While the latest build by Neil Woolridge Motorsport (NWM) may represent the outgoing Ranger from the Blue Oval, there is nothing outdated about the rally-ready Ford Ranger T1+ from the Pietermaritzburg based outfit which is set to contend in the South African Rally-Raid Championship this year.
The Ranger Raptor reveal of the new generation is still fresh in our mind as what a performance bakkie is all about but the creation from NWM is something vastly different. It is a purpose built rally-ready Ford Ranger and shares little with its newer standard version. Built and designed in-house from the ground-up, the T1+ regulation bakkie will be the choice of the NWM Ford Castrol Team and compete in the 2022-1 Mpumalanga 400 which kicks off with the South African Rally-Raid Championship on the 25th of March.
The team managed to win two races and finished second overall last season and the latest model should provide even more success after team principal Neil Woolridge stated: “We started redesigning our Ranger and the various new components required around the middle of last year once the T1+ rules were finalised,”
The exterior looks far from stock, particularly without being adorned in any sponsorship stickers or colourful liveries. The naked aesthetic portrays completely bespoke aramid weave carbon-fibre bodywork which includes the butterfly doors which have been carried over from the previous bakkie.
Wider flares on the rally-ready Ford Ranger push the width out by 300 mm and massive 37-inch knobbly tyres with 17-inch rally spec wheels sit beneath all four arches. While they look much smaller in comparison to the massive tyres, the changes allow for larger 355 mm disc front brakes to bring the carbon-fibre equipped machine to a stop in a short period of time while water cooling enables less brake fade on the hot and dry stages of the Rally-Raid.
Updated upper and lower control arms and a new single-damper suspension setup enable increased wheel travel, taking its capability to 350 mm from the previous models 280 mm.
A 3.5-litre Ford EcoBoost V6 is under the hood which is the same as the one from last year. This means that the new rally-ready Ford Ranger is good for 300 kW and double that torque figure in Newton metres.