Ford Ranger Raptor
Heads up: it’s a sporty-looking breathed-on pick-up with entertaining handling
Ferocious performance pick-up
The US has been toying with performance pick-ups for the past decade, with the popular Ford F-150 Raptor inspired by desert racers. The formula is simple: fit heavy-duty shock absorbers, a wider track and knobbly all-terrain tyres to a pick-up with extra grunt.
Now the Raptor formula is being shared around the world using the Ford Ranger as the donor vehicle. And it’s coming to the UK. The Ranger is the slightly smaller sibling to the F-150 and Ford’s rival to the Toyota Hilux and Volkswagen Amarok. It gets a bold new grille, tucked front and rear bumpers for better off-road clearance, a 150mm-wider track, bulging front and rear wheel arches, magnesium side steps, race-bred Fox shocks and gnarly BF Goodrich KO2 tyres.
The Raptor still comes with selectable heavy-duty four-wheeldrive hardware with low and high ranges, so it can only be driven in two-wheel drive on Tarmac. That’s in contrast to the all-wheel-drive-only diesel V6 versions of the Amarok and Mercedes-benz X-class.
The Raptor is not just a jacked-up pick-up: it has a unique chassis. It’s effectively a stretched Everest fourwheel-drive wagon platform, so the rear end has coil suspension rather than leaf springs. The cabin has been given a lift courtesy of Raptor logos stitched into the suede and leather sports seats, a chunky leather steering wheel with magnesium rather than plastic paddle shifters, blue stitching on the dashboard and unique instruments and scuff plates.
Unlike the US F-150 Raptor with V8 and turbo V6 petrol power over the first two generations, the Ranger Raptor is powered exclusively by a 2.0-litre twin-turbo four-cylinder diesel that has been boosted to pump out 210bhp and 369lb ft – 13bhp and 22lb ft more than the 3.2-litre fivecylinder diesel in the regular Ranger. It’s paired to a 10-speed auto (there’s no manual) and you could be forgiven for thinking this engine ought to do the job. However, the Raptor weighs in at 2404kg – about 150kg to 200kg more than the regular Ranger – and that blunts performance. With a 0-62mph time of 10.5sec (according to our timing gear), it’s about only half a second quicker than a regular Ranger with a 3.2-litre five-cylinder and six-speed auto, and at least 2.5sec slower than the Amarok 3.0 V6 TDI. And, for now, don’t hold your breath for more grunt from this engine (the engineering costs would be prohibitively expensive), a more powerful off-the-shelf alternative (there is none) or the anticipated turbo petrol power from the yet-tobe-confirmed US Ranger Raptor (also too costly to engineer for vehicles outside North America, say insiders).
But if you want to drive the Ranger Raptor as is, you’re in for a treat. The tyres and engine are surprisingly quiet on the highway. The race-bred Fox shocks have also been finely tuned to provide the best blend of on- and off-road performance. In sweeping Tarmac bends, you can feel the weight subtly shift from the front to the rear as you drive out of the corners, and there’s minimal nose dive when you slam on the fourwheel disc brakes. (Most pick-ups in this class still have old-school rear drums.) It’s always sure-footed and composed. Moreover, the Raptor’s rear end doesn’t skip over bumps and expansion joins as much as the leafsprung versions of the Ranger. The steering is also remarkably accurate on bitumen.
In terms of handling the rough stuff, it’s as close to a rally car as a pick-up can be. The Ranger Raptor truly shines off road, whether it’s ironing out corrugations on dusty trails or clambering over obstacles with relative ease thanks to its excellent approach (32.5deg), departure (24deg) and ramp over (24deg) angles.
Of course, with its big dimensions and epic 12.9m turning circle, the Ranger Raptor isn’t for everyone. However, it will appeal to buyers who want a desert-racer-style truck with a more frugal diesel engine.