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four ounces of power one cup of utility
three tablespoons of fun add gas or
diesel to taste and mix together in a
bowl made by masa buon apple tea this is
everything you need to know to get up to
speed on the Ford Ranger before the
Ranger was the Ranger it was a high-end
trim level for Ford's f-series trucks in
the Bronco starting in 1965 it was a
popular upgrade package but it would be
almost 20 years before the Ranger became
its own entity all it took were a few
major national crises and almost going
under for Ford to realize they needed to
do something different let me set the
scene for you
it's the 1970s everybody's got Saturday
Night Live fever my dad was setting up
family franchises all across the US and
the gas crisis was about to rock
people's world and the only companies
that saw it coming
were the Japanese truck manufacturers
trucks like the Datsun 521 in the
original Toyota Hilux started gaining
popularity so when the gas crisis hit in
the early 70s and fuel availability
became more of a concern Japanese truck
manufacturers already had a steady base
while American manufacturers were caught
off guard their truck line was all big
bad full-size hawkers like the
surfboards back then have you ever seen
in this summer
Ford was frantically searching for a way
to dip their little toes into light
truck market and they weren't the only
ones Chevy and dodge were in the same
boat like some weird formal sock-hop
chevy partner with isuzu dodge partnered
with Mitsubishi and Ford
partnered with Mazda then they danced
awkwardly to Oh town
boredom a Mazda do all the work
designing light truck then they slap
their name on enter the Ford courier
this little daddy was a rebadged Mazda B
1800 it was imported as a cab chassis
configuration without the truck bed
attached to circumvent the chick attacks
you know that annoying tax on light
trucks that keeps us from having cool
things why does it call the chick
attacks well American chickens were
selling so well in Europe that European
chicken farmers gone yes so some
European countries started taxing
American chickens to combat that
economic impact of that tax America was
like oh yeah
we'll show you will tax your lap trucks
that you guys love importing it's super
weird but it's true the 1972 Ford
Courier had a 1.8 liter four-banger that
spit out 74 Shetland ponies and 92
pound-feet of torque it had a four-speed
manual transmission and an impressive
load capacity of 1,400 pounds or
fourteen fourteen-year-olds the mazda
import was given a facelift to look more
like a ford a new grille that was an
homage to the larger f-series and large
single headlights that did away with the
small double ones on the japanese truck
the courier wasn't meant to last forever
though in 1973 OPEC placed an embargo on
any country that supported Israel
luckily board had something cooking in
the kitchen that year they kicked off
project
Yuma you see the courier was just a
stopgap while Ford was developing their
own secret compact job over the next few
years light trucks continued to gain
steam as full-size truck sales became
stagnant then in 1979 just when it
looked like things might be getting
better Iran had a revolution and really
shook things up Ford had just launched
the new full-size f-series line and a
massive LTV sedan which would later
become the Crown Vic they were barely
breaking even on sales and were almost
forced to scrap project yuma to cut
losses but then CEO Don Peterson stepped
in he was all nope we're keeping it for
two reasons
GM is about to come out with their own
compact trucks plus I think we can sell
the Yuma for the same prices the f100
even though it costs us a lot less to
produce okay sounds good can we go to
lunch now it was like the late 70s so
they probably steaks and big loaded
baked potatoes and pike glasses full of
whiskey with no ice it was probably
after a couple of those big old
whiskey's they decided to rename the
compact truck from Yuma to Ranger after
the top tier f-series trim of the same
name so much research went into the
Ranger like so much you guys
they scrapped old plans and added exotic
lightweight magnesium for the clutch
housing brake and clutch support
brackets that alone cut 20% off the
trucks weight they also spent a lot of
time improving aerodynamics like a front
bumper spoiler that added one MPG by
itself
good job bumpers spoiler the final truck
design had a drag coefficient of 0.45
which bark tells me it was pretty good
for back then 1981 marked the last year
that both the f-series and Bronco
carried the Ranger trim level Ford
halted it in anticipation for the new
trucks release and in 1982 was a plus
513 and in 1982 13 years before post
Malone was born production started on
the all-new Ford Ranger and nowhere else
but Louisville Kentucky exactly where my
parents started production on me when my
dad put his evil inside of my mom it had
taken ten years but finally in 1983 the
Ford Ranger made its the but all in all
they spent seven hundred million dollars
in early eighties money developing the
Ranger with most of the cost coming from
designing a fuel-efficient engine that
complied with cafe regulations the 1983
Ford Ranger offered three different
engines a two liter inline-4 originally
from the Pinto a 2.8 liter cologne v6
and a Mazda Bill 2.2 liter four-cylinder
diesel the power range from 59
horsepower in the diesel to a monstrous
frame bending 115 her Spurs in the B
truck beds came in either six foot or
seven foot versions and had a load
