Between disassembly sessions for the 2024 Ford Ranger Raptor at the automaker’s off-road circuit in Utah, I sent furious texts to our team on the job site about the truck. My phone kept automatically switching from “Low mode” to “haha mode”, and you know. What, that works too. In sand, snow, and mud, this is surely fun. No matter where you put it, it’s a display of all-terrain innovation.
While I was disappointed with some facets of the 2024 Ranger XLT and Lariat, this new variant of the Raptor more than makes up for some slightly asymmetrical plastic internals with an immensely impressive generation under its skin. It’s a true desert rally platform, legal on the road. What’s most impressive is that it doesn’t look like a pickup truck with a lift kit and some extra horsepower. . . In fact, it’s a functional vehicle with a cohesive design and I’m sure it will be a vintage future.
It’s evident that the Ford Ranger Raptor shares a cabin and lighting design with the regular Ranger. Of course, the overall platform is also shared. But otherwise, the Raptor is its own beast.
I’ll point out the most appealing mechanical aspects, share some insights into the Ranger Raptor’s progression, and walk you through a walk through a muddy and gritty Baja-style educational field at the Ford Raptor Assault School. All Ranger Raptor (and F-150 Raptor) buyers receive a school invitation included in the vehicle’s purchase price, and I urge them to accept this offer from the automaker if they purchase one of those trucks.
All you have to do is head to Salt Lake City, and Ford will welcome you to its cool new logo facility and teach you how to get the most out of a new Raptor without destroying it. The Raptors are capable, but they are not indestructible. Follow the recommendations of a professional driving school instructor and have a lifetime of fun with your truck without it being memorable. Remember that guy who flew halfway into the sky and savagely destroyed his Raptor when the first ones came out?What happens when other people buy a truck advertised with too many shenanigans without proper driver training?
Hell, that happened so long ago that I wonder if readers don’t even forget what I’m talking about. Quick, turn off the traction and let’s go back in time:
Fast forward to 2024 and the Raptor’s recipe remains the same. . . The ingredients are simply more technologically advanced. That’s one thing.
It’s not just an ornamental set, a slight enhancement to the pendant, or even some sort of singular feature. The Ford Raptors are a combination of key features evolved in combination to paint in combination, creating a complete device that is in fact optimized for all facets of driving on rough and loose terrain at top speed.
The Ranger Raptor in particular is my family favorite because of its length and maneuverability. Although I have to admit that the F-150 Raptor R is objectively impressive, I didn’t like driving it because its 720 horsepower made me run out of area to play in no time, even in a large off-road park with no speed limit.
But the Ranger Raptor was able to give me a smart time on a small, narrow course. And I can say that I still had a lot of room to go faster with training. This is the hallmark of a device with the perfect performance: easy to use. Appreciating, hard to master.
As I buzzed around the starting line, even in a strong ambient wind, I soon saw something with the driver’s window rolled down. . . the 3. 0-liter V6 sounded good. I’ll let you know about this later: I didn’t have enough time to pay attention conscientiously before a friendly Ford driving coach named Jen repeated her earlier briefing. “yes, there’s not a lot of traction there,” he said with a laugh. We had joked about the situations before; It had snowed the night before and to call the course “neglected” would be an understatement.
I’ll say this: if I’d been in my private truck, I probably would have left it outside. It’s so disgusting. The dust stuck to my boots like cement. “It just means more weight to step on the fuel pedal, baby,” the satan said to me on my right shoulder. But the angel to my left had a more ominous warning: “Remember Wyoming. “In 2018, I had a serious twist of off-road fate that took its toll on the use of my left hand during a few months of agony. The situations and terrain were very similar to the day I destroyed myself.
Out of courage or stupidity, I like to walk in the sand. And when I stepped off the starting line in the Ranger Raptor set to Max Attack in Low mode, the worry dissipated and I began to become one with the machine.
The past appearance of Baja mode is that it doesn’t just remove all driving aids to allow you to skid your tires into oblivion. It optimizes the vehicle’s responsiveness to all stresses for driving at top speeds in comfortable conditions. Right in the first corner, where In the first image taken in this review, I accelerated the truck a bit and turned in countersteer, then released the throttle. . . It’s not exactly elegant, but it’s spectacular. The engine’s anti-lag formula kept the turbo going, so when I got strength back as I straightened up, it immediately bubbled up and propelled me forward.
One turn and I laugh, in “haha” mode, actually.
It was fun to do a few laps around a circuit the size of a small stadium. Driving one of those vehicles from the Mexican border to Los Cabos, deep in the Baja Peninsula, would be an awe-inspiring experience.
The night before, I had the chance to have dinner with Carl Widmann, chief engineer for Ford Performance, and Justin Capicchiano, supervisor of the Ranger Raptor program, in Melbourne, Australia.
