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Next-generation Ford Ranger Raptor may come to America

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American fans of the

Ford Ranger

Raptor,

including us

, have been disappointed that

we won’t see the current one in

North America. As for the next-generation

Ranger

Raptor, hope springs eternal, especially now that

Road & Track dug up some interesting information

. And it squares with what we’ve heard from deeply embedded sources, too.

According to

R&T

, both the next-generation Ranger and the Ranger Raptor have the same North American market project code of P703. Independently, we found social media profiles of a U.S.-based

Ford

employee and a Canada-based employee from Modatek, a company that works on frames for Ford, that list the P703 as one of that person’s current projects. That there are North American employees

working on the truck

also suggests the platform is for our region. The current Ranger was developed in

Australia

, after all.

Still, we’ll have a few years before a new generation shows up. After all, Ford only just started selling the U.S. Ranger, and it needs to recoup the investment to federalize it. Based on pure offhand conjecture, we would bet Ford keeps our current Ranger around for about four model years, making the new one a 2023 model. We also expect the American Raptor will use gas engines, not a

diesel

like the current global Raptor, to better suit U.S. tastes and to avoid an expensive federalization process on a diesel engine. Besides, Ford has plenty of off-the-shelf gas engines that would be great, and more powerful, for the U.S. Raptor.

The F-150’s 2.7-liter turbo V6 at 325 horsepower and 400 pound-feet of torque

could be ideal, especially as it’s already built for truck duty, and its power slots comfortably between the base Ranger and

the F-150 Raptor

.

But at this point, that’s all speculation. All that’s left to do is wait and hope the Raptor launches here.

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