Fresh off a Dakar Rally podium finish, Ford has set its sights on conquering all of the world’s unpaved roads and trials.
Speaking to the media at the recent Detroit Motor Show, Ford’s global CEO, Jim Farley, made the company’s vision clear.
“Ford wants to be the No. 1 undisputed off-road brand in the world,” Automotive News reported Farley saying. “We want to be the Porsche of off-road.”
Porsche has earned a reputation for making some of the world’s best performance cars, both sports cars and SUVs, with decades of consistent performance and the evolution of famous nameplates. Ford will be hoping to do the same thing with its F-150, Ranger and Bronco models, in particular the Raptor variants that are the off-road flagships.
It’s notable that Ford’s Dakar entry evolved from a Ranger-centric program to a bespoke T1+ class prototype that was known as the ‘Raptor’ instead. This means the Dakar program will help promote the entire line-up of Raptor models around the globe, rather than focus on one specific model.
According to the Automotive News report, Jim Baumbick, Ford’s vice president of advanced product development, said that the Dakar program will be used in a similar way to the company’s racetrack efforts with the Mustang in various categories.
“We do see a huge opportunity there,” Baumbick is quoted. “It’s also this reinforcement of the role motorsports plays as a complement to some of these vehicle programs. We’re racing at Dakar not only to race; we’re racing to learn, improve the product and feed that back into our product development to advance our capabilities. You see that same thing playing out with Mustang.”
The Raptor name is inspired by Ford’s off-road competition in the Baja 1000 and part of the development of every model to carry the badge must complete a 1000-mile off-road endurance test to simulate the race and ensure it’s tough enough.
Locally Ford’s fortunes ride on the back of the Ranger, so it’s good news for the Australian operation that more investment is likely forthcoming for the future to help the ute maintain its sales success. Unfortunately, Ford Australia has been denied the Ranger-based Bronco but the F-150 is converted to right-hand drive for local sale, and that program is expected to continue indefinitely, which opens the door to eventually offering the F-150 Raptor here.
In recent years Ford Australia has leaned into its success with the Ranger, dropping the majority of its passenger car range including the Falcon, Mondeo, Focus, Fiesta, Puma and Escape to focus on the Ranger, Everest, Mustang and Transit vans.
Can Ford become the ‘Porsche of off-road’? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
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