Later this year, The Grand Tour’s Richard Hammond will turn 50 making him the prime candidate for a mid-life crisis. Fortunately, he has found the solution.
In this new video from Drive Tribe, the British journalist and TV presenter discovers that the one thing he needs to make his life whole is a pickup truck. He opts for the Ford Ranger Raptor.
Before moving along, it’s worth mentioning that this video was sponsored by Ford itself, so it is essentially just an advertisement for the Ranger Raptor. Nonetheless, it is well worth watching, mainly because Hammond is actually brave enough to do a little off-roading in the pickup, showing his unsuspecting passengers just how capable it is.
Also Watch: The Ford Ranger Raptor Is Less Truck, More Off-Road Sports Car
Like the standard Ranger, the Raptor model uses a ladder frame but it has been reinforced with high-strength, low-alloy steels. Additionally, the Raptor benefits from new aluminum control arms, bespoke front shock towers, and coils and a Watt’s linkage at the rear as opposed to leaf springs. The addition of Fox Racing shock absorbers that help bump the ride height up by 51 mm provide the Raptor with an impressive 283 mm of ground clearance and a wading depth of 850 mm. The pickup is also capable of jumping over sand dunes like its bigger F-150 Raptor sibling.
Perhaps the most controversial aspect of the pickup is its use of a small 2.0-liter four-cylinder diesel engine with two turbochargers and delivering 210 hp and 368 lb-ft (500 Nm). Some say it doesn’t have enough power but it seems to be just enough for the Hamster.