be there — 1836 is a reference to the year of the Texas Declaration of Independence. Inside, the black leather seats are embossed with the Texas Trail graphic.

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