The recent introduction of a 2.3-litre turbocharged petrol engine to the Ford Ranger portfolio is an interesting one. Barring the high-performance 3.0-litre V6 Ford Ranger Raptor and a host of hybridised Chinese offerings. But in a brave move, the Blue Oval has torn up the traditional bakkie script byadding its familiar EcoBoost petrol millto the Ranger’s line-up.
What’s more, is that it effectively replaced the 2.0-litre bi-turbo engine which has been discontinued. On this week’s episode of thePitstoppodcast, we discuss the positioning of the 2.3-litre Ford Ranger. And we analyse the data from Road Test Editor Mark Jones’ recent high-performance test on the Sport derivative.
The four-pot 2.3-litre engine produces 222kW of power and 452Nm of torque and mated to10-speed automatic transmission. It is offered in Sport and Wildtrak trim and only in two-wheel drive. The numbers from our test make for very interesting reading.
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In going from 0 to 100km/h in 8.39 seconds, the 2.3-litre became the second fastest Ranger on our time sheets. It is still a long way off the 292kW/583Nm Raptor’s 6.9 seconds, but almost a second quicker than the 184kW/600Nm 3.0-litre V6 turbodiesel. Probably the most telling number was the 2.3-litre’s acceleration from 60 to 140km/h, which is an indication of a car’s urge during overtaking.In clocking 9.71 seconds, the EcoBoost model came in over three and a half seconds faster than the 3.0-litre diesel.
And that time is less than a second slower than the beastly Raptor. Ford believes that the 2.3-litre is not so much aimed at luring buyers away from oil-burners, but rather for someone looking to swop out an SUV for a bakkie. With such impressive numbers, the 2.3-litre might just manage to do both.
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