IF YOU’RE of the generation which grew up watching American TV programmes like The Fall Guy and Simon & Simon, you’ll probably agree that there’s an undeniable ‘cool factor’ to a good pick-up truck, writes David Roy.
While the US has had a long-standing love affair with the pick-up which dates back to the 1920s and through the aforementioned 1980s fad for rugged small screen heroes using and abusing burly, jacked-up utility vehicles in ways which involved them going airborne at every opportunity, on this side of the pond they remain something of a specialist vehicle.
While the Ford Ranger would be considered a mid-sized truck by our US cousins, where behemoths like the Ford F-250 Super Duty and Chevy Silverado 2500HD rule the freeways, but it’s Europe’s best-selling pick-up.
With prices starting at £33,930 OTR, there’s a Ranger for pretty much every tradesman – there’s even a new plug-in hybrid on the way. But while the standard Rangers might offer practicality in spades, none of them could really be described as ‘cool’ or ‘fun’.
For that, you need its ‘performance truck’ incarnation, the Ford Ranger Raptor.
First launched in 2018, this fire-breathing Ranger has proved popular with those who enjoy ‘grunty’ motoring but who also need a vehicle capable of lugging loads/kids from A to B – and the brand-new version offers even more grunt than ever before.
Priced from £60,064 OTR, the 2024 Ranger Raptor looks the part, with its tinted glass and blacked-out trim and wheels providing a pointedly ‘sporty’ look. And, powered by a twin-turbo 3.0l V6 EcoBoost petrol engine, it also has the go to match its show: this truck will scoot you and whatever load you’ve chucked into its capacious bed (sealable with a Power Roll-Top as part of the optional Raptor Pack at £2,160) from 0-62mph in a mere 7.9 seconds.
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There’s 290bhp and 430lb ft of torque on tap via a 10-speed automatic gearbox with full-time 4-wheel drive, with seven selectable drive modes - Normal, Sport, Slippery, Rock Crawl, Mud and Ruts, Sand and Baja - combined with front and rear locking differentials and three-way adjustable shocks.
That twin-turbo V6 makes a magnificent noise that will certainly turn heads, although the optional eye-catching ‘Code Orange’ Premium Paint job (£720) of the one I tested recently did a good enough job of that on its own. Just to keep you in the neighbours’ good books, the Raptor is also equipped with an Active Exhaust System with a special Quiet Start function.
Tooling around in a Ranger Raptor through an urban environment where the largest obstacles were the speed bumps outside the local primary school, I didn’t get too far into its various drive modes beyond Sport and Normal, bar a little bit of grass verge ‘mudding’ to see whether those giant knobbly tyres are up to snuff (they are).
Despite its massive ground clearance and general bulk, the Ranger Raptor drives like a much more earthbound vehicle when used ‘on-road’ – indeed, it feels more car than truck when behind the wheel, in a black and red leather-clad double-cab cockpit that’s more performance racer than utility vehicle and laden with all kinds of onboard tech and entertainment including a 10-speaker B&O sound system – not that you can really beat the soundtrack provided by that V6 rumble.
If you want a vehicle that kids will point at excitedly, which can also lug your family and tons of kit around at a ludicrously rapid pace, then the new Ford Ranger Raptor is the truck for you.
It’ll definitely make you feel a bit like The Fall Guy when you drive it – just don’t be tempted to try and jump it the way Lee Majors used to.
AT A GLANCE: Ford Ranger Raptor 2024
- Price (OTR including VAT): £60,064 / as tested: £63,544
- Engine: 3.0l V6 EcoBoost
- Transmission: 10-speed automatic 4WD
- Max power: 290bhp
- Max torque: 430lb ft
- 0-62mph: 7.9 secs
- Fuel economy (combined): 20.4mpg
- Emissions (Co2): 315g/km
- Max trailer weight: 750kg (unbraked) / 2,500kg (braked)
