Living with the 2022 Ford Ranger Raptor X

• Introduction: Ranger Anxiety
• Month Two: Baja Fresh

Introduction: Ranger Anxiety

Ford Performance's most controversial vehicle gets a second chance

“I think I’ve made a terrible mistake.”

As an opening impression to a new long termer, that’s not fantastic. I had a moment to consider my opinion having driven the Ford Ranger Raptor X just 50 metres.

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I’d spent the previous few days in a Porsche Taycan Turbo S, so I’d had my expectations of meaningful acceleration somewhat realigned. Such as it was, I pulled out across three lanes of traffic from Ford’s Broadmeadows plant, at a velocity that would have seemingly seen me in danger of being rammed up the chuff by a perky tectonic plate. Slow didn’t even cover it.

A friend called me that evening to ask if I was keen to join him on a drive into the hills that weekend and I had to admit that I didn’t have a vehicle that could keep up with the group. I looked at the huge blue truck and wondered how the hell I was about to sell the benefits of a vehicle with a power-to-weight ratio of 66kW per tonne to the readers of MOTOR.

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The next morning dawned wet, so I headed on a solo excursion into the hills. Even with a power-to-weight figure monstered by a Kia Picanto GT, the Ranger is surprisingly immersive, largely because the rear tyres and damp bitumen offer a modest coefficient of grip. In four months with a GR Yaris Rallye, I experienced sealed surface oversteer once. After half an hour in the wet in the Raptor X, you’re in danger of wearing out the stability control warning light.

I swap the blacktop for the vast network of deserted logging tracks that spear off into the hidden folds of the Yarra Ranges, engage four-wheel drive, Baja Mode and let rip. Suddenly, the dozy standard gearbox calibration and clumsiness is expunged and on wide, well-sighted corners, it’s possible to shuck off all that weight and let the big pick-up get up on its toes, albeit at a speed of maybe 25km/h.

I have to say, it’s about as much fun as I’ve had in a day of driving for a long time and it’s a fascinating exercise in honing car control skills. No police, no cameras, no other traffic, nobody to disturb; just you and a few bemused kookaburras for company.

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It feels like a particularly Australian recipe for pure driving fun, albeit in a way that you may not at first expect.

I recall Scott Newman claiming much the same when he drove the Raptor for a comparison versus the Holden SportsCat in the December 2018 issue of MOTOR, only to be subsequently buried in an avalanche of hate mail for even featuring pick-ups in the magazine.

I’m opening myself up to being tarred and feathered again here. I can, to a certain extent, appreciate some of the readers’ concerns. The Raptor is a vast lug of a thing that’s conspicuous and, with its well-documented payload and towing limitations, doesn’t always bring a significant practicality payoff by way of recompense.

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It is huge fun in the right circumstances though, and the key to getting the best out of the Raptor is to weave enough of those occurrences into your driving. I’m fortunate enough to live within minutes of a huge network of dirt roads, so I’ve found a way for it to work for me. Emerging back onto the blacktop after a long gravel drive then feels as if you’ve got superhuman levels of grip. Unless it’s wet, that is.

Is it a MOTOR sort of car? On road, not really. Get it in its element and it delivers a huge dynamic payback. That’ll do for me. – AE

Things we love:

• Gravel chops
• Fun drive modes
• No traffic on route

Things we rue:

• Awkward to park
• Wet grip on-road
• Yeah. Not quick

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Month Two: Baja Fresh

Is the Raptor X's Baja mode a gimmick or something genuinely useful?

Let's face it, the Ford Ranger Raptor isn’t particularly quick.

We couldn’t breach the 10-second barrier to 100km/h in one, but making your Raptor feel a good deal faster doesn’t entail a trip to your local tuning shop. Just press a couple of buttons.

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Prang the MODE button on the steering wheel and choose either Sport if you’re on the blacktop or Baja if you’re on the loose.

Both are available in either rear or all-wheel drive and deliver a crisper throttle pedal and quicker-witted transmission management. Instantly, it wakes up from its darted sloth default setting and feels a bit spryer.

Baja mode also backs off the stability control threshold a bit, although not so much that it’ll allow big yaw angles. For that, a five-second press on the stability control system switches everything off and lets you have a slide if you think you’re up to it.

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You’ll need quick hands though. At 3.5 turns lock to lock, there’s a fair degree of wheel flapping involved. A half-hand of heroic-feeling opposite lock won’t do anything but gently deflect the sidewalls of the 285/70 17 BF Goodrich light truck tyres.

You need to pick your places to safely drive so expressively in something that weighs nearly 2.4 tonnes. You’ll require a lot of space, good visibility and very few people; a combination that Australia seems to do very well.

I prefer to leave the stability on and play in the envelope that Baja mode allows, which seems to give more leniency in all-wheel drive than in rear-drive.

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On one occasion I forgot to switch the manual dial out of all-wheel drive when rejoining the blacktop, however, the driveline shunt rapidly reminds you that remedial action is required.

Another bonus of Baja mode is that it seems a good deal more tolerant of two-footed driving, allowing you to left-foot brake while the right foot keeps the forced induction diesel unit on song.

Aside from walking into the standard fit tow bar twice, giving me matching welts on both shins, I ought to issue a word of warning about the 12v power outlet in the tray bed.

While wielding an air compressor, I attempted to lift the sprung lid and jam the plug into the socket one-handed but such is the strength of the return spring that all I managed to do was rasher the skin off my thumb in the process. Seems that this particular Raptor is as bloodthirsty as its name suggests.

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Otherwise, things have been extremely enjoyable. It really comes into its own as a beach vehicle, where you can throw fins, board shorts and reef shoes straight into the bed to dry, but manoeuvring it into a parking spot at the beach can require a bit of attention.

The 12.9-meter turning circle is some 20cm broader than that of a regular Ranger, and you need to take its leisurely lock into account when swinging into a bay if you don’t want to have to take a couple of bites at it.

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With details of the next-generation Raptor now in the public domain, it’ll be interesting to see how this first-gen car is remembered. Sure, the 2.0-litre diesel is peaky, with a 250rpm band of max torque between 1750 and 2000rpm, but the 10-speed gearbox logic is smart enough to keep you in business, so long as you’re in Sport or Baja modes.

At the moment, I’m waiting for the Raptor to return from duties as a camera car at Wheels’ Car of the Year shindig. There’s a stack of tasty metal in the MOTOR car park, but there’s something about heading into the forests in the big Ford and knowing that it’ll lap up all the punishment that you can throw at it that has me counting down the days until it returns.

That in itself has to be the mark of something good. – AE

Things we love:

• Baja mode works a treat
• Adventure seeker
• Comfy for a ute

Things we rue:

• Vicious 12v socket
• Others stealing it
• Turning circle

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