July 19: Another Raptor

Ford has just announced a new rough and rockin' version of their famous bad boy Raptor pick-up. You know, that beast of the Baja, but tamed for city streets........

Unfortunately most of these tuff trucks will end up cutting a short cut over a low city curb, rather than blazing thru some obscure wilderness, blazing a new trail for lesser vehicles to follow. How many people would even want a truck like that? More than you'd ever guess apparently. Count them next time you are out and about, hence the reason Ford has announced Ranger based Raptor Jr...........

 

The new Ranger has had a Raptor overseas for a short while, but now they are going to drop it into our market. Rough and tuff as its big bro, but with a key difference, no big power behind that in your face front end. Never mind, still a neat ride.

My question is why haven't the other companies followed the Raptor along this trail? Big power pick-ups are not exactly a 2019 thing, even if they couldn't do much off road. They've been around in some form or another for almost forty (40!) years.

A walk down memory lane.......

Back in the day, this Dodge was the quickest vehicle in North America, even putting the emission choked Corvette to shame. Others followed suit........

 

 

Ford was hasn't been timid in dropping big power into one of their light in the rear end trucks in the past. And a burnout picture is worth so many words, maybe even a thousand. You can see that Ford,
 GM and Dodge all threw their rear tires, or what was left of them into the ring, even going so far as to plunk a huge Viper V10 into a Ram pick-up.........

Pretty impressive stuff, but none are the off road terrors, that a Raptor or Raptor junior are. No question that there are some other off road wildcats, case in point this 2019 Chey Colorado........

..........but they, like the Raptor Jr need a dose of horsepower to make them like the wild child Raptor senior. Fast and furious stuff for the off road rough housers. Hey, they've done everything other stupid thing with this movie franchise, so why not have them rolling thru the north woods fighting whatever injustice they seem to attract?

So back to our Ranger Raptor (name has a nice ring to it) . Who will follow suit and drop in a bit (or a lot) more power to give the Raptor sisters some real competition? Millions of pick-ups are sold each year in the US, competition is fierce, so come on guys, let's give those Raptors the competitor they deserve.

 Until next time.......