Ford's Raptor.
William Kelly
EV advocate. Buzzhead (my invention). Still a petrolhead. Connect. I don't mind disagreement-it forces thinking. I know aquaculture & am a consultant in CSI project management. Journalist in matters motoring.
Say no more. It was very orange.
And yes, I had to pry the key out of the hands of a fellow journo in order to go and collect a table. So I was only in it for an hour or two and did a princely 38 kms and so this is not a serious review. But it's the first time I've been in a new Raptor and it's in COTY this year as a performance vehicle, which with 292 kW and 560 odd nM of torque from a 3l v6 turbo petrol motor kinda makes sense.
The Raptor has of course the suspension reputation and Baja mode which is Ford's morse code for 'super mental' and images of tearing up sand in dunes just cannot be avoided. You can program settings on this thing like it were a sportsy Beemer - you name it, you can set it.
Did I do the throaty exhaust note thing? You betcha I did!
Did I plant it to see how the 10 speed box handles real power and torque? I might have...
And it handles it just fine but given the nature of the beast and the level of customisation driven by the electronics it's easily forgiven for any clonks or bumps or thumps as it belts through the gears up and down to get done what Raptors do - lots of speed, lots of supreme road attack and plenty of Raptor smoothing of bad roads into non issues.
Did I like it though? Of course I liked it. The Raptor is now a true blue Saffer icon and the new one lives up to the name most assuredly. It looks the part, it feels the part and it will "Hulk: Smash!" on demand anywhere anytime.
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I'm just not sure I loved it because all that fun comes with a significant fuel ouchies. Go anywhere near the accelerator pedal at all and you're at 15l/100. Have some fun and you're at 22 heading for 25.
The Raptor's biggest problem is simply that it's not electric... yet...
For me it's not a COTY contender this time around. And that's purely not because the Ranger took it deservedly last year, but more because the Raptor finds itself in a class of its own which makes it hard to compare with like for like.
That all said however it is still a hoot of a vehicle, trimmed to CEO spec with way too many toys for me to even play with in my brief encounters. But what I can say is that if you need a performance premium off roader go anywhere bakkie that also happens to come with suspension to blow your hair back and adds all the good bits of a big bad kick ass delinquent, well then, the Raptor is simply The One To Have.