My friend Sage purchased a 2024 Ford Ranger Raptor, but he isn’t sure he’ll keep it. He’s had it for six months, and while he likes aspects of the truck, it hasn’t thrilled him like he’d hoped. In fact, he’s so dissatisfied that he approached his dealer for a trade-in evaluation. I’m here for a quick drive before the Ranger Raptor gets chopped!
The Ranger is Ford’s midsize pickup, but in Raptor guise, it makes a big first impression. Its fenders are punched out, the wheel and tire package means business, and the broad capitalized FORD logo on the grille exaggerates the truck’s width. With its bulging arches, the Ford Ranger Raptor is as wide as a regular F-150.
The truck has four doors and seating for five, plus a five-foot-long bed. It looks as practical for family hauling as it is for furniture hauling. When Sage opens the back doors so I can stow my backpack, I find decent head and leg room behind the driver’s seat.
The front seats are where I want to be, though. I start out riding shotgun as Sage drives.
Like the Ford Mustang Mach-E that debuted huge screens in Fords, the Ranger Raptor has a tall, high-resolution infotainment screen smack dab in the middle of its dash. The system is loaded with vehicle settings and entertainment software, and Sage shows me how Apple CarPlay runs on the top half of the screen while Ford’s virtual climate controls occupy the bottom.
(Why Ford thinks we need HVAC buttons on screen when there is a row of physical HVAC controls just below the screen, I’ll never know.)
The interior is typical tough truck stuff, but I get a giggle out of the red-trimmed air vents. Is this Ford’s idea of putting lipstick on a pig? It strikes me as over the top, even if it does add sporting aggression to the interior. The red stripe on the steering wheel and red leather on the sides of the seats also shout “Go!”
Generally, the cabin is comfortable and well laid out, but nothing novel. Which is fine, because the Raptor treatment means that this truck’s magic is its dynamics, not its amenities.
Admittedly, to test those performance-fettled features, we’d be pointing the Ranger Raptor at towering sand dunes or vast desert washes, but we don’t have either here in wine country. So, Sage sets a route to the nearest twisting road: We’ll test the Ranger Raptor’s chops by climbing out of the vines and up to the vistas.
Healdsburg’s aging pavement is no challenge for the Ranger Raptor’s off-road-ready suspension; the FOX shocks were designed to dance the pickup over washboard dirt, potholes, and rocks. As we navigate the village streets, the performance suspension provides a comfortable ride.
The front suspension is calm and settled as we exit town, but the back suspension is sending a ceaseless stream of shimmers into the chassis. I wonder if this is an inherent disadvantage of the Ranger’s solid rear axle vehicle, or if the truck would calm down with a load in the bed.
Sage is eager to show me the Ranger Raptor’s moves, so he hucks the truck into the tight right-hand turn at the start of the highway on-ramp. The truck squeals all four wheels as it tips its shoulders and claws through the corner. Impressively, the Ranger Raptor resists rolling over dead during the aggressive revectoring.
We have a short five miles on the highway en route to our mountain road. Cruising at 75 mph, the Ranger Raptor’s road and engine noises are subdued. The seats are comfortable and the ride is calm; I’d happily be a passenger in this truck on a road trip.
Sage has tuned the Ranger Raptor with aftermarket engine and transmission maps. While the additional 50 hp and 100 lb-ft of torque (for 455 hp / 536 lb-ft total) are welcome, Sage says the new transmission logic was the bigger improvement. With OEM software, the 10-speed automatic transmission was a chicken box—it constantly hunted and pecked for gears. After the transmission tune, the gearbox became more confident about holding gears, making the truck nicer to drive.
We leave the highway, and on a clear stretch of rural road that’s strung between the vineyards, Sage slows to 15 mph, then pounds the throttle to demonstrate the 455 horses in action. The V6 turbo engine moans gutturally like a pissed-off wookiee as we accelerate from second gear to sixth. The thrust is brisk, and the 10-speed’s short gearing has the Ranger Raptor rapidly clicking off upshifts. But ultimately, I’m left thinking that 455 hp doesn’t kick as hard when it’s pushing 5,325 lbs. (And admittedly, 0-60 mph in ~5.0 seconds feels slower at truck height than it does at sports car height.)
