Ford Ranger Raptor V8 Headed Out Down Under: Report
Ford is rumored to be developing a Ranger Raptor that replaces the diesel four-cylinder with the legendary 5.0-liter V8 found in the Mustang GT. Now how’s that for a novel idea?
The report comes from Wheels, which has the story on the development of a V8-powered Ranger Raptor in its January 2020 issue. Per the magazine, “donor Raptors” will arrive in Australia for a veritable heart transplant, having the four-cylinder biturbo diesel swapped out for the Coyote V8 found in the Mustang GT. The 5.0-liter V8-equipped Mustang GT delivers 460 horsepower at 7,000 rpm and 420 lb-ft of torque at 4,600 rpm (both with 93-octane fuel), but output for the Ranger Raptor V8 is not yet known.
The current Ranger Raptor is only available with a 2.0-liter biturbo diesel-four, which is robust at 210 horsepower and 369 lb-ft of torque but a far cry from the output of its larger sibling, the F-150 Raptor. Powered by a high-output twin-turbo 3.5-liter V6, the F-150 Raptor makes 450 horsepower and 510 lb-ft of torque, making it the most powerful truck in its class.
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The news is particularly interesting given the comments of Trevor Worthington, the current vice president of Global Product Development Operations & Vehicle Programs and former head of Product Development for Asia Pacific, who said in 2018 that there likely wasn’t a market for a V6 Ranger Raptor because of the popularity of diesel. While his comments did not specifically exclude the possibility of a Ford Ranger Raptor V8, he leaned heavily toward a non-diesel-powered version not even being on the table.
“[T]he vast majority of the 200 markets that we sell Ranger, and when I say a vast majority I mean 99 percent, are all diesel markets,” he told CarAdvice in July 2018. “It’d be like turning up with something that people wouldn’t even consider buying.”
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It’s a welcome about-face if the end result is V8 power underneath the hood of a Ranger Raptor (and an even more welcome one if that development happens to find its way stateside someday somehow).