There will never be another time when those of us in the business of reviewing new vehicles will have the sheer excitement of those days back about 1970, when factories competed with each other to build the most potent muscle cars to race each other in events like the Trans-Am road-racing series.

Back then, you could got a showroom and select a Ford Mustang, Chevrolet Camaro, Dodge Challenger, Plymouth Barracuda, Pontiac Firebird, or American Motors Javelin and approximate the thrills great drivers like Parnelli Jones, Mark Donahue, Dan Gurney, Swede Savage, Sam Posey and others gave us — and themselves — to battle for supremacy.

As a young reporter recently married and with a young son named Jack, we compared all of them for my road-test reviews in the Minneapolis Tribune, and decided to purchase a Mustang Boss 302, which had a specially-built 5-liter V8 that was the closest thing to a race engine in a stock, street vehicle. That 1970 Boss 302 was extremely quick, handled with almost-eerie precision and revved to over 6,000 RPMs, emitting a low roar that built until converting to a high-pitched whistle as you neared the red line.

The only place you can find contemporary manufacturers’ competition for all-out performance nowadays has transferred to pickup trucks, which shouldn’t be surprising, because pickups are the ultimate pure-american vehicle, and the top models from Ford, Chevrolet, Ram, Toyota and Nissan are trying every year to outdo each other to build the baddest, most imposing pickups on the planet. For several years, Ford built a specialty off-road F-150 that added a widened and toughened new dimension to the pickup world, and they called in the Raptor. It came with all sorts of ultimate off-road features to upgrade its suspension, terrain-clearance, shock travel to climb the toughest terrain, and anything else imaginable. It also came with a modern 3.5-liter dual-overhead cam V6 that was turbocharged to EcoBoost standards, and it was declared king of the hill(s). For $78,545, you could rule the roads, and the off-roads.

But then a couple years ago, Dodge sent its Ram division off to take on the Raptor, and the top Ram entry was the TRX, which took the monster 6.2-liter Semi V8 our of the Charger/Challenger Hellcat models and put out 702 supercharged horsepower, which left the Raptor in its rear-view mirrors with “only” 450 horses. Never mind that the Raptor still  had a clear edge in refinement for its comfort and compliance, the challenge was not to be ignored by Ford that the TRX could whip the Raptor from 0-60, covering that run in 4.1 seconds by several tests. For Ford engineers went back to the drawing board, choosing to not go with the brute force of a huge V8, but instead to take the high-tech 5.2-liter dual-overhead-cam V8 out of the new Mustang GT500, and supercharging it up to 700 horsepower.

That sounded like a near-miss, compared to the Ram’s 702 horses, but the Ford is significantly lighter, and, sure enough, the Raptor R now beats the monster TRX by about 4-10ths of a second from 0-60. Motor Trend lists the Raptor R’s 0-60 sprint at 3.7 seconds, for a solid corporate victory against a Dodge power plant that appears to have reached its saturation point. With 640 foot-pounds of torque backing its 700 horsepower, the Raptor R can scale cliffs in record time through its 10-speed automatic transmission, and those rocky terrain chunks it doesn’t clear will be pulverized by the heavy-duty skid-plated mounted under the raised body.

The 700 horsepower peaks at 6,650 RPMs, and the stump-pulling torque at only 4,050 revs. For other dimensions, the Raptor R weights 5,960 pounds, with a length of 232.6 inches and a wheelbase of 145.4 inches. Its height is 80.6 inches, and its width is 87 inches. The width means you pretty well fill your driving lane, as well as ay parking spots you may find, but the height is another factor for drivers and passengers, because while it might be easy for a high jumper or pole vaulter, it is greatly aided by a lightweight but strong aluminum running board, finished in a pebbley black material not unlike the spray-in bedliner so you needn’t worry about slipping when winter brings ice and packed snow onto that running board.

Once inside, the black leather Recaro bucket seats are fantastic, cementing you in place if you’re bouncing around Moab or supportive and comfortable on a long trip or just for daily driving. The sticker price is a stickler, because all those heavy-duty features are blended with the contemporary safety devices to keep you in your lane and alert you to exterior vehicles and people.

The sticker price on the test vehicle showed a base price of $109,145 with an as-tested price of $109,760. That includes all the features, and the flashy Code Orange Metallic paint scheme with its black graphic package, and the blackened grille with its active shutter system. If the price puts it out of your price range, or maybe even far, far out of your price range, consider that you’re paying a little extra for the imposing look of the Raptor R and for obtaining the baddest pickup truck in your neighborhood.

And here’s an extra inducement: When your start up from a stop and have only a small opening to enter the freeway, you hit the gas pedal hard and you can be treated to one of four selectable exhaust sounds, up to and including the “Sport” setting, which, I swear, goes from a hearty roar as you rev it up, right up to 6,000 revs where it changes into what can only be described as a 1970 Boss 302 whistle!