Ford Motor Company today revealed concept sketches for its one-off Ranger Raptor North Edition 1. Which it expects to put into production sometime never.
The result of a collaboration between Ford Design in Australia and Kris Kringle 2, the world’s best-known gift-giver. Development of the bespoke pickup truck has been led by a team based in Australia with involvement from across the Ford world.
“The sleigh and reindeer are my brand and will always be part of my work life,” said Kringle. “But I was looking for something that could be used on the other 364 days of the year, or at Christmas if necessary. I guess you could say I was looking for my everyday sleigh.”
Boasting new features like
- heated hot-chocolate holders,
- an infinity load box,
- and tailgate barbeque,
- the Ranger Raptor was selected, said Kringle2,
- because it provided the all-terrain capability and creature comforts required for work and play.
Designing an everyday sleigh
The task of imagining the Ranger Raptor North Edition 1 was led by Ford Australia designer, Kirby Masterman, and involved a global team of experts, including researchers at Ford’s Experimental Laboratory Foundation (ELF)3.
“With only a 10-week window to go from brief to presentation, I found the process intense,” said Masterman. “Luckily, I had great support from the team here in Australia, the ELF team in the U.S., and my colleagues at our North Pole studio. I’m so glad they asked me to get involved in this project.”
While the intention was for the Ranger Raptor North Edition 1 to be his everyday sleigh for running to the shops or heading off-road on the weekend, flight capability was important to Kringle.
“We started with the compressed air system in the 1958 Levacar Mach 1 concept4,” said ELF’s3 chief impossible projects officer, Dr Chad McBoffin. “McBoffin said that originally, the system was only designed to provide a centimetre or two of lift, but they needed to redevelop it to provide enough lift to reach 1,000 feet, which is above controlled airspace.
Key features of the everyday sleigh – Raptor North Edition
Roof access: Kringle is not a fan of doors, preferring to use chimneys to access buildings, so the Ford Design team sealed up Ranger Raptor’s four doors and installed a roof port positioned over the driver’s seat.
Heated hot chocolate holders: Ranger Raptor’s existing cup holders were redesigned with a special no-burn heating element incorporated to maintain the perfect hot chocolate temperature of 58-degrees C7.
Integrated tailgate barbecue8: Enhancing the functionality of the Ranger Raptor’s tailgate the team integrated a full width, self-cleaning barbecue hot plate for use when Kringle is relaxing at his holiday home in Bonnie Doon.
Infinity load box9: Designed to allow Kringle to store enough presents for more than 800 million children, it features a safe return system to ensure anyone who falls in can get out easily. A powered cover allows the load box to be used conventionally outside of delivery use.
Gingerbread-crumb SYNC® infotainment10: A never-to-be-released version of Ford’s latest-generation SYNC® 4A11 system. The artificial-intelligence enhanced technology provides secure list management, advanced navigation, and weather monitoring.
More details
Enhanced F-O-R-D grille12: To ensure occupant protection when travelling at 4,705,882km/h. Ford has used the same Unobtanium used in Kringle’s workday sleigh in the front end of the Ranger Raptor North Edition 1. Which provides heat and friction resistance. Engineers must ensure the vehicle and occupants are not vaporized when travelling at 99 percent the speed of light.
Flight system: Ford has reimagined its Levacar Mach 1 levitation system4. To provide jump lift capability to the Ranger Raptor North Edition. While Mistletoe-class rockets6 provide thrusts. Retractable wings5 ensure stability and control during high-speed flight.
“From all of us at Ford Motor Company, we’d like to wish each one of you a happy holidays. And a big thanks to Kris for trusting us with this project; I’m sure we’ll be cleaning mince pie crumbs out of Kirby’s computer for months,” said Max Wolff, design director, China, and International Markets Group.
All the boring notes and Disclaimers
1 The Ranger Raptor North Edition is not available for sale. It is a figment of the Ford communication teams’ imagination. And will never be put into production…or will it? It won’t.
2 Ford does not work with members of the public on bespoke vehicle designs. But chose to work with Kris Kringle to ensure the entire team would stay on his ‘Nice List’.
3 The Experimental Laboratory Foundation (ELF) is all part of the fun. It doesn’t exist anywhere but in our imagination.
4 The 1958 Levacar Mach 1 was a working concept vehicle created as part of Ford’s exploration of air-powered vehicles. It could travel at 15mph at a fraction of an inch off the ground.
5 Retractable wings are a staple of every child’s drawing of a car. But unfortunately it is impossible to install them onto a Ranger Raptor. We tried.
Yet more disclaimers
6 Mistletoe-class rockets don’t exist. But if they did we’re sure they’d be powered by sugary candy canes.
7 The Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Texas calculated. The optimum temperature for hot chocolate for easy drinking was 58-degrees C. So, there you go.
8 As much as it seems like a really cool idea. Ford is not developing a barbecue integrated into the tailgate.
9 An infinity load box is a nice idea but a scientific impossibility.
10 Gingerbread-enhanced SYNC is not an actual feature available on SYNCÒ 4A.
11 Don’t drive while distracted or while using handheld devices. Use voice-operated systems when possible. Some features may be locked out while the vehicle is in gear. Not all features are compatible with all phones.
12 Unobtanium is not a real substance.
