By: Jason Woosey
While the all-new Hilux basks in the limelight following its unveiling a few weeks back, Ford has revealed the Wildtrak version of its facelifted Ranger.
Just as you'd expect by now, the Wildtrak badge means a more vibrant look inside and out and Ford also saw fit to tweak the orange paint option to make it even more eye-catching than before, as if to fit the upgraded Ranger's more imposing front end. "We wanted to push the Wildtrak's orange further, to give it a fun, tough feeling," design manager Dave Dewitt explained.
In keeping with its sportier positioning, the Wildtrak model swops chrome for a dark liquid metallic gray finish on the grille, bumper cladding, door mirrors, bed rails and taillights.
The wild Ranger is further set apart by unique 18-inch alloys, a 'sports hoop' and rectangular foglights and if the new Pride Orange paint is a bit much for your eyes, Ford also offers it in the more sober Cool White, Black Mica, Aluminium Metallic and Metropolitan Grey hues.
You'll still find some orange flavour in the cabin however, in the form of accent stitching on the soft-touch dashboard and on the unique eight-way power adjustable seats. As with its upper-range siblings, the interior features an eight-inch touch-screen infotainment system with Sync2 connectivity and there's a handy dual-TFT instrument cluster plonked in front of the driver.
UPGRADED SUSPENSION, ENGINES
There's a lot more to the Ranger upgrade than just cosmetics as Ford has tinkered with the engines, suspension and sound-proofing to provide a better driving experience, while improving safety by offering a full spread of optional gadgets such as Adaptive Cruise Control, Forward Collision Alert, Driver Impairment Monitor and Lane Keeping Aid.
The 3.2-litre five-cylinder turbodiesel has the same outputs of 147kW and 470Nm but engineers have improved the exhaust gas recirculation system to improve efficiency by up to 18 percent, according to Ford.
The 2.2-litre engine on the other hand gets a little more muscle with power increasing from 110kW to 118kW while maximum twisting force remains at 385Nm.
Given that it's more than just a flashy style statement, the Wildtrack is sufficiently kitted out for the bush. Like all 4x4 Rangers it has an electronically controlled transfer case to enable low-range crawling, with bundu bragging rights also extending to 230mm ground clearance and 800mm water-wading ability.
CLICK HERE for pictures of the Ranger XLT models that Ford spilled the beans on back in March.