Ford's head of product development for Asia Pacific has explained that there isn't a market for a diesel or petrol V6 in the Ranger Raptor, which is why it wasn't considered as part of the product plan.
The massive hype behind the Ranger Raptor took a slight hit when Ford announced a 2.0-litre bi-turbo diesel instead of a petrol V6 like the one found in the F-150 Raptor, or a more powerful V6 diesel engine.
But, Trevor Worthington, Ford's vice president of product development for Asia Pacific, is convinced that there's no market for these types of drivetrains.
"Well, we haven't looked at that one [referring to a petrol or diesel V6] because as I've said this morning, the vast majority of the 200 markets that we sell Ranger, and when I say a vast majority I mean 99 per cent are all diesel markets," he said.
"It'd be like turning up with something that people wouldn't even consider buying."
When asked whether a V6 diesel or petrol V6 would fit, Worthington was non-committal, suggesting that the 2.0-litre diesel is the right motor for this vehicle.
"The job always was, what's the best diesel power pack that we can find, balanced across all the attributes, that's going to work in all of those markets and with all kinds of people," he said.
"This customer with this particular utility is looking for a certain level of outcome related to performance, related to fuel economy, we are convinced that this is the right solution, transmission and engine power pack. I think the only V6 diesel that we have is a 3.0-litre V6 and I'm pretty sure it wouldn't fit even if we tried to make it fit."
We had the chance to performance test the new Ranger Raptor at the vehicle's international launch this week in Darwin, and while it performed exceptionally off-road, the engine and gearbox combination was more leisurely than sporty on the open road, clocking a 0-100km/h time of 10.4 seconds.
Is there enough grunt in the Ranger Raptor for you? And if not, which engine would you like to see under the bonnet?
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