How to rally drive Ford’s high-revving Ranger Raptor

The high-performance 292kW Ford Ranger Raptor was engineered for maximum thrills.

Since debuting in South Africa earlier this year, the all-new Ford Ranger Raptor has been a breath of fresh air in the local market.

Ditching the bi-turbo 2.0-litre diesel engine for a turbocharged 292kW/583Nm 3.0-litre V6, the new bakkie is a performance beast that can thrill and entice with every prod of the accelerator. While this is great, did you know that the Ranger Raptor has some really cool race-technology under the skin?

In racing cars, the drivers have shift lights and shift signals to indicate the ideal engine speed for a gear change. This feature was first installed in a production Ford Mustang GT350 in 2015. Now this very feature is available on the new Ranger Raptor, adding so much more personality to the bakkie’s already impressive persona.

All about performance

“The Ford Ranger Raptor is, at its heart, a performance bakkie,” said Dave Burn, chief platform engineer for the Ranger Raptor.

“We’ve raced a modified version of the Raptor at Baja and the Performance Shift Indicator is just one in a long line of performance-derived features, like the anti-lag functionality in Baja mode, or the FOX Shocks with Live Valve technology that feature on Ranger Raptor.”

READ | Jonathan’s hilarious review of the all-new Ford Ranger

To enable the Performance Shift Indicator, drivers can access the feature through the bakkie’s main menu in the 12.4-inch instrument cluster, altering the Shift Tone and Shift Point to occur between 4 000 and 6 500rpm.

To activate the Performance Shift Indicator: Press ‘Settings’ and then select ‘Performance Shift Indicator’, then ‘Enabled’, and then proceed to adjust the ‘Shift Point’ (between 4 000 – 6 500rpm) and the ‘Shift Tone’.

Burn ends off, saying: “Being able to adjust when Ranger Raptor reminds you to change gear allows you to tailor the truck to suit the terrain and type of driving you’re doing, because there are benefits beyond performance.

“The Performance Shift Indicator can also be used when driving for fuel economy, encouraging you to change gear sooner.”