Off-road in a 2023 Ford Ranger Raptor prototype

I am strapped in to a pre-production prototype of Ford’s upcoming Ranger Raptor, and riding shotgun is none other than seven-time Australian Rally Championship winner and four-time Side by Side (SXS) champion, Cody Crocker.

Cody is justifiably nervous, as this isn’t the first time he has ridden alongside me. The last time he was teaching me the ropes of racing a Polaris RZR SXS, and that occasion ended up with the RZR on its side.

The venue for this drive is the off-road track at Loveday 4x4 Adventure Park in South Australia’s Riverland district.

The track ahead of us is one that park owner Tony Whateley uses to test and develop their trophy truck and other off-road racing vehicles, so it's an imposing strip of dirt for any production vehicle. And if any production road car could be up to the challenge, it has to be the new Ranger Raptor.

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The original PX2 Ranger Raptor has been in a class of its own for off-road performance ever since its launch in 2019, so much so that it was awarded 4X4 Australia’s 4x4 of The Year award for that year.

With its bespoke coil-sprung rear end, widened wheel track and Ford Performance-tuned Fox Racing dampers, the Raptor covered rough terrain at speed and in a more controlled manner than any other showroom-stock 4x4 ute.

"It’s capable of more than any other production 4x4 on the market in Australia"

While the performance of the Raptor’s hotted-up chassis and suspension were next-level awesome, the one big criticism of the ute was that the bi-turbo, four-cylinder diesel engine didn’t live up to the rest of the car and didn’t really meet the Ford Performance credence.

Make no mistake – Ford has set out to quash any such misgivings about the Raptor with the new P703 version!

Gone from the Raptor is the asthmatic diesel engine and in its place is a 3.0-litre V6 petrol ‘EcoBoost’ engine that makes 292kW of power at 5650rpm and 583Nm of torque at 3500rpm.

This engine is related to the 3.5L EcoBoost that powers the Ranger Raptor’s F-150 big brother in the USA, and its inclusion in the Ranger makes it the only petrol engine currently offered in a 4x4 ute in Australia.

The EcoBoost V6 comes with a switchable exhaust system that allows you to keep it quiet when slipping out of the neighbourhood on a Sunday morning and then open it up and bring the noise once you hit the dunes or open tracks.

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The Ranger Raptor remains a rig designed for high-speed off-road driving, and as such it again uses Fox Racing shocks, but these are a huge step up from the ones under the old PX2.

The new shocks are Fox 2.5-inch Live Valve Internal Bypass units that use cutting-edge control technology offering position-sensitive damping capability. Not only do they adapt to the driving conditions but they have specific mapping to suit the various selectable drive modes in the vehicle.

Another feature, Fox’s race-proven Bottom-Out Control, applies maximum damping force in the last 25 per cent of shock travel, to maintain the best control in situations like when landing after jumps.

They can also sense when the shock is fully extended as a result of the wheels leaving the ground and prepare the dampers for the hit back to terra firma, and can stiffen the rear dampers to prevent the Raptor from squatting under hard acceleration, further improving vehicle stability.

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We mentioned selectable drive modes and again the Raptor’s party trick is its Baja Mode. Not only does Baja mode set the shocks, engine and 10-speed transmission to maximum attack, but selecting it also opens up the exhaust system to full noise.

The Raptor is the only model in the new line-up to get Rock Crawl among its drive modes, and this setting takes the transfer case straight to low range and activates both the front and rear locking differentials.

The Raptor is the only Ranger model to get a front diff lock and the Rock Crawl mode holds the transmission in first gear, making this a true crawling setting.

The lap

Our first lap of this circuit was in a then-current model PX2 Ranger Raptor and, as we’d found when testing them in the past, the Raptor soaked up the bumps, ruts and whoops like no other production 4x4 ute can.

The suspension and chassis were way ahead of the powertrain and my abilities, and I again found myself with my right boot wedged hard against the firewall in search of more power.

An indicator of the performance on this track was on the last long straight where I was told to hold it flat heading in to jump and the ‘old’ Raptor hit around 100km/h as it launched off the lip – the new Raptor would eclipse that mark.

With a bit more knowledge of the track direction, I was back at the start line, this time with Cody alongside in the new Raptor. Helmet on, Baja mode engaged and ready to run.

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The near-on 400 horsepower turbocharged V6 launches the Raptor toward the first corner in a way that drivers of the previous model could only fantasise about. The engine barks as the transmission snaps through the ratios and the corner approaches.

Cody’s tips of where to place the car on the track, when to brake hard and when to hug the inside of the corners helps to boost confidence as I gain a feel for the new car and its abilities.

He also helps with warnings about tightening turns, holes in the track and other idiosyncrasies, while he is also quick to let me know when to hold it flat and feel all the Raptor has on offer.

At one point in the circuit, Cody wanted to demonstrate one of the clever features of the Fox Live Valve dampers.

There was a sharp rut across the track where a watercourse had eroded the sandy surface and he encouraged me to go hard towards it before jumping on the brakes – feeling the way the dampers allowed the weight of the vehicle to transfer forward to maximise the braking performance, then accelerate over the rut and feel the way they adapted in milliseconds to optimise the way they absorbed the sharp edge of the rut.

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Truly mind-blowing performance that makes you feel like an expert and allows you, as a driver, to maximise your abilities. This is a car that will outperform the abilities of most drivers.

