Ford appears to be edging ever closer to launching a dedicated off-road supercar, after the Blue Oval’s global CEO once again hinted at making an even higher performance Raptor.
Speaking to Top Gear at the Ford Performance 2025 season launch in North Carolina, Ford CEO Jim Farley said the carmaker is considering making an off-road supercar, even if it doesn’t yet know what shape it’d take.
“We’re in the middle of creating something, so we don’t have all the answers yet, but the question is should Ford make an off-road supercar? Not a version of a car, a standalone supercar,” Mr Farley told Top Gear.
“The reason people love the Ranger Raptor in the UK is because it’s a fun car but the damping is very compliant.
“People don’t understand about off-road racing how compliant the damping is and that makes it a totally different experience to being in a [Porsche 911] GT2 RS.
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“That’s what we’re trying to answer. What do we do on a utility car? Is there a supercar? That’s what we’re debating now.”
It’s not the first time Mr Farley has spoken about Ford making an off-road supercar.
In 2023, after the Porsche 911 Dakar and Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato off-road focused supercars were launched, Mr Farley spoke about the possibility of Ford’s own take to Motor Trend.
“What would a [off-road] supercar look like? To me, it wouldn’t be converted from a passenger car – it would be a supercar which has been ground-up invented to be optimised.”
“I think there’s going to be a segment like that. The signals from Porsche and Lamborghini are good.”
Asked whether the off-road supercar would borrow from the Ford GT, the brand’s last halo performance model, Mr Farley said: “No – all I’m saying is that I’m always looking for what’s next, as any good car leader should.”
The possibility of such a supercar comes as Ford continues to expand its range of Raptor-branded, off-road focused models.
While Australia only gets the Ranger Raptor, overseas there’s the related Bronco Raptor SUV and the larger F-150 Raptor pickup, which is fitted with a supercharged 5.2-litre V8 from the Mustang GT500 in Raptor R guise.
It’s also a name being used in racing, with Ford’s Dakar challenger called the Raptor T1+, though this is a completely bespoke machine with no production links aside from its Mustang-derived V8 engine.
According to Ford Performance global director Mark Rushbrook, the company can do more to link its racing efforts to road-going vehicles.
“The mission of Ford Performance is to have as much motorsport as possible infused into the products that people can buy,” Mr Rushbrook told Top Gear.
“We love that we have an F-150, Bronco and Ranger Raptor, but we can do more.
“Yes, the Raptor T1+ at Dakar represents the ultimate Raptor in many ways, and we’re learning a lot from that both in terms of the competition but also in terms of feedback from customers, so all I can say is stay tuned…”
While it has dabbled with production-based off-road special editions like the Mustang Mach-E Rally electric SUV and potentially even a Mustang coupe-based V8 all-wheel drive ‘Raptor’ variant, it’s been a long time since Ford last had a standalone model built to go as fast as possible off-road.
The mid-engined Ford RS200 of the mid-1980s was built to homologate the brand’s Group B rally car, with its turbocharged engine and all-wheel drive system making it one of the fastest-accelerating road cars for decades – though this didn’t translate into racing success.
