With the all-new Ford Rangerexpectedto make its local debut towards the end of 2022, run-out editions of the current bakkie are coming thick and fast.The flagship Raptor is the latest derivative tobe dolled up;we drove the Special Edition from Cape Town to the Tankwa on South Africa’s longest dirt road to find out what’s so “special” about the newcomer…

What’s new on the Raptor Special Edition?

The decals on the bonnet, roof and side of the Raptor distinguish the Special Edition from its standard sibling.

The Ranger Raptor Special Edition is cosmetically enhanced by an exterior sticker kit that adorns the bonnet, roof and sides of the door and load bay. It’s hard to miss with its black finish and red stripes.

A manually retractable roller shutter has been included in the Special Edition’s price, which, of course, secures the contentsof the bakkie’s load bay. The final amendment to the exterior is the red-painted tow points at the front. Ford Motor Company of Southern Africadoes like a touch of red paint at the front of a Ranger, you only need to look as far as the Ranger Thunder’s bluff front endto see that.

The cabinalso incorporates a few minor changes. The traditional blue stitching on the Raptor’s seats and steering wheel is replaced with red threading and the instrument panel is finished in Raceway Grey.

> Read more: Ford Ranger Raptor Spec & Price

Raptor performance

The Special Edition retains the 157-kW 2.0-litre bi-turbodiesel engine.

From a mechanical point of view, nothing has changed on the Ranger Raptor, so a 2-day drive on some of the Republic’s quietest roads gave us time to reacquaint ourselves with the locally produced off-road juggernaut. The Raptor is not a performance bakkie, as I think many of us expected it would be (considering the Raptor name and the legacy of the F150 Raptor in the US). This Raptor was simply engineered to be the best 4×4 vehicle it could be. That’s why there is no power increase from the 2.0 bi-turbodiesel (157 kW and 500 Nm), despite many cries from fans to fit the bakkie with a beefy petrol engine. The ‘diesel works just fine in combination with the 10-speed automatic transmission. It’s not as refined as an SUV’s powertrain, but it’s certainly one of the smoother ones in the bakkie segment.

Overtaking acceleration is a little underwhelming compared to something like aVolkswagen Amarok V6, but the Raptor will happily cruise at highway speeds. Actually, it will happily cruise at highway speeds on- and off-road, such is the compliance of the ride quality (Ford has the trick Fox suspension underneath the bakkie’s body to thank for that – on unsealed road surfaces in particular).

> Watch: 6-way bakkie drag race

SA’s longest dirt road

The Raptor is easily the most comfortable bakkie on sale today.

According to our guide, the longest dirt road in South Africa runs from Ceres to Calvinia – it’s 200-plus kilometres long. We joined onto this dirt road after going over the Katbakkies pass, a mix of dirt and tar that exits the Cederberg before the vast Karoo landscape dominates your view in all directions – it’s wellworth the trip if you don’t mind adding a bit of extra mileage toyour journey.

We must have travelled 150 kmon gravel roads over the 2 days– and most of that on the Ceres-Calvinia connection.The Raptor is the perfect vehicle for this sort of dirt track. The addition of Fox dampers to the ladder-frame-with-leaf-sprung-suspension setup does so much to bolster the ride quality, it’s as good as the most comfortable SUV – on a dirt road. It’s quiet too and has an air of invincibility about it.

The Tankwa is renowned for ruiningtyres and breaking cars, but courtesy of its standard General Grabber 17-inch tyres, the Raptor brushedoff hits and jolts with ease. Even the worst of the washboard gravel didvery little to upset the ride comfort, something which normally sets bakkies into a fit of shakes, rattles and bouts of sideways crabbing across the road.

> Read more: 5 key differences on a Ford Ranger Raptor

Perfect off-roader?

Red stitching replaces the traditional blue stitching inside.

So as not to make the trip only about “gravel travel”, we stopped off at the bottom of Du Toitskloof for a real off-road test of the Raptor (the location pops up just after you’ve headed through the Huguenot tunnel). It was a proper test of an off-road vehicle, something that prospective Raptor owners should consider doing just to see how capable thisvehicle actually is.

With low rangeand multiple drivemodes such as Rock Crawl, you can tip-toe your way up just about any obstacle. The lockable rear diff will help you out when things get really tricky, but the most notable part of the off-roading experience was just how composed the Raptor Special Edition’s body movement remainedwhile we bumpedover rocks, crossedrivers and descendedsteep negative gradients.

The suspension really is the Raptor’s pièce de résistance, but if you are going to tackle these really rocky or tricky off-road courses often, it might be worth your while to procurea separate set of wheels. The Raptor mags look great, but they protrude slightly outside of the tyre’s centres,sothey are often the first contact point with rocks, whichmeansyou’relikely to be repairing wheels more than you’d like.

Summary

If you must have a new bakkie– at any cost– and don’t need to transport more than 600 kg of cargo, choose a Raptor.

The Raptor Special Edition carries a R45k premium over the standard Raptor (R965 300 vs R920 300). Whether the sticker kit, roller shutter and red contrast stitching can justify the newcomer’s premium is up to you to decide. This Ford, however, remains the best bakkie on the market. Taking price out of the equation, the Raptor’s ride is as good as some premium SUVs, and its off-road ability is unmatched at this price point. It might lack a little in the performance stakes (considering that its asking price is close to R1 million), but the bakkie certainly makes up for it through its sheer breadth of skills (and, of course, immense ability).