Finally, we reach the foothills. The twisting road we’ve targeted is better contoured for a Mazda MX-5 Miata than an off-road pickup truck, but Sage and I are sports car guys at heart, so here we are.
Sage taps the R button on this steering wheel to put the truck into his custom kill mode. His setup puts the drivetrain in Sport, engages two-wheel drive, and turns off the stability control.
Sage dances the Ford Ranger Raptor up the rising road with surprising precision and ease. As we transition from turn to turn, the truck sways back and forth like a palm tree in a hurricane, but its body roll settles quickly, and its tires keep a faithful grip on the road.
Sage seems to drive the Ranger Raptor with the throttle as much as with the steering, using deliberate kicks and lifts to the go-pedal to pivot the truck. His fingers fly across the paddle shifters as he changes gears, and he finishes the hill climb with a smile on his face.
Now it is my chance behind the wheel. I’m intimidated to have my first mile in the Ranger Raptor on a mountain squiggle with 300-foot drop-offs, so I start at a cautious pace.
The Ranger Raptor is wider than the cars I’m used to driving, but not ridiculously broad-shouldered. (For that, see the Ford F-150 Raptor.) As I am on a generous piece of tarmac, I quickly acclimatize to threading the midsized truck down the reasonably-sized lane.
The Ranger Raptor’s accurate steering bolsters my confidence; I can put the truck exactly where I want it and clobber apexes with laser-guided accuracy.
Even though I’m in two-wheel drive mode and brandishing 536 lb-ft of torque, the Ranger Raptor’s meaty 285/70R17 BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A KO3 tires have all the grip I need to put down the twist.
As I build pace, I’m impressed with how the Ranger Raptor waltzes with me. I can lean the truck into a corner, pick an arc, and then fine-tune its path with small steering and throttle inputs. The Ranger Raptor’s body motions and steering are rubbery, bending and then holding, but the truck doesn’t push sloppily into corners or understeer on the way out. The clean corners we are carving satisfy my performance-driving cravings.
Out of habit, and for fun, I find myself using the paddle shifters to select gears. The shift response is reasonably quick and faithful to my inputs; I am never unduly denied a gear. The Ranger Raptor seems to have its best torque in the middle of the rev range, with higher rpm lacking reward.
There is one major benefit to dancing the Ranger Raptor up this mountain road as compared to doing the deed in a Mazda MX-5 Miata: the potholes, ruts, and bumps that would have me braking and bracing in the Miata are exciting obstacles over which to romp in the Ranger Raptor. I don’t slow at all for the road’s yumps and undulations, but rather see the ripples and potholes approaching, broaden the grin on my face, and blast through them, appreciating how the Ranger Raptor sops up the chop and sorts it out.
This sort of back-road fun is entirely new to me. This sort of back-road fun makes me want to buy an Ariel Nomad or Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato!
Before we get too far off into the hinterlands, I turn the truck around (the 360° parking cameras work very well) and point us back towards wine country. Going down the mountain, I’m careful with my speed; I don’t want to stress the Ranger Raptor’s 12″ brake rotors. I expect the brakes will hold up well, but I don’t want to be wrong!
When we are out of the twisties and back on straight valley roads, my excitement with the Ranger Raptor rapidly fades. The truck’s hairy-alien soundtrack lacks musicality and its engine doesn’t have enough thrust to turn straight-line blasts into giggles. The $57k Ranger Raptor is a kind-of quick, reasonably comfortable, five-seater that is—dare I say—boring in everyday driving. Oof. No wonder Sage is looking for more accessible thrills.
If I had oodles of unpaved roads or vast open desert to explore, I would be hot, hot, hot for the Ranger Raptor. But I don’t, and neither does Sage. This Ranger Raptor is going to be put out to range.
Mike's Steering Column 