New Ford EcoBoost Ranger Sport even faster than we thought

I am going to admit right up front. I did not think much of Ford shoving the 2.3-litre EcoBoost engine in the Ranger. My feeling has always been that this powerplant was only suited to their Ford Focus RS hot hatch.

And I did not see the point of putting a fuel burner in the Ranger. Especially when on the surface it seems like a clever marketing ploy for the sake of only having more and more derivatives. You want fast, get a Ranger Raptor.

You want frugal, get a single turbo XL. And if you want silky smoothness, get a 3.0-V6 turbodiesel. Plenty of good choices right here.

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No need for this petrol engine. I also never saw the point of this engine in the Ford Mustang either. Perhaps this is where my dislike for the plan started.

Stick to doing what you do best. Nobody wants a Raptor Lite. Or do they?

I wish at this point I could tell you that I was at least impressed when I pushed the start button on the Ford Ranger Sport and fired the 2.3-litre EcoBoost into life. There is no engine note to speak of to be blunt. Even though this bakkie wears a ‘Sport’ badge.

It doesn’t fire into life like a ‘Sport’. And doesn’t sound like a ‘Sport’ on the fly. Maybe I was expecting something a bit livelier.

Not like a Raptor. But something with a bit of noise. I guess one can argue that at least there is no diesel rattle.

Driving off and behaving in a civilised manner also yielded no real clues for what was to follow. When you use part throttle in the suburbs or on the highway, the bakkie behaves very much like the old discontinued bi-turbo diesel that churned out 154 kW and 500 Nm. Which means there is a more than decent level of drivability but no huge rush of speed.

Your brain is hard pressed to believe that the Ford Ranger EcoBoost Sport is offering up a full 222 kW of power and 452 Nm of torque. Without getting too technical, this is because of the way the Ranger EcoBoost Sport is mapped. Ford have limited the amount of torque allowed down to the rear wheels through the 10-speed box in the lower gears and at part throttle.

They have made it feel like a bakkie. And not an overzealous hot hatch. Which is fair enough as it still a leisure double cab weighing in at over 2-tonne.

But this all changes the moment you decide to treat it like a hot hatch and bury your right foot and keep it there. It’s like a little message is sent to the turbocharger to allow all the boost to keep coming while the rev counter hauls past 6 000 rpm.

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