Seven-Way Drag Race Opposes Ford Ranger and VW Amarok, Plus Five Other Surprise Trucks

Naturally, everyone wants to see how the 2024 Toyota Tacoma (TRD Pro i-Force Max) and 2024 Ford Ranger (Raptor) compare to the rest of the US mid-size pickup truck establishment – the eternal Honda Ridgeline unibody loser, the newly standalone D41 Nissan Frontier, the all-new Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon siblings, or the adventurous Jeep Gladiator. And not just on paper. But that explosive encounter must wait until Ford and Toyota send their Rangers and Tacomas to nationwide dealers.

Meanwhile, truck aficionados can relish a 2023 bakkie shootout. But first, what is a bakkie? Well, trucks are beloved in most parts of the world – including South Africa. And the affectionate term for a light truck or pickup truck is the same as the one used for a small basin or other type of container – aka bakkie. Now that we got that cleared, the good folks over at Cars.co.za have prepared the first part of their big '2023 Bakkie Shootout Series,' and it's as straightforward as possible – a drag race on an abandoned airport runway somewhere outside Cape Town, South Africa.

At the request of their fans, they lined up for the traditional straight-line acceleration test of no less than seven of South Africa's favorite mid-size pickup trucks. Chief among them is, of course, the all-new Ford-VW siblings, the 2023 Ford Ranger (2.0 BiTurbo diesel) and the 2023 Volkswagen Amarok (2.0 BiTDI). Right next to them are five other pickup trucks with almost similar specifications: Toyota Hilux 2.8 GD-6 Legend, Mitsubishi Triton (L200) 2.4DI-D, the 2023 GWM P-Series LTD 2.0TD from Haval, the Nissan Navara 2.5 DDTi, and the 2023 Isuzu D-Max 3.0 TD. A word of caution, these trucks are not to be trifled with.

Anyway, the hosts were pretty excited about doing a race in mid-size pickup trucks, which is understandable since they were doing just the first part of their shootout series – the in-depth comparison test with lots of off-roading is the next step along the way. Until that, a winner needed to be ascertained for the traditional drag race battle. Interestingly, at the 3:05 mark, we could easily see the specification comparison sheet put the VW Amarok and Ford Ranger front and center with the most hp (154 kW or 207 hp) and torque (500 Nm or 369 lb-ft), giving them an edge against the five competitors.

Well, naturally, the least-powerful GWM P Series came out last when the race flag dropped at the 3:31 mark but don't bet all your money on the Amarok and Ranger siblings to come out on top. Instead, a surprise contender bet on lightness instead of raw power and ultimately prevailed. Can you guess, before watching, which one it was?