You’re likely familiar with the adage, “size matters.” You may also be familiar with the retort, “it’s not what you got, it’s how you use it.” Well, Ford sells you the problem but also the solution: the F-150 Raptor is capable but gargantuan, so here’s where the 2024 Ford Ranger Raptor shines. It definitely knows how to use it.

The Ranger lineup as a whole undergoes a thorough redesign for 2024. The new truck wears a refreshed front end, gets an optional twin-turbo V6 where its key competitors pack turbo-fours or normally aspirated V6s, and is a big step up tech-wise inside. And then there’s the Ranger Raptor, a truck Ford teased us with by selling everywhere except here. It was worth the wait.

The 2024 Ranger Raptor starts with a 3.0-litre twin-turbocharged V6 closely related to the one you’d find in the Bronco Raptor. Here in the Ranger, it’s rated 405 horsepower and 430 pound-feet of torque. It works with a 10-speed automatic transmission and an advanced-as-heck four-wheel-drive system. It’s impressive stuff: there’s an anti-lag system, the larger exhaust piping gives it more power than the Bronco, and it sounds like a sports car when you beat on it.

But the real star of the show is what keeps the shiny side up. The Raptor’s front and rear track sits 3.5 inches wider than the standard Ranger thanks to longer aluminum control arms, working with a steering rack and tie rods bespoke to the Raptor. Fox dampers sit at each corner, necessitating toughened-up shock towers, a longer axle out back, and a Watts Linkage to keep the back end in check under hard cornering—or blasting over sand dunes. Because in a truck like this, you just gotta lick a stamp and send it.

That’s backed up by the muscly dress-up you’d expect. Parked beside the Lariat we tested, the Raptor swaps the split chrome grille with the Blue Oval logo for a matte black mesh grille with F-O-R-D spelled out prominently, a la F-150 Raptor. The lower section of the front bumper is cut shorter to allow for better clearance off-road, and fender flares envelop the Raptor’s chunky BFGoodrich K03s and our tester’s optional beadlock-capable wheels. Around the back, it’s finished off with a matte black bumper and dual exhaust—in addition to Raptor badges and decals peppered all over. It’s supposed to be a baby F-150 Raptor, sure, but with its beadlock wheels, broad shoulders, and the way the fender flares are cut, it looks more like a baby Ram TRX to us. With Ford badges, of course.

Off-road, we already learned a few things about the Ranger Raptor. First of all, it hides its weight well. It weighs 5,325 pounds—compared to 4,415 for the Lariat with the 2.7—yet the Raptor felt as playful as a Focus RS. Its steering is sharp, it rotates like a rally car over dunes, and it lets you know exactly what’s going on under each wheel. The Ranger Raptor is easier to place on trails than the humongous F-150 thanks to its smaller footprint, its four-wheel-drive system and its multitude of settings make it ready for anything you throw at it, and it can take a beating. Oh, and the Ranger Raptor can basically fly.

So this time around, we wanted to treat it like a regular, commuter car. You know, as most pickup owners actually do, despite their egos suggesting otherwise. We commuted in it; the twin-turbo V6 engine returned 14.6 L/100 km combined, and aside from a few clunky shifts, the 10-speed automatic was mostly well-behaved. We drove it downtown; its Fox suspension basically deletes potholes and speed bumps, and the smaller footprint that makes it so easy to place on trails, makes it easier than you think to park. We ate up highway miles; it’s comfortable and quiet enough given the K03s, but the Ranger 2.7 felt like it had more shove—no doubt because of the weight difference.

And we spent a lot of time inside the Ranger Raptor. The new Ranger already gets some big improvements inside; fit-and-finish is much better, the new, portrait-oriented infotainment looks slick and it’s easy to use, and visibility all around is great. That’s all here in the Raptor, but peppered throughout are bits and pieces that add to the machismo. The meatier steering wheel has dips for your palms to fall naturally at the 9-and-3 positions, and it’s partially finished in dimpled leather because race truck. There’s red stitching, red accents, and a nice, suede-like textile on the dash and door panels. The seats have more bolstering, and of course Raptor logos. And there’s no sunroof, because that would impede on headroom for when you’re wearing a helmet. We didn’t wear a helmet this time around, but the extra headroom sure was nice.

Now, at first, the Ranger Raptor may seem like a hard sell. It starts at $77,945, but our optioned-out tester came in at just over $84,500 before fees, taxes, destination, and all that. But look at it this way: the Colorado ZR2/Canyon AT4X twins come in at about $75,000 optioned out with all the similar tough-guy stuff as the Ranger Raptor, but it’s still down 100 horsepower. The Tacoma Trailhunter comes in at about $83,000, too, and the F-150 Raptor pushes well past 100-grand these days. So maybe the Ranger Raptor isn’t that much of a hard sell after all.

Ford has a knack for listening to enthusiasts. People wanted the last-gen truck here, but even though it didn’t work out, Ford didn’t forget. It was worth the wait; the 2024 Ford Ranger Raptor looks badass, sounds badass, has a lot of incredible engineering baked in, and it’s just really nice to live with. Plus, it can fly—though we don’t recommend doing that at home.