Ford Ranger Raptor - long-term review

Huge, heavy vehicles purporting to be 'sporty' are extremely stupid, aren't they? No matter what the press release says, the website marketing slogans might promise or the 'Ring lap time suggest, you can't defy the laws of physics. Trying to make a 2.5-tonne SUV behave like a sportscar is a fruitless and ultimately absurd pursuit. They might be fast and impressive, but they're also profligate and demonstrate engineering persistence rather than true imagination and innovation.

Well, yeah. Agreed. Uh-huh. No doubt. But check out my new Ranger Raptor!

Ford's extreme pick-up gets a pass because it isn't trying to be a sportscar. Not a traditional one, anyway. Instead it's about flying over dunes, ripping across dry lake beds, howling through mud and gravel and generally having a great time taming the great outdoors. Part Trophy truck, part WRC car, it's a bigger, bolder, more badass and more useable 911 Dakar or Lamborghini Sterrato.

Sounds rather breathless, doesn't it? Well, I'm excited. Ever since spending an extended time in California, the off-roading bug has bitten. Not rock-crawling or wading through water up to windshield (sic) height. But seeking out great spaces and skimming and sliding over them as fast as possible. The freedom is something akin to a religious experience. Bringing a little slice of that sense of unstoppable adventure to the UK seems hugely appealing. And the Raptor is the vehicle to do it.

It's based on a Ford Ranger, of course. We've gone full badboy spec by opting for Shadow Black paint (a £720 option) and the 3.0-litre twin-turbocharged V6 petrol engine, which produces 289bhp at 5,500pm and 362lb ft at 2300pm and has a 10-speed automatic 'box. Not massive numbers but good enough for 0-62mph in 7.9 seconds and a top speed of 111mph. There's also a diesel version. But, well, just don't go there. Our Raptor costs £65,359.

More exciting still than the rorty-sounding V6 is the uprated chassis and the Raptor's very trick off-road Fox shocks. Featuring strengthened frame rails (remember, this is a body-on-frame vehicle), stronger suspension turrets, beefier rear damper brackets, plus reinforcements to the body itself, the Raptor is well equipped to fly and land without twisting like a giant coke can. There's also a front 'bash plate' and skid plates to protect engine and 'box. The suspension is similarly uprated, with new control arms and those sturdy and sophisticated FOX 2.5in Live Valve shocks. They monitor and adapt compression damping 500-times per second and feature an internal bypass valve to improve ride quality and utilise Teflon-infused oil to reduce friction.

Quite why you'd need all of this in rural Northamptonshire is another question. The Raptor feels vast, slightly unwieldy on narrow lanes and, well, I haven't found a single dune to leap yet. There must be one around here somewhere...

But even if the great outdoors consists of some speed bumps and riding the odd kerb to let other road users past, I'm pretty happy. The Raptor has character in abundance, loads of room for the family, a giant screen that's actually pretty responsive and easy to use and it feels like a quality item. And the monster BF Goodrich tyres are brilliantly progressive and hopelessly slippery in rainy conditions on tarmac, which makes selecting Baja mode and locking the Raptor in rear-drive about as much fun as you can have on a roundabout at 18mph.