Six-year-old in raptures over Raptor
Ford’s out-there Ranger Raptor is about to be launched in Europe. There’s a young London lad who’ll be able to skite to his schoolmates that he’s already experienced it in New Zealand, writes Rob Maetzig.
Six-year-old Henry lives in London. He loves the All Blacks and the England cricket team, and is a big fan of Formula 1, with Sebastian Vettel his favourite driver.
Now there’s something else Henry, whose mum is a Kiwi, is a big fan of – the still-rare, recently released $84,990 Ford Ranger Raptor ute. That’s because during a visit to New Zealand over Christmas he got to go off-roading in one.
The Raptor was painted bright red too, just like Santa’s sleigh. And Henry felt as though all his Christmases had come at once as he rode in it, bouncing over rocks and scrambling up and down steep banks on the outskirts of Christchurch.
When he returns home to England, Henry has to do a showand-tell to his school class all about his trip to New Zealand. You can be sure the big Ford will feature high up in his list of happenings, because he just loved the Thai-built Raptor.
What kid wouldn’t? For starters it’s a ute, which is a big step up from the diggers and toy trucks Henry would have played with when he was a little younger. And it’s familiar – it’s based on the standard Ranger which last year was the United Kingdom’s biggestselling pickup, just like in New Zealand.
The Raptor is extra special, though. It is bigger thanks to wider front and rear tracks, it rides higher thanks to a 283mm ground clearance, and it boasts a special suspension system and large knobbly BF Goodrich allterrain tyres.
Not only that, but the Raptor is powered by a new-age twin-turbocharged 2.0-litre diesel engine mated to a 10-speed automatic pinched from the larger American F-150 Raptor pickup, and it has six selectable drive modes – two for use on the road, the other four for use off it.
To top everything off, the Ranger Raptor is one colourful piece of product.
Ford says the intention is for it to make a bold statement wherever it goes – and that sure is true, especially when said vehicle is painted Race Red and covered in optional decals.
Just the thing to appeal to kids – of all ages.
Henry got a little scared as we dropped down a large bank onto the bed of the Waimakariri River north of Christchurch, but he enjoyed himself as we indulged in some gentle four-wheel driving along that scenic waterway.
He got a bit scared again when we had to employ a measure of the Raptor’s obvious off-road ability to scramble back up onto dry land, and then he really loved the experience of pounding down unsealed roading and creating a big plume of dust behind the ute.
Overall the exercise was child’s play, mainly for the benefit of the 6 year old on his Kiwi adventure.
But the exercise did have relevance in another way – because the Raptor is about to arrive in Europe, becoming the first factory-built offroad-capable performance ute to go on sale on that continent.
It’s interesting how the launch procedure is proceeding in Europe.
Whereas in New Zealand the Raptor was first revealed at the annual outdoors-oriented Fieldays in the middle of last year before going on sale towards the end of 2018, a few weeks ago the ute had its European reveal at a video gaming trade fair in Germany called Gamescom.
That was because the Raptor will also feature in the latest edition of the Forza Horizon 4 driving game when it is launched this year.
All this means that when the Raptor and the driving game do go on sale in UK this year, little Henry will have an advantage over his mates – he will already know all about the big colourful pickup because he’s ridden in a real one.