Ford News: Rumorpile: North America Will Get the Next-Generation Ranger Raptor

[William Maley]

There was a number of people who were disappointed at the news that Ford wouldn't be bringing over the Ranger Raptor to the U.S. When you take into consideration that the current-generation model has been sold around the world since 2011, Ford decided it was too late in the lifecycle of the model to design a Raptor variant to meet various regulations. But there is the chance of the next-generation Ranger Raptor coming to the U.S.

Road & Track has done some sleuthing into social media profiles for various Ford engineers and has uncovered some interesting information. The current Ranger has an internal project code of P375 and is expected to stick around for a few more years. The next-generation model, due in 2022, uses the code of P703. It is expected that the next-generation Ranger will be sharing a number of parts with the Bronco.

How does the Raptor fit into this picture? In a recently posted project description, it mentions a chassis engineer has been working on a Ranger Raptor with the P703 code being built with North America in mind. The engineer has also worked on the current version of the Ranger (known as P375N) and the Ranger Raptor. Doing some more digging and speaking to some sources at Ford, the new Ranger Raptor is likely to be called “Project Redback” internally. Project Redback was the project name for the current Ranger Raptor.

Road & Track doesn't have any information the powertrain, but speculates that North America would likely get a gas engine. Other markets get a diesel engine for the Raptor.

Source: Road & Track

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