Ford News: Ranger Raptor "Would Do Really Well" In U.S. Says Chief Enginner

[William Maley]

Last week, Ford unveiled the Raptor Ranger. The bad news as we reported was the model wasn't going to come here, but a tweet from Ford's North America Product Communications manager gave some hope that possibly, a smaller Raptor could come.

More fuel has been added to this fire via some comments made by the chief engineer for Ford Performance, Jamal Hameedi. Speaking with Australian outlet Drive, Hameedi said the truck "would do really well in the states."

“I think it’s certainly like it’s a baby Raptor, it depends what you’re looking for. There are a lot of people that just want that size in a pickup truck and they don’t want anything larger,” said Hameedi. 

Hameedi went on to say that the diesel engine found in the Ranger Raptor would likely be swapped for a gas engine.

“I think most American off-roaders would actually prefer a petrol gas engine, but a diesel is the absolute way to go for the rest of the world.”

We think a version of Ford's 2.3 EcoBoost could be the engine of choice for a U.S. variant. 

But it will likely be a while before a final decision is made on the Ranger Raptor coming to the U.S.

“We haven’t said anything about availability in the US, our first priority is to get a Raptor available to everyone on the planet earth. So Americans already have an F-150 Raptor, we’ve got to spread Raptors to the rest of the planet,” said Hameedi.

Source: Drive

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