The Ranger Raptor is truly an Australian truck and it’s hard to believe in a more suitable position to design such a machine. Land Down Under is a majestic country across the contiguous United States with less than 10% of our population. On its coasts, where cities, shopping malls, and commercial operations are located, Australia has vast expanses of sand. It takes approximately 3 days to cross the Simpson Desert by truck or adventure bike. And the domain is home to the intense Finke Desert Race: a flat race over a direct but very rugged strip of sandy terrain near the famous Uluru rock formation.
A Ranger Raptor with minimal preparation for the race (in fact, only safety gear) recently finished the Finke with Brad Lovell at the wheel. Capicchiano told me how pleased he was with the functionality of the Ranger Raptor on the occasion and the comment he added inspired me even more: “We just used my private truck in the run-up to the race,” he said. “We looked at the lap times and we would have already overtaken some race cars.
It looks like Widmann also had a great time testing the truck in Australia. This is how he described the Australian progression tests: “They don’t use cones, they use eucalyptus. “Capicchiano then translated, “For us it is essential to have a car with exact address,” with a smile.
But my favorite quote from the Ranger Raptor’s boss is the way he described the truck’s personality: “Flattering for the beginner and rewarding for the expert. I try not to get used to repeating sales pitches, but now that I’ve piloted the thing (as a seasoned newbie), I can’t think of a better description.
So how does it work? Finally, we can touch on some technical topics. There’s not much in common with the regular Ranger other than the spars between the axles, but I’ll check that out to address all the points.
The engine is a 3. 0-liter twin-turbo EcoBoost V6. To my nerdy friends: it’s an iron block, aluminum cylinder heads, a 24-valve DOHC with variable cam timing. Ford says it will boost 405 horsepower and 430 lb-ft of torque on 91-octane fuel.
The acceleration doesn’t feel overwhelming when you hit it from a standstill, but the engine growls and does a clever job of maintaining momentum.
An electromechanical movement box makes the gear adjustments of the 4×4 very elegant and fast. The ten-speed automatic transmission can operate in Drive mode or shift manually with huge, easy-to-touch paddle shifters.
Forged aluminum arms at the front reduce weight where it matters most, and a Watt Link rear suspension helps keep the rear axle in position better than leaf springs.
Fox has been making high-quality off-road shocks for years and has been supplying Ford Raptor trucks since day one – they are selected for their ability to achieve much higher degrees of warmth than basic shocks. The “Live Valve” facet is newer and even cooler: it allows the vehicle to adjust the damping functionality according to the driving mode.
With a suspension computer at every corner, the Ranger Raptor reads many inputs consistent with the moment to adjust its smoothness and responsiveness in real-time based on conditions. The problem is that it’s probably unreasonable to upgrade them if you manage to kill one, but the result is exceptional ride quality and perfect manners in crazy conditions.
One of the biggest surprises for me, whether it was whipping the truck myself, and more so when I was doing laps as a passenger with Capicchiano himself and some other professional Ford drivers, how I didn’t feel like we were going to roll over. , high-speed slides.
The truck’s track width is 67. 3 inches, about the same as the front of a first-generation F-150 Raptor, and that, plus those wise surprise shock absorbers, makes it a pickup that behaves well with passengers even when driving badly.
The other great wonder was the sound of the exhaust. ” How did you get a V6 to sound so cool?”I asked Capicchiano as we watched our colleagues play their own tricks with other degrees of savagery. The engine has what I would describe as a gasp, with genuine energy. “We spent a lot of time looking for the sound,” he said. We hear a lot of six-cylinder smart cars [he cited the Nissan GT-R and Alfa Romeo Stelvio as examples]. Not only does the Ranger Raptor look good-looking, but you can also be quiet in “quiet” mode when you’re home late or leave early. And it’s not because the ticket is pumped into the passenger compartment, but thanks to an electronically controlled valve located in the exhaust pipe itself. .
The wind in our control thwarted my attempts to register the escape note, but this video gives you an idea:
I can go on and on about the main points of the Ranger Raptor that I liked. The built-in auxiliary switches for the accessories you upload later are awesome, the seats look great, the hood and fender vent is functional, I even like the new. You can get more geometric “bar” graphics on the hood and sides of the truck bed.
The giant cab and short bed setup always leaves me in a paint truck, but for an adventure vehicle, it’s pretty good. Load that box with camping gear, tools, and tires, and you’ll be in a position to have an amazing time. But it’s more productive to lock your cargo!
The van is rarely very productive – I was disappointed to see a poor internal panel and I’m still not in love with the way the infotainment screen looks before the eyes. But for the point of functionality this thing offers at first, it’s worth it. At around $55,000, I think it’s one of the most productive deals when it comes to new functionality cars right now. Hell, I’m thinking of partially liquidating 4 of my cars and taking out a loan to buy one.
If you’re lucky enough to buy one, do yourself a favor and drive it out into the desert. The Ranger Raptor will be a wonder in your yard if you live in California or one of the 4 surrounding states. If you’re in America’s corner, make the trip. Let it fall apart. But find out as much as you can about the limits of the vehicle little by little and, ideally, in a real racing school.
Ford’s own team has won an album of photographs so eye-catching on this occasion that it would be a shame to percentage it. Enjoy these photographs as an epilogue:
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