New Ford Ranger Raptor murders VW Amarok and Hilux GR-Sport

This fastest bakkie thing between VW, Toyota and Ford has been raging on since man invented the wheel.

For years, data numbers have been flying up and down accompanied by lots of heated debate as to who rules the roost. But the Blue Oval has decided to settle this matter once and for all, and they have brought a nuke to a gun fight in their new Ford Ranger Raptor.

Bring a 190 kW VW Amarok V6, bring a 165 kW Toyota Hilux GR-Sport, bring what you want from the showroom floor, the Ford Ranger Raptor simply destroys them all. South Africa officially has a new fatest production bakkie.

Hot hatch territory

A 2.4-ton double cab bakkie kitted out for tackling seriously rough dirt roads like a champ, running on all terrain tyres and then sprinting to 100 km/h in a hot hatch territory time of 6.9 seconds is unheard of.

There is no need to mess around trying to bend the prop shaft around the gearbox because you are sitting on the brake pedal building too much wheelspin inducing boost before blasting off the line.

The Ford Ranger Raptor does not have a Launch Control function, so you just turn the dial and select Baja mode, boot the loud pedal and it hauls through the quarter mile in 15.15 seconds at over 150 km/h and onto its electronic speed limiter of 180 km/h before it gets to the 800 m mark.

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This nuke-like punch is courtesy of some performance inspired insanity that allowed a 292 kW / 583 Nm twin-turbocharged 3.0-litre EcoBoost V6 petrol engine to be massaged into the front of this new Ford Ranger Raptor.

The previous generation Ranger Raptor had the show, but with only 157 kW and 500 Nm on tap from its 2.0-litre biturbo diesel mill, there was no real go to speak of. Well, consider this point comprehensively addressed now.

The now familiar 10-speed automatic transmission features boost programming per gear along with seven selectable drive modes. Plus new features like Trail Crawl, as well as a user-defined “R” MyMode and an electronically controlled active exhaust system that offers Quiet, Normal, Sport and the already mentioned Baja.

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Heavy on the juice

In addition to these suspension and exhaust modes, you can select from four steering modes in the Ford Ranger Raptor, Normal, Sport, Comfort and Off-Road to all bring home just some of the versatility offered by this double cab bakkie that is unbeatable on tar and on dirt.

Is there a downside to this performance? Yes. These ponies like to be fed and if you think you are getting anywhere near the claimed fuel consumption figure of 11.5-litres per 100 km you are not. I saw numbers in the low 14s when driving like a civilised human being and over 20 litres per 100 km when I wanted to play.

But my logic is that you know what you want and what you are getting yourself into when you put down your R1 094 900 for the new Ranger Raptor and this price you must pay for the fun you will have when driving this bakkie, makes it well worth your while.

Ford Ranger Raptor’s numbers