Ford Ranger Raptor

The master blaster…

- Angus Boswell

What a blast! If you are a fan of spirited off-road driving, there is much to like about Ford’s just-released Ranger Raptor.

The Raptor has been elevated to a performance class of its own by the Aussie engineers who did the development work, and it’s the closest we are likely to get to the iconic Stateside F150 Raptor.

I can’t think of any other locally-available production four-wheel-drive vehicle that offers this kind of poise and balance at the price. For a load-carrying bakkie, rated slightly lower than a standard Ranger, to carry 607kg and tow 2500kg, its ride quality and ability to soak up both the big hits and stuttering corrugations is hard to believe.

Launched to the media at Goera Pan outside Upington, where the Dakar racing off-roaders do some of their shake-down testing, we put it through its paces on both churned-up red sand-dune routes and on hard-packed, rutted gravel, where a few humps had the Raptor delivering plenty of air. Our adrenaline-infused efforts on the so-called ‘rally’ route were put into perspective by a few hot laps as passenger with Lance Woolridge, a Class T champion in the SA Cross Country Series, whose left-foot braking and vastly superior off-roading skills shaved quite a few minutes off our paltry efforts. That he did repeated hot laps in a number of the Raptors, in blazing hot conditions, speaks volumes for the durability of the vehicle.