JUST GORGY
EDITOR DITCHES THE BLACK STUFF IN FAVOUR OF DIRT AND DUST. EXPANDED HORIZONS RESULT
IT IS AS I’d hoped. Five weeks into Raptor ownership and the Blue Oval brute is already enriching my life in new and dusty ways. Aware that I may have been a tad hasty in my remarks about off-roading in last month’s report (“About as exciting as a Matthew Mcconaughey marathon”), and with Saturday dawning bright, I decided the time was ripe for some adventuring.
With the wife equally keen to explore, we threw the dog into the back seat and made a beeline for Lerderderg State Park, an hour north-west of Melbourne with some 14,250 hectares of bushland on offer. Its centrepiece is a 300m-high gorge that bisects the park, alongside which runs one of the main dirt arterials, O’briens Road. It’s a well-maintained track that offers a tasty blend of wide and fast sections that give way to tight, plunging hairpins as the road snakes towards a river crossing. Perfect for exploring the six drive modes of the Raptor’s Terrain Management System, including the one I’m most keen to try: Baja mode.
Each mode (Normal, Sport, Weather, Mud/sand, Baja and Rock Crawl) alters the driver assist systems and the calibration of steering, throttle, transmission, ABS and the locking differential, though Baja is designed
specifically for fast off-road running. It sharpens up shifts, holds onto gears for longer, improves throttle response and slackens off the traction control, all of which makes it an absolute hoot on a slippy surface.
Proper high-speed off-roading will have to wait for a safer location, so I only get a tantalising taste of what Baja has to offer – though Lerderderg does present a sterner challenge before we head for home.
Splintering off the main road are numerous ancillary tracks that delve deeper into the dry bushland, quickly transforming into challenging trails with deep ruts, sharp rocks and steep elevation changes. Painfully aware of my inexperience off-road, and the fact that I haven’t seen another car for hours and have no phone service, I tread with caution. I needn’t have. The Raptor barely breaks a sweat as it clambers over fallen trees and crawls up hillsides with the surefootedness of a mountain goat.
The drive modes helped, as did the reassurance of the BF Goodriches’ reinforced sidewalls. But was it fun? Not in the way I’m used to when I’m at the wheel, though I’ll admit to a strange sense of satisfaction as we headed for home, the ute caked in dirt, and plans for a return visit already in our minds.
FORD RANGER RAPTOR Price as tested: $76,790 This month: 1720km @ 9.5L/100km