This is the 2019 Ford Ranger Raptor and it's a damn shame this truck isn't making it's way to the United States, because this Ranger Raptor is totally f-ing awesome.
TranscriptCHRISTOPHER MCGRAW: So we just found out that the Ford Ranger Raptor isn't making its way to the United States for a variety of dumb reasons that involve money and the fact that Ford is worried about the Ranger Raptor eating into its big brother's sales. Well, I'm driving around the mountains of Australia right now to tell you that that's a damn shame, because this ranger raptor is totally [BLEEP] awesome.
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All right, we're going to do some off-roading this morning. We are currently in the mud sand mode, which I am in, four high. And we'll just do stop driving around see how these Fox shocks hold up. They went through over 100 different prototypes between the-- both the front and the back of the shocks to get to these ones that they want. So they'd better be pretty impressive.
Feels good so far. Feels really smooth. We're not on the bumpiest of off-road areas right now. We're not doing rock crawling or anything like that. But it is still pretty bumpy. And it feels like a really smooth ride.
This truck is pretty packed to the gills when it comes to our gear. And everything is being held in pretty nicely. We're not being shaken around too much.
So much like the F-150 Raptor, the Ranger Raptor, of course, is made to go off-roading. In fact, the engineers designed this so that it could handle speeds of over 100 miles per hour while driving off road. I'm not driving 100 miles per hour right now, but I can tell you with these Fox shocks and this suspension, I would feel comfortable at those speeds.
The KO2s that these 17-inch wheels are wrapped in are fantastic. They really grip the sand that you're driving in. And, in fact, when you transition from off road to on road, the rocks that get caught in the KO2s flick up and hit the bottom of the truck for about a mile.
Now, there are six driving modes. Two of them are on-road modes. They are just normal and sport. And for me, sport is the one to use.
But since we're off-roading, Let's talk about the four off-road modes. We have grass, gravel, and snow. We have mud and sand, which is what I'm using right now. Baja mode actually turns off most of traction control. I was actually pretty surprised at how loose it got when you turn on the Baja mode.
And then we have rock, which is for slower rock crawling. You actually have to be in four low in order to use that. The other three, you can be four high.
The one thing that I wish this truck had that it does in is a better turning radius. The turning radius is not great on the Ranger Raptor. It is a lot smaller of a truck, which means that off-roading in this, going down trails will be a lot easier than it would be in the regular F-150 Raptor.
It's the morning of day three, I'm on the shores of Lake Jindabyne. The past few days we've spent driving around the mountains and doing some light off-roading. But today, we are going to drive 200 miles back to Sydney to see how the ranger raptor handles on the road.
So I mentioned before that the turning radius is something that I don't like about the Ranger Raptor. There really aren't a lot of things I don't like about this truck. But the other thing that I don't like about this truck, the amount of power that it puts out.
So a lot of people were hoping that when the Raptor name got pinned to a Ranger that something else would come with it from the F-150 Raptor, and that's a 3.5 liter V6. In fact, this is the smallest engine of any Ranger that I've ever driven. The Ranger that we drove in New Zealand last year has a 3.2 liter five-cylinder diesel engine.
So as you can see here, we have a two-liter, four-cylinder, BiTurbo diesel engine. Now, that engine makes roughly 211 horsepower and 369 pound feet of torque. Now, that torque is great. I think that's a great number. I think that it feels good with this truck.
But when it comes to the horsepower, I think it's severely lacking. We're talking about a truck that is obviously much heavier than, say, something like a Ford Focus ST, yet that car gets 252 horsepower. And we're talking roughly 40 less.
And it does show at highway speeds. When you're trying to overtake someone who's going a little bit slower than you, you just have to floor it. That's what you have to do. And you have to wait a while. At lower speeds in sport mode, feels good. But at high speeds, the power is just not enough.
When I'm driving on the road and I'm in sport mode, everything about this truck is better. The steering feels better. The suspension feels better. The transmission feels better. It even feels like it has more power. So unless you really want to save gas, keep it out of normal mode and just keep it in sport mode.
This steering wheel is unique to the Ranger Raptor. It has its red leather 12 o'clock indicator. So you can quickly see if your steering is straight, which is super helpful.
And these paddle shifters feel great in my hand. At first, I was a little worried that they were too close to the turn signal. There's still enough room for you to use them pretty easily. Though, this is a 10-speed transmission, which means if I'm using the paddle shifters, I'm going to be using my hands a lot.
All right, ready and go. All right, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 and 100 kilometers. So that took a while. So that's basically like a 0 to 60. And it took that long. This engine needs more power.
So let's talk about looks. There is a reason that people buy a Ford grill and swap it out on their normal Rangers. The grill on this truck looks fantastic. In fact, everything about this truck looks fantastic.
This may be an unpopular opinion, but I don't care-- the Ranger Raptor is better looking than the F-150 Raptor. The F-150 Raptor is huge. We're talking about a car that is as wide as the H1 Hummer. That's crazy. The Ranger Raptor looks every bit as mean and aggressive as the F-150 Raptor, but with better proportions.
The interior-- basically the same as the regular Ford Ranger with a few key differences. These seats, fantastic. I have spent hours and hours in this truck. And as far as comfort, I think I could drive in this truck all day long.
The seats are super supportive. And the ride is smooth, but it won't put you to sleep. The only thing I have to worry about when driving this on the road is not hitting any wallabies or kangaroos and staying on the left side.
The infotainment system is SYNC 3-- not my favorite, not my least favorite. Thankfully, it has Apple CarPlay. And while we've been here, that's all I've been using.
One thing I really like about the interior is that it's not filled with buttons. You have a touch screen up here. You have your climate controls down here. And then you have some buttons next to the shifter. So you have the start-stop, traction control, electronic locking diff, and then, finally, your dill descent control.
So we made it to the Pacific coast of Australia in the 2019 Ford Ranger Raptor. Now we're driving on the beach-- awesome, just like this truck. It is everything that the F-150 Raptor is in a smaller, more nimble package. And I think it's a huge mistake that Ford is not bringing it to the United States.
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