While the 2021 Ford Ranger Raptor gets most of the attention from the off-road crowd when we look to the European market, the handsome new Ford Ranger MS-RT brings a more street oriented option to the high-end of the Blue Oval’s compact truck across the pond.
Starting with the EU top-trim Ranger Wildtrak, the Ranger MS-RT brings a lot of that street and performance inspiration of the ST line of Ford Performance products to the Ranger by way of MS-RT, a partner performance modifier with Ford of Europe.
The makeover in style starts with a handsome set of 20-inch MS-RT logo OZ Racing alloy wheels. A custom hand-built front fascia with integrated fog lights, a rather upscale honeycomb carbon fiber look grille look much sportier than the standard Ford face.
Substantially more muscular front fenders and bedside flares inspired by Ford’s World Rally Championship partner M-Sport give a slightly wider stance all around. Side skirts tie them together and a European style bar atop the bed extends silhouette of the cab.
At the rear is a unique body color bumper with sleekly executed wrap-around extensions. Added details also include carbon fiber look mirror caps and MS-RT badges all around.
The cabin of the Ranger MS-RT cabin gets custom heated leather seat trim with orange contrast stitching. MS-RT embroidery looks sharp in seating and floor mats along with logo scuff plates. The rest of the interior is well equipped with all of the aforementioned Wildtrak trim grade features.
Unlike North America where we get only a 2.3-liter turbocharged gasoline engine, standard here is a bi-turbo 2.0-liter EcoBlue diesel engine with 210 horsepower and 369 pound-feet of torque powering all four wheels through Ford’s now venerable 10-speed automatic transmission.
An interesting option offered is a Maxhaust app-controlled sound box that enables you to control and vary the engine sound via your smart phone. This system has yet to proliferate in the States to a large degree but is increasingly popular in Europe.
Ranger MS-RT offers the choice of Super Cab or Crew Cab. The 2021 Ranger MS-RT joins an existing range of up-fitted models available directly through Ford dealers in the UK including the Transit Custom and Transit Connect MS-RT vans, and Transit Custom Nugget camper van.
