Ford Ranger Raptor

There have been some great fast Fords and now there’s this, Raptor Ranger. It is the latest member of the Ford performance family joining the line with Mustang and Focus RS. Although it may be very different than what came before still, it lives up to the brand’s reputation. Raptor is the latest in the new breed of more premium use. As the dual-core machines rise in popularity, it only makes sense that they would evolve into performance cars to match Australia’s need for speed. This is not just some sticker kit, Ford has upgraded the performance from top to bottom. All this off-road is not cheap and it carries a hefty price tag.

Talking about the exterior, You get underbody protection underneath. There are new Fox shocks and BF Goodrich off-road tyres. It is more aggressive and gives a hint of a performance vehicle despite its body style. The grille alone is enough to up the aggression with the large letters. Fenders are also more prominent even though they add to the looks, they also have a practical purpose of providing more space for the dedicated suspension and wheels.

Getting inside the car, you get comfortable and supportive seats, unique steering wheel and exposed blue stitching. The controls are placed really well. You have the touchscreen and the climate control buttons under that. They are very much practical but not good-looking in terms of the price. Coming to practicality, you get all your cup and bottle holders, decent sized cool centre console, 12V socket, USB port and similar equipment. The 8 inches touchscreen includes sync three satellite navigation, Apple carplay and Android auto.

Under the bonnet, it features a new 2L four-cylinder twin-turbo diesel engine, which may be smaller than the Ranger’s old five-cylinder unit but it still pumps out 210 hp of maximum power and 500 Nm of torque. The power is transmitted to all the wheels through a new 10-speed automatic transmission. It is a small engine in a big car so it does not feel particularly powerful on the straight patch, but get it out on off-road, this is where the Raptor comes into its own. If you want to take advantage of everything it has to offer, you have to get out of the beaten path. The speeds that you can drive this off-road are just incredible and the driving modes make it a real beast on all terrains.

In terms of safety, Raptor is obviously one mean machine, it can take the beating and help you survive it. You do get standard Anti-lock Braking System, which prevents the rear wheel from locking on hard braking. There is also dynamic stability control that helps the car from not rolling over and emergency brake assist that automatically applies the brakes in need. Other safety features include hill descent control, hill launch assist, lane keeping and departure warning, a rearview camera, traction control, and traffic sign recognization.