In January 2024, Ford Performance will participate in the famous Dakar Rally for the first time. It’s being held in Saudi Arabia. In 2024 Ford will work with M-Sport and Neil Woolridge Motorsport (NWM) to make a modified Ford Ranger for the T1+ class. Mark Rushbrook, in charge of Ford Performance worldwide, says that Ford will use 2024 as a learning year before making a truck based on the Ranger Raptor and trying to win in 2025. Ford Motor Company is not entering a race to get back at Ferrari for winning Le Mans recently. Instead, Ford Performance will participate in the Dakar Rally, which is well-known and complex on the body. The Blue Oval will field the required T1+-class truck for the title with the help of longtime partners M-Sport and Neil Woolridge Motorsport (NWM). In an interview with Car & Driver, Mark Rushbrook, the global director of Ford Performance, talked at length about how Ford took part in the famous rally. In 2024, Ford will take part in the Dakar Rally for the first time, driving a fourth-generation Ranger that has been changed to meet Dakar T1+ standards. Rushbrook says Ford will make a “finish and learn effort” in 2024 because the Dakar Rally is hard on the car and crew. He wants the event to give the team the logistical knowledge they need to tackle a challenging task. The team also plans to take part in the Baja Espana Aragón rally in Spain in July and the Rally du Maroc rally in Morocco in October. These events will help people get ready for the Dakar Rally, which will happen in January. The F-150 Raptor has the same twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V-6 EcoBoost engine in the NWM-built race trucks. Saudi Arabia has rough terrain, so the truck’s stability is essential. The NWM Ranger has single dampers with a diameter of 3 inches at each corner. This gives the wheels up to 13.8 inches of travel to soften the fall when climbing desert dunes. Sets of 13.9-inch Brembo disc brakes with water-cooled calipers help stop the car when it gets hot. A new truck will be made for the race in January 2025 Ford and Rushbrook want to start the attack the following year, using what they’ve learned from what happened in 2024. Until 2024, we will plan, create, test, and build a new vehicle. “We’ll bring that back into the race in January 2025, when we hope to be in the running for the win,” he told C/D. They want to bring a brand-new truck and the skills and information they gained at the tournament. The 2025 entry will be built on the more modern Ranger Raptor platform, while the fourth-generation Ranger will support the current NWM T1+ Ranger. Rushbrook wouldn’t say if the new truck would use the Raptor’s twin-turbo 3.0 liter V-6 instead of the current 3.5 liters, but he did say that FIA rules allow any engine from the Ford family to be used.
