Why I bought a Ford Ranger Raptor! Plus joining Ford on a development drive!
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00:00G'day, I'm Paul. So, I told you recently that I'm buying a Ford Ranger Raptor,
00:05and I'm very excited about that. And this video is going to explain why I bought it,
00:09and it's going to be part of an ownership series. And that whole ownership series is
00:13going to be in a playlist, so you can watch them all back from the start if you want to.
00:15Today's video is going to focus on a development trip I did with Ford ages ago. It was like last
00:21year, and I'm finally allowed to talk about it now. That was a development trip for Ranger
00:26Everest and Ranger Raptor. So, we're going to go through the details there,
00:29and I'll run you through exactly why I'm buying this vehicle. Now, stay tuned as well next week,
00:34because we're going to do a live Q&A, and I want you guys to help me choose a colour,
00:38and also a fun registration plate for the car. So, if that has already gone live,
00:43you can see a link for it up here. But if it hasn't, make sure you subscribe to our channel
00:46anyway, so you'll get notified each one of these ownership videos goes live. But let's get started.
00:52Now, if you have been following me on social media, you'll know that when I bought my Tesla
00:56Model 3 and the Toyota Supra, I bought them because there was kind of a story and a connection
01:01behind the cars. I didn't just buy them because I wanted a new car. And the Ranger Raptor is kind of
01:06similar. So, with the Tesla, I was the only Australian journalist that was invited over to
01:10the Fremont factory when that car was launched, and I had a chance to interview the lead program
01:15manager for that car, who was an Aussie bloke, and he had a connection back to Australia where
01:20he worked on things like the Ford Territory and the Falcon. So, there was kind of this Australian
01:24tie. I then had a chance to drive the car from Los Angeles through to Las Vegas for the SEMA show,
01:30and that was just such a cool experience. And I gelled with the car so much that I bought
01:35the exact same car in Australia. So, same colour, same interior, same spec, everything.
01:39And it was the same story with the Supra. I really love that BMW 3-litre turbocharged 6.
01:46When I heard that they were putting it in a body that was going to be co-developed with Toyota,
01:50and that Toyota would be doing the ride and handling work, and BMW would be doing the
01:54infotainment, it was kind of like the perfect car. I then had a chance to join the Toyota team in
01:59Spain for a pre-development drive, and I don't know, I just really sort of gelled with it and
02:03just felt at one with the car, and I knew that I had to buy one. So, the Ford here is kind of
02:08the same thing. And you'll see here in this video that the Ford Australia team, they've been behind
02:13the majority of the work for Ranger and Everest, and in particular Ranger Raptor. They've put a lot
02:17of effort into completely differentiating this vehicle from the rest of the Ranger range. And I
02:23think that's what really excited me about it. It made me want to drive one, but it was all
02:27solidified when I went on this development drive with the Ford team. So, let's get stuck into that,
02:32and I'll run you through exactly how it all worked.
02:35What does Ford do development drives? Well, the whole concept of a development program is that
02:41you do all of your work on a computer. They then build these prototypes by hand. They're sent to
02:46Ford. Ford does a lot of development work then at the proving ground in closed condition, so no one
02:51can see what the car looks like. But at some point, they have to hit the public roads. They
02:55have to really see what these vehicles are like when they are driven in and around suburbia and
02:59on off-road tracks, especially for things like Ranger, Ranger Raptor, and Everest. And in this
03:04particular development drive, Ford wanted to do some, I guess, final validation work on ARB
03:09accessories. So, they're the off-road partner that Ford has chosen to supply aftermarket accessories
03:15to these Ford vehicles. But they also wanted to do some final checks on the four-wheel drive
03:20systems as well to make sure that when a customer takes these vehicles off-road, and they push them
03:24to their limits, that they're actually doing the right thing. So, they've done a lot of
03:28that they're actually going to work, and they don't break. So, that was the whole point of this
03:32development drive. So, I was invited by Ford to attend with them on one of the loops through the
03:37Victorian High Country. Now, keep in mind, it was mid-November at this point, two weeks away from
03:42summer, and it was snowing. So, the conditions were treacherous. It really is just some of the
03:47worst off-road conditions I've seen in this particular part of Victoria. So, it was a real
03:51good test for these cars to make sure that all of the systems work. Why are they all covered in camo?
