Ford will introduce the US market to the Ranger Raptor ahead of its 2023 on-sale with an Australian-built entry into the famous Baja 1000 off-road race.
Ford Performance tapped former Supercars team boss and Bathurst winner, Todd Kelly, as well as Supercars engine builder Herrod Performance and Australian off-road accessory specialists, ARB, to prepare the vehicle ahead of the BF Goodrich Score Baja 1000 on November 15-21.
Built at the Kelly Racing facility at Braeside, Melbourne, now home to the current Grove Racing Mustang Supercars of David Reynolds and Lee Holdsworth, the Baja-bound Ranger Raptor was tested in Mildura, Victoria and the Johnson Valley in California ahead of the legendary off-road race.
Built for the stock vehicle class for the event, the vehicle is based on the production version of the Ranger Raptor. Melbourne’s Herrod Performance, the company behind Ford’s Gen3 Supercars engine for 2023 and beyond, worked on technology sharing over the 18-month development period with Ford Australia, the bio-fuel 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6 petrol powerplant under the Ranger Raptor’s bonnet running on on a blend of ethanol and bionaptha.
Additionally, Aussie off-road company ARB was also involved in the development and testing of components in readiness for the brutal desert event.
The Baja 1000 is America’s most famous off-road race, first taking place in 1967. Held on the Baja Californian peninsular, it takes in a punishing off-road loop that starts and finishes in Ensenada but varies each year to typically cover between 600 and 850 miles.
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Having won the event 22 times across various classes, Ford has most recently used the Baja 1000 to showcase the Bronco Raptor R and the previous F-150 Raptor, with the road-going Ranger Raptor sharing an extreme ‘Baja’ mode for more spirited off-road driving with its stablemates.
While Ford is yet to confirm the driver line-up, famed Lovells Racing will campaign the vehicle for the event under the watch of Brad Lovell, who was inducted into the Off-road Hall of Fame last week.
The first Ranger Raptor, launched in 2018, was not sold in the US, the 2023 model year will be available in North America for the first time, where it will sit below the F-150 Raptor and effectively alongside the Bronco Raptor SUV, which shares its mechanicals with the Ranger.
Read the full Ranger Raptor off-road test at Torquecafe.com here.
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