Ford F150 News

American brand Ram will soon enter our hotly contested light-commercial ute market, with the company confirming plans for an all-new mid-size pick-up due in 2022.

Sales figures show our car market is becoming more like the US.

Ford studies the hottest Ranger pick-up ever, inspired by the F150 Raptor sold in the US.

Ford's F-750 Tonka truck is a life-size version of the iconic children's favourite.

It's the second-generation version of the Raptor, an off-road performance model that has gained a cult following since it was first introduced in 2010.Only a handful of first-generation Raptors made it to Australia because the vehicle was only made in left-hand drive and interested customers had to have them converted.The new Raptor has an even bolder and chunkier look than the first.Sadly, the story is the same this time around, with no plans to build the new Raptor with the steering wheel on the correct side of the dashboard.Interestingly, many Australian Ford Ranger ute owners have shown their love of the Raptor by fitting Raptor-style grilles with FORD printed in big letters.The new Raptor has an even bolder and chunkier look than the first.It is all-new and brings some interesting new technology to the sport truck class.The most striking is the high-output turbocharged V6, which replaces the previous generation V8.A 6.2-litre eight propelled the old Raptor, generating a handy 307kW and 588Nm of torque.Ford did not reveal the power and torque figures of the new vehicle's 3.5-litre turbo V6 when it rolled out the car at the Detroit motor show earlier this month, but did say it would generate more power and torque than the V8 it replaces.The company also said the Raptor engine would be linked to a new 10-speed automatic transmission.Another radical change is the new body shell that is made from aluminium instead of steel. Ford says this change alone saves 227kg.The aluminium-bodied Raptor comes just months after Ford introduced the new-generation F-Series, which also features an aluminium shell.The Raptor features new Fox Racing shock absorbers developed for fast off-road driving, and has improved travel over the last generation truck.

NSW Police take delivery of Australia's toughest police car, the Ford F150 Raptor.NSW Police have taken delivery of Australia's toughest highway patrol vehicle: a V8-powered Ford "monster truck" from the US.The Ford F150 Raptor, funded by the NSW Centre For Road Safety, will be shown publicly for the first time at Friday's opening of the V8 Supercar championship street race finale at Homebush Bay.The menacing black Ford pick-up will be used to work with the police trail-bike team and will be displayed at community events as the flagship vehicle for the highway patrol's "high visibility" road safety campaign."It's about talking to car enthusiasts on their level and having them understand the technology we have available," said John Hartley, NSW Police Assistant Commissioner and Commander of Traffic and Highway Patrol.RELATED: Australian police could get Ford MustangMORE: Police take delivery of a supercharged Falcon GTThe black beast pick-up truck imported from the US and converted to right-hand-drive locally is powered by a massive 6.2-litre V8 and is estimated to be worth close to $140,000.It is believed to the first vehicle of its type used by law enforcement anywhere in Australia.The Ford F150 Raptor, originally designed for desert racing in the US, joins a fleet of high profile vehicles that police use to "start a conversation" with young drivers that don't usually engage with police."The vast majority of motoring enthusiasts are safe drivers who do the right thing … but once more people realise how much technology we have to detect dangerous drivers, hopefully they'll be less inclined to break the law," said Assistant Commissioner Hartley."(The F150 Raptor) will be used at community events at regional and metropolitan locations. The aim of the vehicle on display is to bring motoring enthusiasts and police together … and initiate discussion about road safety."With its heavy-duty, desert-racing suspension and go-anywhere four-wheel-drive ability, the Ford F150 Raptor can also be used as a support vehicle for the police trail-bike team that will crack down on illegal use of unregistered motorcycles over the summer break.Fast facts: Ford F150 RaptorPrice: $140,000 (estimated)Engine: 6.2-litre V8Power: 306kW/588NmTransmission: Six-speed autoSuspension: Heavy duty Fox Racing shock absorbers0 to 100kmh: 7.1 seconds

Ken Block shows how easy it is to smoke the trax on his F-150 Raptor while its tethered to a wall.It's probably the least complicated piece of driving Ken Block has ever done. Forget gymkhanas through cities and elaborate displays of precision car control, just tie an F-150 RaptorTRAX to the wall and floor it.Smoke? You betcha. Noise? Oh yes.And if you think about what it costs to replace the rubber, well, there's another thing to bring water to your eyes.

Who needs a chairlift when you've got a Ford F-150 RaptorTRAX.Ken Block's latest contribution to the internet sees the heavily modified Ford F-150 RaptorTRAX unveiled earlier this year being put through its paces on the ski slopes of Baldface Lodge in Canada. While not skilful or carefully choreographed as his regular Gymkhana videos, its pretty impressive to watch the RaptorTRAX seemingly defy physics as it conquers the slopes. Block describes the RaptorTRAX as the ultimate backcountry snowboard expedition vehicle, and it does a pretty good job of transporting fellow Monster Energy athletes Zak Hale and Ethan Deiss in the custom tray. Aside from the Mattracks treads replacing the Raptor's all-terrain tyres, the RaptorTRAX has scored a bevy of expedition gear from aftermarket firm Special Vehicle Concepts, including snowboard racks, a roof basket, a rear-mounted winch, exterior audio system, Rigid Industries LED lighting, plus a driver-appropriate pseudo camouflage paintjob. The Raptor's 6.2-litre V8 has also been supercharged, and a full roll cage and Recaro seating add performance cred to the build.

Watch what happens when a Ford F-150 Raptor lands after flying nearly 30m.

Ford’s global HQ in Detroit will this year salute an Australian design that turned into a smash sales success for the brand – the first ute, which has developed into the vehicles that see the Blue Oval leading the segment around the world with nameplates such as Ranger and F-Series.The body style was developed after a Victorian farmer’s wife wrote in 1933 to the then boss of Ford in Australia, Hubert French, famously asking for “a car and a truck but we need a car to go to church on Sunday and a truck to take the pigs to market on Monday”.French put the challenge to Ford’s young design engineer, Lew Bandt, who devised a two-door cabin with a load-carrying tray at the rear, blending the tray sides into the coupe body – rather than the separated cabin and trayback truck commonly used until then. The rest, as they say, is history – 80 years of it.Bandt’s first full-size sketches – on a 10-metre blackboard -- quickly became blueprints and then prototypes, and the ‘coupe utility’ went into production in 1934, with examples heading off to the US and Canada.It became a popular vehicle style in Australia, with 22,000 sold between 1940 and 1954, and spawned generations of Falcon utes, which have sold more than 455,000 since the first XK rolled out in 1961. And the Australian influence continues. The Aussie designed and developed Ford Ranger is a strong seller in more than 180 markets around the world.Lew Bandt’s original drawings are archived here in Australia, and one of the original coupe-utes is still on display in a Victorian museum. Its descendants have gone on to resounding global success, with Ford selling more than a million Ranger-based vehicles around the world in 2013, while the F-Series marked its 37th year running as the top-selling truck in the US. Ironically, Bandt died after an accident while he was at the wheel of a restored version of his coupe-utility in 1987.This reporter is on Twitter: @KarlaPincott