03:56Well, when we got to the hotel, the development cars were all under tarps with special codes on
04:00them. And that's simply there so the public can't see exactly what's under the tarp. When they do
04:05take the tarp off, the cars are then covered in camouflage. They have these sort of fake bits on
04:09them. And we've actually shot a separate video explaining some of the camouflage in finer detail.
04:13So, we will run through that when that goes live. But it's all basically to stop prying eyes. Often,
04:18these vehicles are still one or two years away from being released, and Ford doesn't want to
04:21affect their current sales, which is why they cover everything up as much as they can. But
04:26let's kick things off with a bloke called Justin Cappuccino. He's the Ford Performance Program
04:30Manager for Ranger Raptor. I went for a drive with him in one of the development cars to talk
04:35through some of the engineering processes, what has changed on the Ranger Raptor, and a surprising
04:40amount of mileage that was on the car that we're actually driving. Okay, so we have hit the road
04:45in the Raptor, and I'm joined by Justin. Justin is basically in charge of the Ranger Raptor,
04:51both here in Australia and also globally. Justin, tell us, what has changed with this
04:57Raptor compared to the current one that people see out on the road?
05:01A lot. I suppose the big difference that everyone's going to notice is the step up in
05:06the powertrain. So, we're moving from a 2-litre bi-turbo diesel to a 3-litre twin-turbo petrol V6.
05:12And within that, there's obviously a lot of other things that we've changed downstream to manage
05:17the additional power, right? So, it's quite torquey low down, and it's also got a pretty
05:21good top end. So, you kind of get the best of both worlds when you're wanting to go low range.
05:25You're getting that torquey, big stroke motor, and then when you're really revving it out,
05:29you've got a sort of a V6, which does really like to rev. And I think suspension is another
05:35thing worth talking about as well. The suspension in the current gen Ranger Raptor is pretty awesome.
05:40This has stepped it up a notch, though, and kind of relates to the F-150 as well, right?
05:44Yeah, similar family of suspension systems. So, it uses Fox's live valve damping system,
05:49which is an active damping system. So, it's electronically controlled, and you can actually
05:53control that from inside the vehicle as well. So, what it means is it controls the compression
05:58side of the damping stroke and allows you to have a bigger tuning window from a dynamics perspective,
06:04opens up that ability to have something that works on really fast flying surfaces and also on,
06:10say, you know, just your normal public roads as well.
06:13And just in terms of drive modes, I think that that was one of the things people enjoyed and
06:18had fun with Ranger Raptor. What's changed now? How are the drive modes different? Like,
06:23what can you do now that you couldn't do before? Yeah, so we now have seven drive modes,
06:28and within that you have a customisation ability as well. So, previously, whatever you had,
06:32you had. It didn't offer you any ability to change too much outside of that. What we do have now is
06:38a system called MyMode, which enables you to change things like steering. So, you can go
06:43through this. There's different modes within your steering. You can also change the damping from
06:48sort of a road focus to an off-road focus, and you can also change your exhaust. So,
06:52you can have an unquiet, normal, sports or Baja. Now, this poor car has done like 150,000 k's
06:59in the period of six months. How do you put that many k's on a car like this? Like,
07:04what's involved in doing that kind of mileage? Well, you know, at Ford, everyone shares vehicles.
07:10This doesn't belong to just one person. It gets shared amongst a number of different departments
07:14and divisions. So, this car has gone through like a durability cycle going to Dubai in about two
07:19weeks' time. So, I couldn't ask for a different thing for this car to go through. Snow this week,
07:25and then in two weeks' time, it'll be 50 degree heat in Dubai. That's crazy.
