BELIEVE THE HYPE

OUR FIRST DRIVE OF FORD'S NEW V6 DIESEL RANGER SUGGESTS THE NEW MODEL IS GOING TO BE A RIPPER!

- MATT RAUDONIKIS

THE next-generation 2022 Ford Ranger should be hitting showrooms about the same time this magazine is hitting the newsstands, and Ford Australia has managed a calculated drip-feed of information about the new cars for the past year.

While the official release date is in June, we got our first chance to get up close to Ford's new truck back in November 2021 when we were given access to a prototype vehicle and the engineers behind them. Joining us at Ford's secretive You Yangs Proving Ground near Geelong, Victoria, were Pritika Maharaj, Ranger and Everest program manager, and Ian Foston, chief engineer for the T6 platform on which the Ranger, Everest, and Bronco are built.

The vehicles at hand are known as TT prototypes. That is, they are the first vehicles to come off the production line in Thailand as opposed to the earlier prototypes that are hand-built at Ford Australia's Broadmeadows facility. As well as the two factories in Thailand where the Australian production cars will come from, the new Ranger will also be built in North America, South America, and South Africa.

The cars were still heavily camouflaged for this drive, as this was happening well before Ford unveiled the look of the car and before we knew any specifications of the drivetrains and their outputs. Of course, we now know what they look like and what will be powering them.

While still a strong suspicion at this time, we were pleasantly surprised to find the cars we would be driving were powered by the V6 diesel engine. While Ford couldn't give us the details at the time, we now know the 3.0-litre V6 puts out 184kW at 3250rpm and 600Nm from 1750 to 2250rpm.