As you might have already heard, the Ranger Raptor will hit dealers in the United States of America in the first quarter of 2024. The off-road pickup is exclusively offered with 3.0-liter EcoBoost V6 muscle in this part of the world. Outside North America, the Ranger Raptor was originally available – and still is available – with a twin-turbo diesel four-cylinder mill referred to as the EcoBlue.
From a displacement of 1,995 cubic centimeters, the EcoBlue belts out either 213 ps (210 hp) and 500 Nm (369 lb-ft). Peak torque carries over to the second-gen Ranger Raptor, which is based on the T6.2 platform of the 2021 model year and newer Ford Bronco. In terms of power, the diesel now makes 205 ps or 202 mechanical ponies in Europe or 210 ps or 207 mechanical ponies elsewhere.
Care to guess how the Ranger Raptor EcoBlue fares against its gasoline-fueled sibling in a race? Not so fast, though, because there are differences between the EcoBoost V6 for North America and that for global markets. In the European Union, regulations forced the Ford Motor Company to downtune this engine a rather disappointing 288 horsepower and 362 pound-feet (491 Nm) of torque.
In Australia, the ratings are 292 kW and 583 Nm. These figures convert to 392 horsepower and 430 pound-feet. As for the US market, Ford promises 405 and 430, respectively. The Raptors in the video below are Thai spec, meaning that we're dealing with 392 for the EcoBoost and 207 for the EcoBlue. According to CSL AutoTime founder and presenter Tang, the EcoBoost weighs 110 more kilograms than the EcoBlue, namely 2,310 kilograms (5,093 pounds) compared to 2,200 (4,850) for the diesel.
Despite this massive weight difference, both trucks feature the very same tires (285/70 R17s from BFGoodrich), exterior dimensions (5,381 x 2,028 x 1,922 millimeters), front and rear suspension designs, and fancy shock absorbers from the folks at FOX. In Thailand, the Ranger Raptor is 1,769,000 bath or 50,675 freedom eagles at current exchange rates. Level up to the EcoBoost, and the sticker price increases to 1,919,000 baht or 54,970 bucks.
Photo: CSL AutoTime on YouTube
Ford Thailand claims 6.82 and 11.76 seconds to 100 kilometers per hour, which is 62 miles per hour in American English vernacular. The best Tang could squeeze out of the EcoBoost is 6.34 seconds with brake torquing. Unfortunately, this is the only way to extract maximum performance from the bone-stock Ranger Raptor because there's no launch control to speak of. The same applies to the F-150 Raptor and the V8-powered F-150 Raptor R.
The EcoBlue, on the other hand, couldn't do better than 10.90 seconds. Then again, what did you expect from a smaller engine with fewer cylinders and only 250 revolutions per minute of peak torque? It gets even worse in the quarter-mile. As per the Dragy app on Tang's phone, the EcoBoost clocked 14.27 seconds over 402 meters compared to a pedestrian 17.16 seconds for the EcoBlue.
While it may be easy to bash on the 2.0-liter diesel for being a slowpoke, remember that it's the more fuel-efficient powertrain of the two. At the same time, nobody who affords a Ranger Raptor cares about fuel economy that much. Even the Ford Motor Company gave on light-duty turbo diesel vehicles in the US market, thus leaving the Power Stroke V8 to soldier on alone in the Super Duty.
Developed in collaboration with Austria-based AVL, the 6.7 rolled out for the 2011 model year in the F-250 through F-550 as the successor to the 6.4-liter Power Stroke. Improved for 2023, the punchiest 6.7 available today makes 500 horsepower and a simply ridiculous 1,200 pound-feet (1,627 Nm) of twist at 1,600 revolutions per minute.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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