FORD VERSUS TOYOTA BATTLE RAGES IN TO NEW TERRITORY

WHAT HAS TOYOTA GOT TO COMBAT THE NEXT-GEN RANGER’S V6 ENGINE?

WRITING this the day after the belated Bathurst 1000 touring car race, where the traditional Ford versus Holden rivalry is set to become Ford versus Chevrolet in 2023. However, in the real world and more relevant to the new-car market, the Ford versus Toyota duel rages on.

The Ford Ranger and Toyota Hilux have been duking it out for best-selling 4x4 honours in Australia for years now, and while the Hilux ute has been Australia’s best-selling car overall on a number of occasions to date, the Ranger is chasing that title as well.

Ford will turn the one-tonne ute segment on its head mid-year when it introduces its all-new 2022 Ranger with a V6 diesel engine and full-time fourwheel drive. Sure, the VW Amarok has had these features for years but it has never been a mainstream seller, while the Ranger continues to be an Aussie favourite that will be boosted by these new inclusions.

The question now becomes: What does Toyota have in store for the Hilux to keep it in the fight?

By the time the 2022 Ranger lands, the current generation of Hilux, the eighth of the nameplate, will have been around for seven years. As the Hilux is such a popular model around the world, we expect the ninth-gen model to be with us within the next couple of years; so the boffins at TMC would be well and truly in to the design, engineering and testing stages of the new car.

Are they looking at a V6 diesel engine for the next Hilux? If they’re not already, they’d want to start!

While Ford hasn’t revealed the outputs of the Ranger V6 engine, we’re tipping 600 to 650Nm, while previous generations of the engine have made up to 700Nm in Range Rovers.

Thankfully, Toyota has a freshly minted V6 diesel in its armoury that would be a welcome fit in the next Lux, either in its full 700Nm current tune or a derated, possibly single-turbocharger variant.

It was a surprise to see Toyota develop the all-new F33A-FTV engine on its own in these days of product sharing and shaming of fuel-burning engines; but we’re happy that they did. And we expect Toyota will want to get the most out of the engine and share it across a few different models. That’s where lower-output or single-turbo versions of the V6 engine could come in to play.

The hot-v design of the F33A makes it narrower by taking the turbochargers from the sides of the engine and sticking them up in the ‘V’, so theoretically it should be easier to put it in a smaller, narrower engine bay than that of the LC300.

I reckon we’ll see a version of the F33A in the next-gen Prado (because you can bet the Ford Everest will get the V6 diesel) as well as some upperspec models of the next-gen Hilux. Toyota would be crazy to not make this happen; and for consumers, you’ll be getting better performing and more refined powertrains in some of your favourite 4x4s.

The Ford versus Toyota war rages on and we’re looking forward to the next (V6) battle.