07:32While the Ranger Raptor is cool, some people need to be able to tow and carry a greater payload. So,
07:36they're going to skew more towards things like the Wildtrak or perhaps an Everest with their
07:41bigger towing capacities. But you still can fit accessories to these vehicles. And what Ford has
07:46done is partnered with ARB. It's an Australian four-wheel drive company. They basically supply
07:50accessories to the aftermarket. But Ford has taken a slightly different approach. They're
07:55warranting all of the accessories that ARB will fit to the Ford Ranger and Everest. And that means
08:01that you get full warranty coverage on any accessories you fit to the car. You can order
08:04them from the dealer. And they've actually been engineered to work with the vehicle as well. So,
08:09while we were on the high country trip, I thought I'd give you a quick walk around of one of the
08:12cars with ARB accessories, just to give you an idea of some of the changes they've made
08:16and the way that they've allowed these accessories to integrate with safety and cooling systems.
08:21This just looks like a standard bull bar, but what they've done as part of this package is
08:24moved the 360 camera from under the Ford logo there down to the bumper, so that it works sort
08:29of fully as it would and as you would expect it to do on the road. They've also moved all the
08:33parking sensors as well. And then, in addition to that, you have the radar down here, driving
08:37lights there as well. And all of this is warranted too. So, as part of that Ford five-year warranty,
08:42any ARB accessories that are fitted to the car are completely warranted. Now, under here,
08:46you've got rated recovery points. What they've also been able to do is a full cooling analysis.
08:52So, this has been on the dyno with a trailer attached to make sure that all of these accessories
08:56don't affect the vehicle's natural cooling. And that includes stuff like here. You've got
09:00veins under there that direct air into the cooling equipment. And it means that if a
09:03customer is actually doing some furious off-roading or going across the country while they're towing,
09:08that it is going to accommodate all of their needs. Have a look under the bonnet though,
09:12because under here, you've got all of the electrical work that an owner will be able
09:16to take advantage of. So, that includes things like a second battery that comes with all of
09:20the mounting brackets and the framing that you need to actually put the battery in there. It's
09:24a H7 battery as well, so you actually have a fair bit of capacity there to run additional components.
09:29In addition to that, under here, you've got an extra terminal to plug into, so you don't need to
09:33go doing work on the existing terminals. And you have a separate fuse box as well that you can plug
09:39into. DC to DC converter that's integrated into the front end here as well. So, it really is fully
09:44thawed out in terms of the accessories you'll be able to fit to the car as it comes out of the box.
09:49You won't need to do any hacking to make it all work. So, from what this looks like, it's a pretty
09:54impressive setup. This is just a prototype, so it means that all of this stuff is going to look
09:57better in the production vehicle, but certainly a good start. And this engineering trip will give
10:02the guys a better understanding of what works and what needs to be changed ahead of the car's launch.
10:06Now, I hope you enjoyed that. What are my plans for, I guess, this content series? Well, I want
10:11to take you through everything to do with owning the car. So, that's ordering it, the pre-delivery
10:15process, delivering the car, running it in, all that sort of fun stuff. Then we have other content
10:21planned with one of the other cars that I've bought as well. So, we're going to tie that in
10:25together a little bit. And then I want to be led by you guys as well. What do you want to see us do
10:31with my Ranger Raptor? Now, please don't say dropping it out of a plane or something because
10:34I've spent my own money on this car, but let me know in the comment section below. Is there anything
10:38in particular you would like to see us do with the Ranger Raptor to give you a better idea of what
10:43the car's like and what it's capable of? So, let me know down there in the comment section below.
10:48Now, remember, we do have a live Q&A taking place, so make sure you subscribe to the channel and
10:52enable notifications that will let you know when that goes live. If you do miss that, you will be
10:56able to shoot me a message on social media or any other platform that I'm on at the moment to get a
11:01better idea of what is going on. Now, if you did enjoy this video, please make sure you like it
11:05and you share it with your mates. And if you haven't done so already, subscribe to our channel
11:08and press the bell icon so you can find out when we do these things plus the live stuff that we're
11:13going to try and do in the future as well. But until next time, take it easy.