Is the world ready for an off-road supercar?
Ford is asking the exact question as it openly ponders creating a whole new genre of performance vehicle. The blue oval wasn’t playing around when it said it wants to be the ‘Porsche of off-road’ with the company’s boss revealing it is looking at building an “off-road supercar” to crown its Raptor line-up.
Speaking to the UK’s Top Gear at the recent Ford Performance event in Charlotte, Ford CEO Jim Farley, was happy to reveal the company’s plans for a potential road-legal version of its Raptor T1+ prototype that competed in the Dakar Rally.
READ MORE: Why Ford wants to be the ‘Porsche of off-road’
“We’re in the middle of creating something, so we don’t have all the answers yet, but the question is should Ford make an off-road supercar? Not a version of a car, a standalone supercar,” Farley told Top Gear.
“The reason people love the Ranger Raptor in the UK is because it’s a fun car but the damping is very compliant. People don’t understand about off-road racing how compliant the damping is and that makes it a totally different experience to being in a [Porsche 911] GT2 RS.”
He added: “That’s what we’re trying to answer. What do we do on a utility car? Is there a supercar? That’s what we’re debating now.”
Ford and Farley have history with these wild projects, with the boss teasing to Torquecafe his plans for the Mustang GTD at the reveal of the new-generation Mustang in September 2022 – nearly a year before its public debut.
“To go to Le Mans you need a road car,” Farley told us in 2022. “You should be asking what that car’s about but I couldn’t tell you. So there’ll be more.”
So clearly there is serious intent behind his comments about an “off-road supercar” so expect something suitably wild to appear within the next 12-18 months.
While Ford has Raptor versions of the Ranger, Bronco and F-150, building an off-road performance vehicle without any connections to an existing road car could create much more technical freedom.
READ MORE: Why ‘Win on Sunday, sell on Monday’ is still driving the car industry
As seen with the dramatic differences between the Mustang Dark Horse and Mustang GTD, Ford is not afraid to push the technical boundaries with limited-run special editions. The Mustang GTD features a unique engine, transmission, aerodynamic package and other upgrades over the rest of the Mustang range, to make it capable of competing with European supercars.
A Raptor ‘supercar’ would likely have few obvious competitors, besides existing performance SUVs like Ford’s own F-150 Raptor R and Bronco Desert Racer.
Should Ford build an off-road supercar? Would you like a Ranger Raptor R? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Discussion about this post