With Ford’s ’24 Ranger Raptor, it’s all big fun
At speed on Ford Performance Racing School’s slippery track, I stabbed the brakes and rotated my 2024 Ranger Raptor into a 90-degree right-hander. The beast skittered through the mud before the 33-inch all-terrain tires gripped like talons — my cue to floor the throttle across the apex before pitching the truck into an opposite, 90-degree left-hander. This is one swift predator.
Ford’s F-150 Raptor invented the off-road performance space and is the standard by which off-road production trucks are judged. But the 6,000-pound, sand-eating king of the desert might be better understood as a T-Rex.
The 5,325-pound Ranger Raptor is a velociraptor all right.
Lighter and more nimble than its stablemate, the newest member of the Raptor brood is a capable — and relatively affordable — entry into the Raptor family. That includes the Bronco Raptor, the most versatile of the herd.
Up a hill into the Oquirrh Mountains, my $57,065 Ranger Raptor ($34K less than Brother Bronc, which, ahem, is $91K, the price of a 2024 Ford Mustang) carved up a deep trail before tiptoeing along a narrow ridge overlooking the breathtaking Salt Lake Valley. Tiptoeing isn’t as easy in Bronco and F-150 Raptors. At over 80 inches wide, these T-Rexes legally require three amber safety lights normally reserved for heavy-duty trucks.
Can you fit that in your garage? I can’t.
I can’t wait to take Ranger Raptor, with its 37-inch tires, through the narrow canyons of Holly Oaks north of Detroit. Or the concrete canyons of downtown Detroit. The pickup is based, of course, on the all-new Ranger, a midsize truck that will fit in your garage or your company’s parking garage and won’t take out the ordering kiosk in a fast-food drive-thru. I say “based on” because Ranger Raptor shares Ranger’s interior upgrade — including digital displays, 12-inch console screen, wireless Apple CarPlay/Android Auto, wireless charging, the works.
It also shares Ranger’s expanded wheelbase, which was ordered up with Raptor in mind. With the front axle pushed toward the front bumper, the Raptor boasts a 33-degree approach angle and an elongated engine bay to fit a longer V-6 engine like the 405-horsepower, twin-turbo V-6 the Ranger Raptor shares with the Bronco Raptor.
Over a series of moguls, I pushed the Ranger a little too hard (easy to do with 405 horses at the other end of the reins) and the pickup porpoised, but with no consequence, thanks to the combination of approach angle, 10.7-inch ground clearance and the Raptor family’s secret sauce — live-valve Fox shocks.
The shocks, an engineering marvel, quickly adapt to changing terrain. That capability offers a variety of modes from SPORT to OFF-ROAD to BAJA, with the last really loosening up the suspension for the Performance School’s punishing courses.
Ranger Raptor also boasts the typical advantages of truck — like a 5-foot bed out back that can swallow a couple of off-road bikes.
The auto industry has seen unprecedented change in recent years with sedans giving way to SUVs, trucks competing with German brands in the luxury space, and governments forcing the industry to build electric vehicles. A lot of performance models have been lost in the shuffle, including the Fiesta and Focus ST lines.
So it’s historic to see Ford bringing performance commitment to the truck/ SUV space the same way they have built Mustang HiPos, GT350s and GT500s over the years. The Raptor lineup, from affordable Ranger to earth-shaking, $110K F-150 Raptor R, parallels the Mustang’s on-track terrors with off-road capability.