You’d be forgiven for thinking the Toyota Tundra’s top off-road trim (the TRD Pro) is an F-150 Raptor competitor. The TRD Pro’s hybrid turbocharged V6 makes a bit more power than the entry-level F-150 Raptor (also with a turbocharged V6), and it’s a very capable trail crawler. But the Tundra TRD Pro doesn’t have the long-travel suspension and oversized tires that make the F-150 Raptor a dune-jumping, desert-running supertruck. That said, it looks as if Toyota’s cooking up something that can give an F-150 Raptor or Ram 1500 RHO a run for their money.

Toyota’s new Tundra-based supertruck: TRD Pro+? Desert Chase? Dakar?

Here’s what we know: automotive photographers caught a Tundra with a camouflaged wide-body kit rolling into Toyota’s Michigan Tech Center after a test run. It was wearing “manufacturer” license plates, which automakers use for experimental vehicles that aren’t yet in production.

The fender flares and off-roading bumpers don’t match any aftermarket products available for the third-gen Tundra. It looks like this is all custom metal fabricated by Toyota.

The supertruck was rolling on Method 703 Bead Grip Machined-Finish wheels and BF Goodrich All-Terrain T/A tires. Those are the same tires the Raptor uses. They could be 35-inch, but they look more like the 37s on the top-trim Raptor. The shock absorbers weren’t visible, but the Tundra features some major suspension upgrades such as a Panhard rod to stabilize the rear axle.

The regular Tundra already has rear coil springs, originally engineered for the latest European-market Land Cruiser. So Toyota won’t need to re-engineer the chassis as much as Ford needed to modify its F-150 for long-travel desert-runner capabilities.

Is Toyota’s Tundra supertruck a concept vehicle or a 2027 production model?

For SEMA in 2022, Toyota built a “TRD Desert Chase Tundra” concept vehicle. But that was a true trophy truck, much more heavily modified than the latest desert-runner vehicle Toyota’s testing. This new Tundra looks more like a factory-built desert racer—similar to the Ford F-150 Raptor or Ram 1500 RHO.

If Toyota can sell a Raptor-like Tundra at the entry-level F-150 Raptor’s price point ($79,000), it may be a real factory-built supertruck competitor. The base Raptor’s turbo V6 makes 450 horsepower and 510 lb-ft of torque. It rolls on 35-inch tires. This turbo V6 Tundra would make 437 horsepower but boast 583 lb-ft of torque with help from the electric drive unit in its transmission. It also may come with tires and suspension more akin to Ford’s $92,000 F-150 Raptor 37 (named after its 37-inch tires).

Toyota currently sells the Tundra TRD Pro for $72,510. So will this new truck replace the old TRD Pro? Or will it be an all-new trim with a name like “TRD Pro+,” “Desert Chase,” or even an off-road-racing-specific name such as “Dakar?” We’ll just have to wait and find out. You can see more images of the new Tundra in the video embedded below: