- Ford is launching another off-roading school for its owners, this time for buyers of the 2024 Ranger Raptor pickup truck.
- Located at the Ford Performance School in Tooele Valley, Utah, the course is free to owners of the new truck and starts in June.
- The curriculum includes activities such as rock crawling and Baja runs, climbing, side-hilling, descending, and braking. Ford will provide trucks and safety gear for the event.
Modern track-attack cars and off-roading trucks are like precision weapons with limits that not every customer is necessarily equipped to reach. Because of that, some automakers offer driving schools to help customers who buy their performance vehicles gain the necessary skills to achieve those limits safely. Ford is one of those automakers, and it’s just announced another off-roading school for its owners, this time for owners of the 2024 Ranger Raptor pickup.
The course is called the Ranger Raptor Assault School, and it joins Ford’s other schools like the nationwide Bronco Off-Roadeo courses, Mustang Track Attacks, and the similarly named F-150 Raptor Assault School. The new course launches in June at the Ford Performance School in Tooele Valley, Utah. Enrollment is exclusive to owners of the 2024 Ranger Raptor, and the program cost is baked into the cost of buying your truck, so enrollment is definitely worth consideration.
In Ford Performance general manager Will Ford’s words, “Our goal is for owners, whether novices or off-road veterans, to experience the full capability of Ranger Raptor and get a true understanding of the passion and attention to detail that Ford engineers put into developing it.”
The one-day course’s curriculum was developed with the input of Ford Performance engineers. Along with classroom instruction, there’s hands-on driving to help develop skills and confidence with skills like rock crawling and Baja runs, climbing, side-hilling, descending, and braking. Plus, Ford supplies trucks, safety gear, tires, and fuel for both you and the trucks; owners are only on the hook for travel and lodging.
Like other Raptor variants, the Ranger Raptor sets itself apart from the standard pickup. For starters, it carries a $57,065 base price compared with the Ranger’s $34,265 sticker. It’s better to think of the Ranger Raptor as a sized-down F-150 Raptor than it is a more muscular Ranger. It’s equipped with a twin-turbo 3.0-liter V-6 making 405 horsepower and 430 pound-feet of torque and rides on long-travel suspension and 33-inch BFGoodrich K03 all-terrain tires set in widened front and rear tracks. Basically, this thing should be a riot to wheel off-road.
Jack Fitzgerald’s love for cars stems from his as yet unshakable addiction to Formula 1.
After a brief stint as a detailer for a local dealership group in college, he knew he needed a more permanent way to drive all the new cars he couldn’t afford and decided to pursue a career in auto writing. By hounding his college professors at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, he was able to travel Wisconsin seeking out stories in the auto world before landing his dream job at Car and Driver. His new goal is to delay the inevitable demise of his 2010 Volkswagen Golf.