Ford Raptor to take on Baja

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Ford announced today that the next-generation Ranger Raptor will take on the stock class at this year's Baja 1000.

The race-ready Ranger has been developed as a joint venture between Ford Performance and former Supercars squad Kelly Racing in Australia.

Kelly Racing, run by Todd Kelly, previously ran Nissan's factory Supercars programme before switching to Ford support in 2020.

The team then handed its Supercars programme over to Grove Racing ahead of the 2022 season.

Following the build programme in Australia, the Baja Ranger has since been shipped to the US for final development and testing.

Lovell Racing, run by off-road Hall of Famer Brad Lovell, is set to field the car for the Baja 1000.

“By entering this event, we’re building on the hundreds of thousands of kilometres of development testing and pushing the Ranger Raptor to new extremes,” said Brian Novak, Off-Road Motorsports Supervisor, Ford Performance.

“The Baja 1000 is a demanding event and a well-known proving ground for off-road vehicles. We are excited to compete in this extreme event with Ranger Raptor.”

The Ranger will run on a Shell low-carbon biofuel for its Baja 1000 debut.

“Demonstrating low-carbon fuels in performance settings like the Baja 1000 can help bring biofuels and other clean energy technologies to scale more quickly, and help to make them more available and affordable for everyone,” said Cynthia Williams, Global Director of Sustainability, Compliance and Homologation at Ford.

The Ford Ranger won't be the only Baja 1000 entry with links to Australia, with Toby Price and Paul Weel eyeing outright victory in a Trophy Truck run under the Team Australia banner.

The Baja 1000 kicks off on November 18.

[The Junkman]

I am reminded of the chaos when the Raptor was new and video after video appeared of the "Baja Wannbe" types taking them out to ORV parks, jumping the stock unreinforced trucks off of moguls and promptly bending them in the middle.  I'm assuming these are properly modified.

[stavanzer]

42 minutes ago, The Junkman said:

  I'm assuming these are properly modified.

10 years ago, I would have agreed with you. Given how things get done now, it is a Coin Flip whether it got the proper strengthening. And, what is with this Bio-Fuels nonsense? When this truck D.N.F.s or loses power, not one of these folks is going to blame the Fuel, even if that was the problem.

I have got no problem with Showmanship. But this whole thing reeks of Propaganda & Narrative. 

I hope the Ranger does well. I wish the Bio-Fuel Sillyness was not part of it.

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[keyser]

Funny. Bio/sun-fuel gets hate, when it can save ICE. Considering venom in general for E cars, I’d think this would be welcome. 
Ford knows how to win, what guys can do it. They’re not going half-fast into this. 

[Ace-Garageguy]

1 hour ago, stavanzer said:

10 years ago, I would have agreed with you. Given how things get done now, it is a Coin Flip whether it got the proper strengthening. And, what is with this Bio-Fuels nonsense? When this truck D.N.F.s or loses power, not one of these folks is going to blame the Fuel, even if that was the problem.

I have got no problem with Showmanship. But this whole thing reeks of Propaganda & Narrative. 

I hope the Ranger does well. I wish the Bio-Fuel Sillyness was not part of it.

I'd have to disagree with some of this.

1) Racing prep is one of those businesses that works on ability, and doesn't hire based on gender or ethnicity quotas. You don't succeed in that arena with a bloated crew of marginal performers doing the work just barely well enough to kinda get by...which is the business model for many companies today.

2) Biofuels have been working pretty well in all sorts of stuff for a long time. Though the corn-based alcohol program is mostly an inefficient feel-good boondoggle, other bio fuels do indeed have the capacity to save IC engines (as Keyser noted) where their use is rational, and turbine/jet powered aircraft. I had friends in Germany decades ago running their old Merc diesels on cooking oil, and it works just fine if you do it right. Off-roader prepper types have consistently demonstrated that reclaimed waste cooking oil is a viable fuel source too, and biodiesel can be produced by feeding algae the carbon dioxide released by burning coal for electricity, with the potential for a carbon-neutral energy cycle.

Edited November 1, 2022 by Ace-Garageguy
CLARITY

[stavanzer]

I'll stand corrected on both counts, then, Bill.

You know both areas better than I do.

If you say so, I'll believe you.

[Mattilacken]

Nice to se in the vid their reinforcement, probably due to the reason mentioned above, don’t attempt at home except if you reinforce! 
I am glad the ranger came back to the US, first after that the Ranger started to look good. It’s the only Ford truck sold here in Sweden, except for side import, and they had a lot of problems with their diesel Engine for a long while, hopefully sorted now, but today almost only the ones really needing that sort of work truck buy them since the government is really trying to reduce the sales with extreme taxes on all non electric cars and based on weigh and emissions all trucks get stupidly high taxes. A ranger or for example Gladiator 3.0l D have around 2000usd in tax per year where my hybrid (8l/100Km) have 38usd in tax. 

[Can-Con]

6 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

. I had friends in Germany decades ago running their old Merc diesels on cooking oil, and it works just fine if you do it right. Off-roader prepper types have consistently demonstrated that reclaimed waste cooking oil is a viable fuel source too

Plus, the exhaust smells like french fries !??? 

[Ace-Garageguy]

32 minutes ago, Can-Con said:

Plus, the exhaust smells like french fries !??? 

I used to run my GT6 on 151. Now that smelled good. 

[Ace-Garageguy]

Biofuels basic reference:

https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/biofuels/