Ford Ranger Raptor 2018 Ride-along

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And suddenly, we are flying. Literally, in the air.

I brace myself in the passenger seat. This is all so unexpected.

I mean, I knew Ford dynamics engineer Simon Johnson was going to do his best to impress on me the capabilities of the Blue Oval's first Ranger Raptor, a vehicle he is clearly very proud of.

But I didn't know this process would involve me leaving an impression of my helmeted head in the roof!

Or at least that's what I was expecting to happen as I contemplated the immediate future in those eerily quiet few milliseconds of hang time.

And then we landed, like a pillow thrown on to a bed. The Fox 9 stage internal bypass shock absorbers compress and rebound, their "significant" length and obviously good tuning simply disposing of a return to earth that would have been catastrophic in a standard Ranger, or any other pick-up.

I let go an involuntarily swear word, but out of admiration -- not fear or anxiety. Through the intercom I can hear Simon cackle. Ninety per cent of it is affirmation, as in 'I knew you'd be impressed' and 10 per cent is validation, as in 'I'm happy that someone outside Ford is experiencing this and recognises its quality'.

So what's going on here?

First things first, the date is July 1, 2017. Yep, about seven months ago.

The venue is the Alice Springs Off-Road Racing Club in the desert south of Alice Springs. It's the last day of a three-week test of the new Ranger Raptor and motoring.com.au's been invited along for its final 24 hours or so to get a first taste of the flagship of the Aussie-developed 2018 Ranger line-up.

There are several camouflaged prototypes here. One is Johnson's dynamics tuning car, another is doing extended endurance running on the off-road course. There are 25 engineers on-site plus support staff, about a billion flies … and a nosy journalist.

I've had to sign a non-disclosure agreement to be here, meaning I have been unable to discuss, let alone publish, until now, anything I've seen or learned. Even when Ford blew the gaffe themselves with a sneak peek video in September, I had to stay quiet.

Of course, Raptor's been expected for a long time. Ever since the original F-150 SVT Raptor V8 appeared in North America in 2010, Ford's Australian product development team has envisioned a Raptor to top off its T6 Ranger line-up.

The work started literally in the engineering group's spare time in 2013 and got serious in 2014 when then global product development chief Raj Nair drove a prototype and gave it the thumbs up. It was formally green-lighted for production in 2016.

"Raj got out and said 'You've nailed Raptor'," chief program engineer Damien Ross recalled. "After that quite honestly we were left to get it out there."

We're joining the product development process late in the cycle. By the end of 2017, specifications were scheduled to be locked in and preparation for manufacturing at the Rayong plant in Thailand underway. The Raptor's Australian release is expected in the second half of 2018.

Fake news
Which brings us to one of the tricky points of this story. Last year during our 'embed', Ford was only willing to confirm so much about Raptor. Much remained off limits — which is counter to what an embed is actually about — and some of what we were told was quite simply misleading.

One of the lines trotted out in Alice Springs last July was that the Raptor headed a "new-generation" Ranger line-up. Now, I don't know what "new-generation" means to you, but to me it means a new vehicle. The mainstream 2018 Ranger is not that. Not even the sheetmetal changes in any significant way.

Unfortunately, when marketing people get involved descriptions like "all-new" and "new-generation" get bandied about without much relevance to the truth. Utter bullshit really.

A lot of mechanical detail was cloaked in secrecy too. So for the full detail I'd suggest you read Matt Brogan's report from the static unveil of the Raptor in Thailand on February 7.

Nor was anyone in Alice Springs willing to talk about the scope of the Raptor program beyond the Asia-Pacific.

Considering how popular the F-150 Raptor is in the USA and the fact the Ranger goes on sale there in 2019, then it's an odds-on bet the Raptor version will be sold in North America too.

Wonder if the forthcoming Bronco and maybe even the Everest, which also spin off the T6 ladder frame, will get the Raptor treatment?

There's just been too much work and investment gone into this thing to imagine it won't go global. It's about as far from the sticker kits that things like the Toyota HiLux TRD and Holden Colorado Z71 get that it is possible to imagine.

The only other pick-up of this size that comes close to this concept is the fabulous Chevrolet Colorado ZR2, which we sampled recently.

So what is the Ranger Raptor? It's what a Porsche 911 GT3 is compared to a 911 Carrera only, applied in an off-road sense. From our ride experience, it's the closest you can get in Australia to what an off-road racing truck feels like, without sacrificing road registration or making your own mods.

Its origins trace all the way back to the Trophy Trucks that race in the Baja 1000 and other famous of-road events. But while they are spaceframe racing machines, the pros also develop production-based off-road capable 'pre-runners' to learn the courses.