Attacking the rest of the lap with hard acceleration, tapping back on the paddle shifter to click back a few ratios coming in to bends, while the EcoBoost’s anti-lag function maintains boost ready for the next application of the accelerator.

Everything in the Raptor – engine, transmission, suspension, brakes, the BFGoodrich tyres – works together to deliver the utmost performance regardless of the terrain.

Maintaining momentum through the last corner, approaching the final straight, Cody reminds me to hold it flat towards the jump. Glancing down at the speedometer and watching the digits climb past where the old car maxxed out – 125, 130, 138, 140 and 143km/h as we hit the jump.

The added speed gave more height in the jump, but the suspension soaked it up like it was nothing and we slowed down to complete the lap.

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If the way the original Ranger Raptor tackled high-speed off-road driving was in a class of its own, then this new ute takes that class to the next level, leaving anything else off the new-car showroom floor in its dusty wake.

Having the Raptor on a dedicated off-road racing course, with a championship-winning rally expert riding shotgun, was the only way I can imagine you could get anywhere near its amazing abilities.

It’s certainly not something you will explore on public roads, but you remind yourself that every bit of the car’s abilities and the way it makes driving easier makes your driving experience better, no matter what the pace and terrain.

The slow road

To demonstrate the Raptor’s benefits at slower speeds on real-world tracks, we headed out on a loop at Loveday that consisted of sandy tracks, dunes, ruts, gravel roads, and low-speed, low-range driving.

You could use Sand mode on Loveday’s dunes, but the Raptor was so much fun here in Baja mode you wouldn’t want to switch to anything else.

With the exhaust open and delivering the V6’s raspy note to full effect, and the transfer case delivering the drive with a bias to the rear axle, the Raptor was just taily enough to have a tonne of fun, while it was never lacking traction or the power to pull through the softer sand.

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The suspension is so forgiving when you come across a rut or bump in the track, you can jump on the brakes, cross the obstacle and get back on the gas with confidence.

The big difference here over the previous model is when you get back on the gas the Raptor has the horsepower to earn its Ford Performance colours and roost up that red outback sand.

The low-range section is a man-made course with dirt mounds, wombat holes, gullies and ruts. It wasn’t the ideal place to test the Raptor’s crawling abilities but it did allow us to use the front and rear lockers, forward-facing camera and various other drive modes, to feel the difference between them. All the systems combined to make easy work of the obstacles, regardless of the drivers’ experience or abilities.

On another level

As much as driving the new Ranger Raptor around Loveday’s tracks was a tonne of fun, the highlight of the day was not behind the wheel but strapped in the passenger's seat. And when I say strapped in, I mean we were strapped in solidly.

This event was not just put on to make a bunch of journos feel like off-road racers in a yet-to-be-released Raptor; it was one day in a program of Ford Performance testing that included finalising the calibrations for the Raptor in Australia, the USA and other markets. The new Raptor will even be available with the bi-turbo diesel in some of those markets, but not here.

A team of Ford Performance engineers and test drivers were at the 4x4 park, including Ali Jammoul, vehicle program director for Ford Performance and Icons – so this was no holiday Down Under for the crew. They also had a camouflaged left-hand-drive F-150 Raptor belting its way around the roughest track on the property.

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To be considered a Ford Performance Raptor vehicle, prototypes must first pass a series of endurance tests set up to simulate a Baja 1000 race. That’s 1000 miles (1600km) at race pace over the harshest terrain, where the car only stops for driver changes and refuelling. This accreditation test applies to the F-150, Bronco and Ranger Raptors around the world.

The Ranger Raptors used for this are fitted with full roll cages, racing seats and harnesses, and anyone travelling in them has to wear a helmet, HANS device and an approved racing suit. This is serious testing and the team at Ford does all it can to minimise risks when driving at this level.

The endurance testing at Loveday was conducted on a track used for top-level off-road racing and includes sections you’d swear were taken from the Finke track and Simpson Desert and transported here to the Riverland. A circuit of around 11km was used for our ride-along, with the test drivers claiming they’d cut a full minute off their lap time compared to the old Ranger Raptor.

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Securely strapped in the race seat and surrounded by a cage of steel tubing, I felt safe and told the driver not to hold back on my account, and we blasted away from the marshalling point.

It’s only when you are in a car equipped such as this, with a professional test driver with thousands of kilometres of experience working the pedals, that you can fully appreciate the abilities of the new Raptor.

Anyone can hold the loud pedal flat in a straight line, but when the driver is pushing the brakes to the limit at every corner, torturing the tyres over the scrub, rocks and sand, working the steering flat out to stay on the track, and pounding the suspension over the ruts and jumps, only then can you get a feeling of what this car is capable of. And it’s capable of more than any other production 4x4 on the market in Australia.

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The hot lap was over all too fast, and climbing out of the roll cage I asked how fast they drive the cars during the prototypes? He replied with a smile, “A bit quicker than we did just then!”

I also asked him how many 1600km endurance runs that car had done and he said it would have been more than six, so more than 80 per cent of the total kilometres on the car would have been at race pace over this track. Torture testing is putting it lightly and no one is going to do this with a road-going Raptor.

To say the Ranger Raptor takes the performance of the mid-size ute to another level is an understatement. It takes it to the stratosphere and there’s nothing else available in this country and at this price, that could come close.

The new Raptor will be flying out of Ford dealer showrooms late in August at a price of $85,490 plus on-road costs.