Ford Performance Proves Enthusiasts Come First with Raptor Models

With its ongoing collaboration with Fox Racing, the success of Ford Performance’s modern Raptor family shows what’s possible when a brand acknowledges its enthusiasts.

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Established in 1991, Ford’s Special Vehicles Team (SVT) was tasked with designing and developing innovative ways to create excitement around the brand’s existing products. An obvious place to start was the best-selling vehicle in the US, the F-150 pick-up. The first SVT Lighting was born in 1993, boasting a heavily modified suspension and frame set-up, along with a potent 5.8-litre V8 engine. While a second-generation Lighting would introduce even more performance, an accompanying body kit and a lowered suspension, by the late 2000s, Ford realised that while focusing on outright performance with its pinnacle F-Series instead of playing to its rugged strengths, it was perhaps missing an opportunity.

Buoyed by the popularity of high-adrenaline events like the annual Baja 1000 off-road race and the formation of a key working relationship with suspension specialists Fox Racing, the F-150 SVT Raptor launched onto the scene in 2008 – with Ford sending a Raptor R derivative straight from its Las Vegas unveiling to the start of that year’s Baja 1000.

Sharing only its cabin and headlamps with the 12th-generation F-150 upon which it was based, the first Raptor captured the imagination via its bespoke bodywork, imposing stance and signature grille that replaced the brand’s famous oval badge with bold ‘FORD’ lettering. More than its standard 5.4-litre V8 powertrain, though, the impressive workings of its Fox Racing-tuned suspension, including patented internal bypass dampers, defined the Raptor’s character and capabilities. This technology’s ability to absorb massive bumps and compressions on notably rough terrain, meant that the default ride quality on everyday surfaces proved a game-changer for this segment.

Coinciding with the growing popularity of the so-called leisure-focused double-cab segment, our market was introduced to the Raptor nameplate in 2019. Designed and developed by Ford Performance (having absorbed SVT in 2015) in Australia, this first Ranger-based package aimed to mimic its F-150 sibling’s sense of presence and occasion if not, for the time being, its outright performance or soundtrack. Instead, this vehicle fitted with the brand’s proven 2.0 BiTDI powertrain and features extensive upgrades to its chassis, suspension and the off-road module of its drivetrain management system.

The relative success of the first Ranger Raptor package made the development of the current V6-powered version easily justifiable. With the fifth-generation Ranger’s F-150-inspired styling adding to the appeal, one in every six Ranger double-cabs sold in Ford’s IMG regions (including Australia, New Zealand, Asia and South Africa) are flagship Raptor derivatives. In 2024, the Ranger Raptor accounted for 1 930 of Ford’s annual sales volume.

Invited to the deserts of Dubai to sample three members of Ford’s modern Raptor family, it was impossible not to smile at the sight of an F-150 Raptor, a Ranger Raptor and the newest member, the Bronco Raptor, parked together outside my hotel. Ahead of another welcome opportunity later in the day to spend time behind the wheel of the pinnacle Ranger, my morning route into the sand was behind the wheel of the F-150. The best-selling vehicle in the US for the 37th straight year, it’s difficult for someone from our market to comprehend how large the modern F-150 is, even before gaining the Raptor treatment. In this form, the Ford is more than 300 mm longer, 500 mm wider and 100 mm taller than the Jeep Gladiator double-cab.

As you can imagine, these exterior dimensions translate to a massive cabin with more rear passenger legroom than a business-class airline seat, with a relatively intimidating on-road footprint and a corresponding near-three-ton bulk. Assembled exclusively in left-hand drive, while quickly comfortable behind the wheel, I was grateful once lined asphalt made way for unrestricted sand a short distance from our driving starting point.

Shared with the Bronco, the 3.1-inch Fox Racing live-valve damper setup on the F-150 Raptor is paired with a Panhard rear suspension to lend this truck one of the most impressively compliant ride qualities I’ve experienced. At one point in our guided route through the dunes, we were encouraged to point the nose of our furious Ford towards the horizon before burying the throttle. While a flagship Raptor R is fitted with a 537 kW supercharged V8 powerplant, the standard model’s 3.5-litre twin-turbocharged V6 provides notable go-forward in this application, complete with an altogether deeper, gruffer soundtrack than the Ranger’s 3.0-litre engine.

Fitted with 37×12.5 R17 all-terrain tyres, piloting the F-150 Raptor is an exercise in finding the optimal moment in the balancing act of body movement to add abundant power to proceedings. It’s fun, but the Ranger is decidedly nimbler and more engaging in most driving scenarios compared with its bigger brother. A traditional rival to the Jeep Wrangler, Ford captured the imagination of a generation of movie-goers, Hot Wheels collectors and true-crime documentary enthusiasts (think OJ Simpson) when it revealed the sixth-generation Bronco in 2021 – 55 years after this popular nameplate was introduced as the brand’s first SUV.

Sharing much of its underpinnings with the modern Ranger, while Ford remains tight-lipped on plans for right-hand drive versions of the newest Bronco, what’s clear when staring at the flagship derivative is that nothing was off the table in terms of making this the ultimate expression of Raptor badge’s reputation. Fitted in many markets with 37-inch BF Goodrich K02 tyres as standard, while the Bronco Raptor is 509 mm shorter than its Ranger sibling, its broader frame gains 149 mm in track width up front and 159 mm at the rear compared to the double-cab. Sharing its more advanced suspension setup with the F-150, while on-road NVH levels are inevitably affected by the substantial rubber fitted to this vehicle’s Tonka Truck-mimicking profile, off-road, the Bronco proved all but unstoppable.

Including the ability to remove most of the vehicle’s body panels, the so-called “rock specialist” member of the Raptor family features 333 mm ground clearance, front and rear locking differentials, electric sway bar disconnect, a G.O.A.T (Goes Over Any Terrain) driving mode selector with no less than nine settings and a serious sense of presence. The flagship Bronco shares its twin-turbocharged 3.0 V6 petrol engine and 10-speed automatic transmission with the Ranger Raptor.

I appreciated that the three Raptor models I drove are bonded by respective Baja driving modes that unleash the sharpest throttle maps, the most focused steering and suspension settings and a raucous corresponding exhaust note in each package. While a right-hand drive F-150 Raptor package for IMG markets is unlikely, because it’s built on a version of the T6 platform shared with the modern Ranger, there’s a (small) chance Ford will consider signing off Bronco for RHD markets, including South Africa and Australia. Until then – and with an alternative package like an Everest Raptor still altogether plausible – it’s encouraging to know that the Blue Oval still has the interests of enthusiasts at heart.

At the heart of impressively exhilarating production models like the modern Mustang and Raptor family and, indeed, with a thriving global racing programme (including a return to Dakar and, from 2026, Formula One), the team at Ford Performance needs to be acknowledged for its efforts in engineering unapologetically “old-school” cool projects.

Find the full feature in the May 2025 issue of CAR Magazine.

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