They are very much what the F-150 Raptor was inspired by. Ranger Raptor follows the same DNA strand.

"They (Ford Performance) have written down every ingredient you need for a Raptor and we have taken that and applied that to the Ranger platform and created a Ranger Raptor," explains Ross.

"The Ranger Raptor is all about being able to go up to that high speed off-road capability that you'd want for a pre-runner."

Essential ingredients
So take a standard 4x4 Ranger crew-cab, widen the track, replace the leaf spring rear-end with a Watts Link and coil-overs, including the aforementioned Fox dampers, redesign and brace the chassis, pump up the brakes, add a racing 'Baja' mode to the Terrain Management System and drop in a new-generation sequential bi-turbo 2.0-litre diesel engine and 10-speed - yes 10-speed - automatic transmission. Ta-dah… Ranger Raptor.

"The best way I can describe Raptor is … for me it's a four-wheeled dirt bike," smiles Johnson, the dynamics leader on the project.

"It's something that's playful, that you get on and just go and have fun. It is supremely capable of going A to B and that A to B might be 1000km or to the shops.

"But it might be you just go from A to A because you found some good tracks and you go out and come back."

This change-over from leaf to coils and Watts Link was the most fundamental decision made during the entire Ranger Raptor program. The F-150 Raptor doesn't have them.

The coil-over dampers are also moved outboard, removing the need for an anti-roll bar, also improving wheel articulation and cutting weight and cost.

The Watts Link also provides much greater lateral control than leaf springs. The chassis has been modified at the rear to fit the new suspension, the larger tyre and the Everest's 80-litre fuel tank.

The engine is the first bi-turbo version of the Panther diesel engine that debuted in the latest Ford Transit in Europe in 2016. In Raptor tune it maybe makes 150kW and 450Nm. But that's a guess.

It should show up in the standard Ranger too. The transmission is the same 10-speed as we will see in the upgraded 2018 Mustang in Australia this year and has been co-developed with General Motors.

Ross is unsympathetic to the 'no replacement for displacement' credo that might deter some buyers who may have been expecting a big petrol V6 in Ranger Raptor.

"Their predispositions won't matter because they won't be able to buy someone else's version of Raptor. I think they will get in and be blown away by what it provides."

Adds Johnson: "The engine puts the power down and gets fantastic traction to the ground. It is just always there going … The torque delivery for rock crawling and stuff is just mental.

"You can just roll it over anything, whereas if we had gone for a peakier powertrain that might have been a bit more of a challenge doing muddier or rockier ground."

And the zinger, says Johnson, is the Raptor is not only an outstanding off-roader, it's as good on-road as a standard Ranger and in some ways - because of its far superior chassis - even better.

"I would have no qualms about jumping into it and driving for 12 hours," he says earnestly.

On-track
Well, there's no chance to test that out today. All our experience is from the passenger seat of a pre-production prototype on an off-road racing course.

In that environment, Raptor is simply mind-blowing. Check out the video and you can see how rough and tough the pace is.

We'd done a recce lap in a standard 4x4 Ranger crew-cab and we'd been cruising up to about 80km/h and not wincing too much over the lumps and bumps.

The Raptor is a completely different animal. The test ute's intent is signaled by the full cage, racing harness and the helmet and fire suit we have to wear.

After the shock and awe of the jump, Johnson doesn't relent. We fly - literally and figuratively - along lumpy straights at up to 150km/h - anyone dubious about the 2.0-litre engine please note, there seems no shortage of squirt.

He slithers into big berms, the 17-inch BF Goodrich rubber taking the initial hit and the shocks dealing with the rest, then explodes out the far side, scattering rocks and dust into a sandstorm tsunami on our tail.

On and on we go, ironing out this red tumult's long, low cavities and short, sharp corrugations. By God, this thing is epic.

Finally, it's over and the beast rolls to a quiet halt. There's no doubt it conquers the desert, but I wonder to Johnson and Ross what it's like in other off-road conditions. After all, the desert is on the doorstep in Los Angeles or Phoenix, but not Melbourne or Sydney. Or Bangkok, for that matter.

They dismiss my concerns. Their testing, which has encompassed much of Australia and various international locales including Thailand, Europe and the USA, has proved the Raptor is just as effective in rocky or muddy ground.

They insist it's not just a desert racer, it's a true all-round off-roader and one that does the job much better than any standard pick-up on the market today.

"Drivers who today drive a pick-up will be able to take this vehicle through the same course much quicker," promises Ross.

"When they get to the end of it they will be a lot fresher, less tired and they will have huge smile on their face."

I can't wait to transfer to the right-hand seat and verify his claim.