New Ford Ranger Raptor raring to race

The 2023 Ford Ranger Raptor doesn’t arrive in showrooms until the second half of this year, but Ford is already eyeing a race program for its new V6-petrol powered off-road predator.

“There’s a strong desire to see where the capability of this car stops,” said Ford Performance Program Manager, Justin Capicchiano, at the reveal of the new Ford Ranger Raptor.

So far, Ford’s F-150 Raptor is no stranger to Baja competition, while Ford US has just announced the DR Bronco – standing for ‘Desert Racer’ and billed as ‘Competition Ready’ – yet the Ranger Raptor has remained on the sidelines as a success in the showroom only. That’s likely to with the new 2022 model.

“Racing’s definitely on our radar,” said Capicchiano. “We’ve got to find the right program that makes sense for it, but I think it’s a ‘watch this space’ more than a ‘no we’re not’.”

With the new Ranger Raptor packing a huge punch with its 292kW/583Nm twin-turbo petrol V6, nearly double its predecessor’s 157kW/500Nm turbodiesel, and further extension of its already class-leading suspension and off-road capability, the new model appears absolutely ripe for racing – especially given the switch from diesel to petrol power.

“Petrol gives you a lot more options in relation to the high-speed desert capability – and that’s a core element of Raptor DNA. More than anything else, that’s where the Raptor’s got to work,” Capicchiano says. “There’s other gains we’ve been able to get just around the way the thing performs now … throttle response, immediacy of power, ability to be steered.”

What’s more, the V6 – taken from the US-market Bronco, which shares its T6 underpinnings with the Ranger – packs technology such as an anti-lag system for its Garrett turbochargers, while in perhaps a sign from the racing gods, Ford says its iron-graphene block is the made of the same material as the FR9 engine that powers Ford’s Mustang NASCAR.

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“I think if you were around at Bathurst, Trevor [Worthington, Vice President, Global Product Development] and Mark [Rushbrook, Global head of Ford Performance motorsport] were pretty animated around what they wanted to see … Ford Performance in the US is very interested in what this car does.”

The Australian Off-Road Championship is sponsored by BF Goodrich, the very brand fitted on every Ranger Raptor, and includes the St George 399 in March, as well as the famed mid-year Finke Desert Race.

It may be a stretch, but Ranger Raptor could even compete in the world’s premier off-road event, the Dakar Rally – yet Capicchiano says it’s not thinking too far ahead just yet.

“There’s a number of different off-road categories that this car could slot into; it could go into Showroom categories, it could go into T2 categories, it could go into Class 4 – there’s so many different places where you could put this thing. What our job is to figure out the right opportunity for everyone.”