Ford Australia confirms discussion around Ranger Raptor V8 has taken place
"Sure we (have) talk(ed) about it (but) I am not going to talk about the chances of it happening … because I have nothing to confirm"
Ford has reportedly broken its silence on the mystery surrounding the much rumoured Ranger Raptor V8 by confirming that while it has been discussed, nothing has been confirmed outright.
According to Australia’s carsales.com.au, the Blue Oval’s President Down Under, Kay Hart, said that ever increasing media speculation and reports had led to considerable buyer interest without the project having been given the green light.
“There are now customers ringing saying ‘I want that, I want that’. There have been discussion about ‘could I put a V8 in a Raptor? Sure we (have) talk(ed) about it (but) I am not going to talk about the chances of it happening … because I have nothing to confirm,” Hart told the online publication.
“There are discussions happening on a number of projects. There are Raptor, Wildtrak and XLT discussions, in terms of the Rangers we could look at how we could bring different products to market.”
The publication has also alleged that engineering firm Premcar, who developed the Nissan Navara N-Trek Warrior and soon the Patrol N-Trek Warrior, had been selected for the project as longtime Ford tuner, Tickford, who earlier this week revealed that it plans on supercharging the Raptor V8 if the project is confirmed, has allegedly presented a plan for converting the F-150 into right-hand-drive.
“Right now there are no plans for a right-hand drive F150. We continue to look at what the market is and the great work the Walkinshaw team have done in terms of bringing in and converting (RAM and Chevrolet) vehicles,” she said in reference to the firm that has been converting examples of the Ram 1500 and Chevrolet Silverado into right-hand-drive.
“Does that bring opportunities? Maybe. It’s not something we are looking at right now,” Hart said, before adding that “we have had multiple people and partners come to us” when asked about Tickford’s reported involvement.
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