Ford Raptors tested in the desert
Sales of fast off-roaders are booming as petrolheads escape traffic and speed cameras in search of adventure. This one ticks all the boxes.
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Sliding through a gravel corner before lining up a jump and catching air in Ford’s Ranger Raptor, it occurs to me that this could be the best performance car with Australian DNA.
The ute’s howling V6 twin-turbo engine fires it out of the corner with gusto before it briefly takes flight, then lands with supple composure made possible by astounding suspension.
The Raptor dances on loose surfaces at speed.
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You need to bring a certain flexibility to this sort of driving, an adapt-on-the-fly approach for trails that evolve by the minute.
Your mind, eyes, hands and feet are all busy when pressing on in this sort of car, and it’s about as much fun as you can have on four wheels today.
Track-bred high-performance cars are tricky to own, with a window for enjoyment that feels smaller every day.
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The best track car I’ve driven, Porsche’s 911 GT3 RS, can be a frustrating experience on regular roads where speed limits, traffic and bumpy surfaces fall short of the circuits where it is designed to shine.
Australia only has about a dozen permanent racetracks where you can properly enjoy such a machine – less than 100 kilometres of manicured tarmac. But there are thousands of kilometres of gravel, rocky and sandy trails where you can get to grips with the Raptor.
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That’s one of the reasons Ford boss Jim Farley has invested heavily in off-road performance cars.
“Ford wants to be the number one, undisputed off-road brand in the world,” he recently told reporters.
“We want to be the Porsche of off-road.”
Ford’s halo models are divided into two camps: Mustang and Raptor.
You’ll see Mustangs racing at Daytona, Bathurst, Le Mans and beyond, while Raptors take on the Dakar Rally, Baja 1000 and Finke desert classics.
We get the Ranger Raptor in Australia. Some other markets, including North America and the Middle East, are spoiled for choice with three different takes on the Raptor theme based on the large F-150 pick-up, the retro-chic Bronco SUV and the more compact Ranger.
Under fire from newcomers such as the BYD Shark, Ford wanted to remind reporters of its all-terrain ability with an opportunity to sample all three Raptors in their ideal environment.
So we travelled to Dubai to get to grips with the Ranger Raptor on fast and flowing dirt roads, the more powerful F-150 in deep sand dunes, and the Bronco in rocky mountains.
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There, tech expert Justin Capicchiano breaks down the hardware that separates Raptors from regular vehicles – powerful engines, beefed-up off-road suspension, oversized tyres – and Ford executive Kay Hart quantifies what the Raptor brand means to Ford. “Raptor is an emotion,” she said.
“It really does embody everything about our commitment to innovation, our commitment to innovation and our commitment to driving.
“It really does embody and live up to ‘built Ford tough’.”
Hart reckons one in six Rangers sold in our region are Raptors, a remarkable statistic that highlights the recipe’s success. While comparatively few sports car customers take their cars on track, just about every Raptor customer will find their way to rocks, sand and gravel.
The big Bronco has no trouble taming rocky climbs and intricate descents, finding impressive flexibility to maintain contact with the ground.
And the most powerful model here, the F-150 Raptor, has the power to tame soaring sand dunes and vast open spaces that suit its muscular motor. But the best of all three is the Ranger.
At home on fast and flowing rally stages, on technical rocky climbs and in deep sand dunes, the Ranger Raptor brings an agility and athleticism that surpasses its heavier American cousins.
About 2000 engineers were employed in Australia to develop the platform underpinning the latest Ford Ranger, its Raptor spinoff and the SUV-bodied Ford Bronco.
Our Raptor is up there with the best Aussie-made performance cars, including Bathurst-inspired V8-powered machines that wore GT or GTS badges.
Just as the Ranger has replaced the Falcon or Commodore in many driveways to become Australia’s most popular new car, the Raptor deserves to surpass V8 muscle cars as a desirable performance model at the top of the family tree.
The FOMO Co.
Australia misses out on of some of Ford’s most advanced models, such as the Mustang GTD supercar, electric F-150 Lightning and the all-terrain Bronco Raptor – mostly because they are made in left-hand-drive for the Americas, Europe and the Middle East.
It’s hard to make the numbers work when converting them to right-hand-drive. Consider the near-$50,000 premium between locally converted F-150 pick-ups and their American cousins. Applying that – and luxury car tax – to the Bronco Raptor that starts from about $US90,000 ($141,000) would result in an off-road toy that costs more than $200,000 drive-away, a sum precious few enthusiasts are prepared to pay.
Originally published as Ford Raptors tested in the desert
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