Off-Roader

After what was a rather dumb move on Ford’s part, the company has officially confirmed that it will be offering the seven-speed manual gearbox with the Sasquatch Package. When the company announced this off-road package, it checked all the boxes and made even the lower trims off-road worthy. But, the only thing missing was the manual gearbox, and it didn’t go down well with potential customers. Fortunately, Ford heard them and decided to offer it before it was too late. We’re happy now.

The Mercedes G-Class is arguably one of the best off-roaders to have graced our planet. Over the years, the company has equipped it with a premium interior and an exorbitant price tag, but it is still regarded as a hardcore off-roader and has a strong footing in the segment despite heavy competition. To further cement this perception, Mercedes created a hardcore version of the already-competent G-Class called the G-Class 4x4. The previous model’s production ended in 2017, but it looks like the monster is back.

The new G-Class 4x4 was spied undergoing high-altitude testing in the Alps and it looked a lot bulkier and monstrous than its normal self – especially the wheel arches – thus reigniting the news of the 4x4 making a comeback. Are we excited? Hell yeah!

News about the Ford Bronco Raptor has been heading in the right chronology until now. We first heard hushed talks about sparked the news, then some leaks here and there with a few spec details, then an “error” by a Ford engineer on Linkedin, and finally some confirmation on what to expect from the Bronco Raptor. But, it looks like there’s a twist in the story.

Ford recently filed a trademark application for the ‘Warthog’ moniker, and netizens believe it is going to replace the Bronco ‘Raptor’ badge. The application doesn’t anything of that sort; so, are we reading too much between the lines?

When Ford Bronco was finally unveiled a couple of months back, it looked quite complete and had ticked almost all the boxes. Almost. The one unticked box that kept the off-roader enthusiasts wanting more was the super-rugged Raptor version of this competent off-roader.

It didn’t take long for the news to start pouring in which more or less confirmed that the Bronco Raptor is arriving soon. If that wasn’t enough, the LinkedIn profile of a Ford engineer came to light where he mentioned that he was working on the 2023 Ford Bronco Raptor.

Even though Ford hasn’t officially announced the Bronco Raptor yet, there are quite a few things already known. Now, Ford Authority has reported them again, which confirms the things we already knew.

Jeep took the wraps off the Wrangler 4xe and it seems like an environment-friendly off-roader. Although there were some apprehensions about this new hybrid version of the off-roader, the automaker has made big claims. While the company has hyped the Wrangler 4xe in general, there was one claim that said “New Level of Benchmark Jeep Off-road Capability”. From what we knew before the launch, the 4xe was going to be a hybrid version of the standard Wrangler that would be more efficient and a little more torquey. Now that it has been unveiled, does it offer a new level of off-road capability?

Jeep has provided some information on the Wrangler 4xe’s models and specs, but there’s still a lot that’s not known. So, for the sake of comparison, we’ll be pitting the Rubicon trims of the standard Wrangler and the Wrangler 4xe, and here’s how they measure:

With the Bronco out of the bag, perhaps Dodge should think seriously about coming up with a proper rival for FoMoCo’s SUV. That rival could be a revival model of the Ramcharger, and given the recent rumors saying a Raptorized Bronco is coming in the near future, why not make it a Dodge Ramcharger TRX? Dodge obviously has the firepower and a potential platform, courtesy of the Ram 1500 TRX.

Some might say that building, buying, and hooning a Safari 911 is a blasphemy. We digress. Porsche has such a solid connection with the world of rally racing (including Dakar and Monte Carlo back in the day) that a Safari-style Neunelfer feels as natural as breathing.

And while a lot of entities have been performing this sort of conversions on vintage 911s, we didn’t expect one such contraption to come from suspension specialist H&R. But it did, and it’s awesome.

Ariel Motors knows to deliver one thing and one thing only: serious fun, on and off the road. The company first offered the Atom, but it extended its portfolio to include the Nomad, a bonkers, dust-raising off-road machine based on the Atom.

The latest and meanest Ariel Nomad is the R and you’re here to know everything there is to know about it.

Alright, we get it – anything that carries a Ford badge and can go off-road be offered in extreme Raptor trim. You can’t knock the brand- it’s no worse than dodge cramming a Hellcat V-8 into almost anything FCA sells (we’re still waiting on that Pacifica Hellcat, though). So, naturally, before the 2021 Bronco even made its debut, the world was expecting a Raptor version to cross the intersection at one point or another. Obviously, it wasn’t going to happen right away, but new evidence has come to light that says that a Ford Bronco Raptor will launch for the 2023 model year – that means we could see it as soon as mid-2022!

The Land Rover Defender is a capable off-roader with a lot of off-road tech and equipment fused with a conventional, boxy design. Even though it has all the characteristics to shine as a pickup truck, don’t expect it to happen any time soon.

However, that doesn’t mean that enthusiasts can’t imagine what it looks like. A rendering artist, Andrew Alewine, uploaded an image of the Defender imagined as a full-size pickup truck. Do you think it looks the part to take on the likes of the Ford F-150 and the Chevy Silverado?

We all know that the Cybertruck launch came with a bit of a surprise, we’ll-throw-this-in-for-your-entertainment moment when Elon Musk presented Tesla’s first pickup truck and the Cyberquad.

The Cybertruck has been getting all sorts of attention online ever since, yet the Cyberquad remained a mystery. Some claimed it was, in fact, just a dressed up Yamaha Raptor 700, but at the same time Yamaha denied working with Tesla. That said, one youtuber did get some ‘help’ from Yamaha in building his own Cyberquad replica.

Much like the Jeep Wrangler, the 2021 Ford Bronco is designed with customization in mind. The company is even offering more than 200 accessories for the Bronco when it hits showrooms, but powertrain upgrades might not be possible via aftermarket means. According to Ford, the ECU is very complicated, and, essentially, nobody should be playing around with ECU calibration. That means aftermarket companies might find the new Bronco to be untunable.

If you think that Ford won’t react to Ram’s mind-bending 702-horsepower 1500 TRX, well, you’re wrong. In fact, it’s highly likely that Ford has been brewing this move for quite some time now and a fresh report quoting a “well-sourced informant” says the supercharged V-8 inside the Shelby GT500 is go for the F-150 Raptor.

The return of the Ford Bronco isn’t your typical automotive comeback. The SUV isn’t just making a comeback as a nameplate; it’s become its own sub-brand under Ford. More to that, the Bronco has captured the attention of the SUV world in ways few of its kind have been able to do in the past. That’s especially true when you look at all the renderings that have come out, specifically those of the “Woody” variety. Woody Broncos are all over Instagram, including this piece of work from artist Timothy Adry Emmanuel, who goes by the IG handle “adry53customs.” Emmanuel has an impressive catalog of car renderings on his Instagram page, ranging from Volkswagens to RAM pickup trucks. But his work on the Bronco is something else, at least if you’re a fan of the “woodie” car style that was all the rage in the previous century. We don’t see woodie’s these days anymore, but Emmanuel’s rendering is a perfect call back, not only to the Bronco but to the woodie car style as well. Put those two elements together, and the result is nothing short of impressive.

It’s been three years since Ford re-released the F-150 Raptor (after a three-year hiatus), and we’ve been waiting for a strong challenger to come in with an uppercut. The Rebel’s distant cousin, the Jeep Gladiator, is okay and all, but Ram just proved that good things come to those who wait. This, folks, is the Ram Rebel TRX, and I’m going to explain to you how Ram made it so capable and why it just became the most capable truck in the world.