Despite the Ranger Raptor having been officially unveiled as long ago as February 2018, Ford has been cagey about its off-road bakkie’s performance figures. Until now. Yes, a few interesting details (including a claimed 0-100 km/h time) have emerged from the international launch Down Under.
Powered by a fresh, twin-turbo 2,0-litre four-cylinder diesel engine worth 157 kW and 500 N.m (and mated to a new ten-speed automatic transmission), Ford Performance claims that the new double-cab bakkie will complete the 0-100 km/h sprint in 10,5 seconds, before topping out at 170 km/h. It’ll sip at 8,2 L/100 km, says the brand.
A little rudimentary maths will tell you that the Ranger Raptor’s claimed sprint time makes it around 2,5 seconds slower to the three-figure mark than both the (larger-engined) Volkswagen Amarok V6 and Mercedes-Benz X350d.
Of course, the Blue Oval brand has already emphasised that the Ranger Raptor is “not about the engine”, with Jamal Hameedi, chief engineer at Ford Performance, telling us at the reveal in Bangkok in February that “if you’re talking about power; if you’re focused on power, that’s not a Raptor. That’s not what Raptor’s about. It’s about the chassis and the suspension”.
Speaking to motoring.com.au at the launch, Trevor Worthington, Ford Asia Pacific’s vice president of product development, added that the 2,0-litre engine delivered a strong balance of performance, fuel economy and refinement.
“There’s this thing called engine capacity, which some customers get hung up on, and some customers really don’t care [about],” Worthington told the Australian publication. “At the end of the day, people have got to drive the car and really experience it.”
