Miami V8-powered Ford Ranger on dyno

Australian engineering is a wonderful thing.

While it’s a shame that we’re so close to losing our last few remnants of Aussie automotive manufacturing, there’s some solace in the fact that we still have plenty of other things to tinker with...and that there are people with the bravery and creativity to do it.

So when we discovered that someone had decided to put an FPV Miami engine in a Ford Ranger, we got a little bit excited.

Each year, the team at Diesel Leaders takes on a project outside of their usual truck repairs and tuning.

In 2016, they decided to build an Aussie Raptor.

We tried to contact Diesel Leaders to tell us about it, but they were probably flat out getting Kenworths running tip-top – we’ll bring you the build story when we’ve had a proper chat with them.

Tickford Ford Ranger quick review

However, Real Dyno Performance was handed the keys to the Ranger after it was built to get it running as mean as possible.

What we found out from them is that the thing is a beast.

It’s the one on the left.

5.0-litres of supercharged Ford V8 was able to put 252kW through the rear wheels while retaining the ability to go 4WD.

620kW daily driven Ford Territory

After Real Dyno was done with it, it was putting out 344kW.

Lee Bloom, the boss-man at Real Dyno told MOTOR it was a good looking build, and that everything looked well engineered.

“It’s such an awesome thing… I even thought about one for myself!

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“It felt like driving a GT… just a couple of feet taller.”

He said that Diesel Leaders originally intended for it to be a five week build, but it ended up being more like six months.

That’s probably enough evidence you’ll ever need that you can’t rush art.