Bent on turning its Raptor trim into a wide-reaching line of off-road-ready rigs, Ford will be applying the name to not just its F-150 but also upcoming variants of the Bronco and Ranger. While this isn’t new information – after all, Jim Farley himself tweeted about the Ranger Raptor earlier this year and the Bronco Raptor is currently being driven in California – it is neat to learn the truck has shown up on the company’s build-and-price tool Down Under.
There’s a less-than-zero chance Ford will offer the 2.0-liter diesel, available in other markets, in North America, but the 3.0L EcoBoost which pops up in overseas Ranger Raptors will be found stateside. As essentially the same setup found in the Bronco Raptor, suggested figures of 392 horsepower and 430 lb-ft of torque are well within reason. History teaches us there must be a pecking order in Dearborn – the F-150 Raptor makes 450 hp and the Bronco Raptor pumps out 418 ponies. Still, roughly four hundred horses in a mid-size pickup truck is hardly a trifle; our friend Sajeev makes do with 143.
Back at the Aussie build-and-price, we find further confirmation of FOX-branded 2.5-inch live valve internal bypass shock absorbers, electronic front and rear lockers, a yaffle of drive modes, and optional beadlock-capable wheels. The latter are wrapped in meaty 285-section BFGoodrich KO2 tires, the weapon of choice for many of these types of applications both from the factory and in the aftermarket.
Inside we see a large tablet-style infotainment screen in the center stack, a unit that drags the Ranger’s interior kicking and screaming into the present day. A fully digital screen fronts a typical Ford-style steering wheel, while a phalanx of buttons for off-road toys like downhill descent control and trail driving assist pepper the center console just aft of the gear selector. With the Blue Oval having figured out how to incorporate a ‘rear dig’ (the so-called Trail Turn Assist which locks one rear wheel at uber-low off-road speeds to aid with tight turning) on the Bronco, one wonders if that type of toy will make it onto machines like the Ranger as well. We hope so.
The next Ranger Raptor is shown as having a release date of August 2022 in the Land Down Under. Expect it on these shores not too many months after that time.
[Images: Ford]
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