FORD RANGER RAPTOR

Stepping out of a tiny roadster and into the largest car on our fleet

- JACK HARRISON

MILEAGE 9566

WHY WE'RE RUNNING IT

To see if a Baja-ready pick-up truck can handle the Wild West that is British roads

After spending two A weeks whizzing about in a glorious Mazda MX-5 before swapping into Matt Prior's Ford Ranger Raptor, I've come to realise that size does matter - but not in the way you might expect.

For example, say you're headed to Autocar HQ to pick up a vehicle that, due to our rather compact under-office car park, has been relegated to the multi-storey across the roada narrow concrete hell full of square corners with little manoeuvring room, ramps with low walls on one side and metal railings on the other and very little head room.

I don't like multi-storeys at the best of times, but the MX-5 made it effortless. In fact, I was enjoying threading it through like I was on some sort of indoor rally stage (responsibly, of course), but the smile was wiped from my face when I reached the top floor, found the Raptor and realised I was going to have to squeeze it down seven floors.

Hauling yourself into the Raptor, it's impossible not to notice the height: the MX-5's roofline doesn't even make it to the base of the Raptor's windows and the top of the load bed alone is roughly the same height as a Fiat 500.

That said, I was pleasantly surprised from the off, noting how easy it was to make out the front corners from the driver's seat and keep track of the rear - as far away as it may be - through head-sized mirrors, and that was before I turned on the car to reveal the bird's-eye parking view created by the camera system.