Disclaimer: This was never going to be a typical Ranger Raptor test. If you want to see dust vortexes swirling off the edges of the tailgate, extreme wheel articulation and heroic driving shots, you might feel underwhelmed – press images notwithstanding.
It's often a conveniently forgotten fact that every great dirt road branches off a mundane tar road, and it's here where I spent time with the Raptor – a 2024 South African Car of the Year finalist nogal.
The scene is Cape Town. First observation: The Mother City's affection towards bakkies is not a patch on Johannesburg's, although I'm told this depends on the area.