Racing a Ford Ranger Raptor

Win on Sunday, sell on Monday. It’s the marketing mantra that’s justified thousands of motorsport programs, shifting plenty of coupes, hatchbacks, sedans and… dual-cab 4x4 utes?

Your typical ute isn’t something you might consider taking into the crucible of motor racing, but then the latest Ford Ranger Raptor isn’t your typical ute.

And if this seems like a tenuous link, remember that the Ranger Raptor already has trophies from Baja and the Finke Desert Race to its name and is currently contesting Dakar 2024.

The Ranger Raptor’s prodigious straight-line performance has tempted a few owners to consider a track day, at least if online groups are to be believed.

This is a terrible idea. The Raptor’s brakes and tyres are not at all designed for high-performance sealed-surface work and fitting road rubber would only exacerbate the stopping power issues – you’d have more fun if you drove through all the sand traps.

The Raptor does its best work off the tarmac and while we’d love to tackle a full rally in one, Ford won’t lend us the Baja truck and wasn’t keen to put a full roll cage in one of its press cars.

As such, we turned to autocross or khanacross. These are held all over Australia on small dirt circuits (or sometimes in fields/paddocks) and it’s about as cheap and easy as motorsport gets.

The entry fee for the day’s activities at Kyneton Car Club was $50, you only need a basic Motorsport Australia licence and any car is eligible as long as a fire extinguisher is installed – I fixed it to one of the Raptor’s top-tether points.

Some venues are rougher than others but Kyneton’s permanent circuit is relatively smooth and most entrants are a variety of regular road cars in various degrees of tune, from rally-spec Subaru WRXs to cars saved from a (probably more restful, to be honest) life at the tip.

It’s reasonable to say that most at Kyneton didn’t know what to make of the giant orange Raptor. Curiosity and bemusement were the most common responses, with plenty of raised eyebrows when learning of its 292kW/583Nm 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6.

However, few take it as seriously as, in my opinion, they should. There are three goals today: firstly, to have fun; secondly, to investigate whether club-level motorsport is feasible in a vehicle like this and, thirdly, to see if it can then be competitive.

The first run should quickly answer the latter two questions, but first a word on how such a day runs. Typically, the course layout is changed every two runs, with the fastest run from each layout counting towards your combined time at the end. Lowest overall time wins.

The track is wet down between each run to reduce dust, which obviously radically changes the available grip, so therefore the running order is also changed at each run so nobody is unduly disadvantaged.

For the first run I choose Sport mode as Baja mode locks the centre diff and on a tight, slippery and at times narrow course there is a risk this would promote understeer unless the truck was really thrown sideways.

While there is absolutely nothing at stake, having not competed for a while there are certainly some butterflies while waiting for the automatic timing light to go green.

With an angry V6 howl and the scrabble of BFGoodrich tyres, the first run begins and around 60 seconds later is over, the first goal already having been accomplished. Incredible fun.

It is truly unbelievable how agile and adjustable the Raptor is for its size. It rotates beautifully under brakes and continues to do so under power, so while there is obviously a huge amount of mass you (usually) feel well in control.

Goals two and three are also completed. The autocross environment is perfect for the Raptor. The short runs and loose surface mean tyres and brakes aren’t unduly stressed, speeds are relatively low (the Raptor is one of the fastest things here and speed never crests 120km/h) and there isn’t too much to hit, though again the Ranger takes up more real estate than most.

But it’s also fast – fifth outright after one run, beaten only by rally-tyre shod WRXs. The next two runs are even better, improving to third and then second quickest, though sadly driving imprecision means it isn’t quite that simple.

Old tyres on the ground mark out some of the course and it appears the giant BFGoodrichs have clipped a couple, resulting in five-second penalties.

I’ve switched to Baja mode as it gives more electronic leeway (in fact, with stability control off you have virtually no assistance, so be careful!) and despite the locked centre diff the Raptor remains incredibly playful – its pace is certainly raising plenty of eyebrows.

A number of clean runs follow (fifth fastest on run four, fourth fastest on run five), though run six is handicapped by being second in line after the water truck.

Initially I plan on throwing it in rear-wheel drive and having fun, but after some thought I reason that the Raptor probably isn’t going to be that much slower in the wet and so it proves, dropping less than 1.5sec over the dry run prior.

Sadly, the day finishes as it more-or-less started, with another second-fastest time ruined by clipping another tyre. Frustrating, but my own fault.

There’s the possibility of a stronger result but I skip the last run. I’m getting tired, it’s a long drive home and bitter experience has taught me only bad things happen with “just one more”. The Raptor is in one piece and it’s not mine.

In the final reckoning the Raptor sits seventh outright, though such is the wonderfully level playing field that is autocross that a handful of seconds separates the Ranger, a WRX, AE92 Corolla (with rally tyres) and a Toyota 86 (ditto).

Subtract the silly tyre penalties and it would’ve been fourth and within a second of third, but that’s really all beside the point.

There were three goals from this exercise: have fun (success!) and answer whether you can participate in club-level motorsport in a Ranger Raptor (yes) and be competitive (yes).

This showroom-stock ute set top-five times all day and all for an outlay of around $100 including fuel. If you have a Ranger Raptor and want to experience some of what it can do in a safe environment, Google your local autocross club.

2023 Ford Ranger Raptor at a glance:
Price: $89,190 (plus on-road costs)
Available: Now
Engine: 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6 petrol
Output: 292kW/583Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Fuel: 11.5L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 262g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: Unrated