capacity of 1600 pounds the Ranger was
noticeably thinner than her older
f-series brothers but that didn't stop
engineers from designing the bed to be
big enough to carry a four foot wide
sheet of drywall which Bart tells me is
considered an industry standard
initially right off the bat sales of the
Ranger were hurt by the competition from
Chevy and but Don Peterson and Ford
needed the Ranger to work failure to
sell the small trucks meant something
bigger than just shutting down
production of the Ranger it meant total
catastrophe
luckily boards stuck it out and by 1985
they were selling two hundred and thirty
thousand Rangers a year the first
generation of Rangers lasted almost ten
years in production that's almost as
long as I was in high school during this
time many trim levels were introduced
including the Ranger XL the Ranger XLT
which was like the excel but with a tee
and the range of GT the GT came with a
redesigned clone v6 engine that put out
140 grass fed buff horses none of that
corn-fed BS for my horses only oats
grass and sugar cubes when they're good
introducing the first sports car that
comes
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the new Ranger GC another option for the
Ranger dubbed the super cab included an
extra 17 inches of cab space the Ranger
high rider STX came out in 1987 this 4x4
was so much sicker than any Ranger that
came out before it it had bed mounted
light bars and a tubular grille guard
the high rider also had an extra one and
a half more inches of ground clearance
coincidentally this is the year that the
Ranger became the best-selling compact
pickup truck in America do you believe
we almost scrapped this project did only
one think about it let's just celebrate
a 1989 redesign in honor of Taylor
Swift's birth added a Mazda made
transmission new front fenders and
dashboard and an instrument panel with
improved legibility the Rangers new
flush mounted grille was added to mimic
the grille of the f-series the updated
super cab got center face and jump seats
increasing passenger capacity to five
dilfs the second gen Ranger was
introduced in 1992 flush mounted door
glass wider doors and fender flares gave
an updated appearance old engines like
this dinky 2.9 liter cologne v6 in the 3
liter Vulcan were retired and in their
place bigger engines and more power babe
well power baby well power baby more
power baby
then in 1993 board came out with the
most nineties talk ever made the 1994
Ford Ranger splash and splash super cab
it came with spicy aluminum wheels and
totally twisted decals that let everyone
else on the beach know the only things I
haul are boogie boards Zima and big
busted babies various small cosmetic
changes happened over the next few years
including you guessed it a new grill
a new hood safety upgrades and even a
six disc CD changer hmm and the Ranger
remained a solid choice throughout the
90s in 1998 the third gen rager made its
de but this new Ranger had evolved to
have a wider wheel base a bigger cab and
longer bed engineers replaced the twin I
beam front suspension that had been
standard since the beginning with
wishbone suspension and added rack and
pinion steering yeehaw
the base model four-cylinder was
upgraded bumping the power up 6% the v6
got an upgraded intake manifold and
increased torque but 14% cosmetic
upgrades included yeah a new row bear
bear bear an aluminum hood bigger rear
glass which increased visibility plus
pulse
vacuum hub locks so you could go
off-roading without waking up your dad
but maybe the most innovative thing to
come from the third-generation Ranger
was the introduction of the Ranger II V
bet you didn't know Ford made an
electric truck in the 90s no I didn't
know that I did know that it was powered
by a rear mounted 90 horsepower electric
motor that had a top speed of 75 miles
per in a range of 35 to 50 miles for a
vehicle named the Ranger you'd think it
would have more range it only lasted for
four years until 2002 when Ford pulled
the plug oh like trucks started dying
out in the early 2000s in their places
bigger boys like the GMC Canyon Kota
Tundra and Nissan Frontier started
selling more
and more sales of the range of decreased
in America then the recession of 2008
hit compact truck sales shriveled like a
baby turtle and it looked as if the
Rangers days were numbered Ford had a
new Ranger set to launch in 2011 but
they took it out in the backyard and
shot it in the face the Ranger went from
being the best-selling compact truck 13
years in a row to dying a quiet death in
2011 but with any good story there's
always a twist ask M night Shyamalan
he's the best filmmaker ever like I
mentioned before Mazda have been selling
a rebadged Ranger as the B Series in the
US from 1994 to 2009 Mazda was also
selling the B Series in places like
Australia Asia Europe South Africa in
New Zealand and they continued to do so
even after the Ranger was discontinued
in America Ford thought it was too close
to the f-150 to sell in the US but
overseas it was a smash
[Applause]
the legacy of the Ranger was not lost
seven million Rangers have been sold
since 1983 making it one of the
best-selling trucks and vehicles of all
time 2019 marks the first year that
board will debut a new Ranger in the US
since they discontinued them in 2011 the
new 2019 Ford Ranger won't have a v6
option the only engine available for us
Rangers as of now is the 2.3 liter
inline-4
eco bows which puts out an impressive
270 turbochargers Perry's new Ranger has
the best-in-class torque of 310 Turks
and comes standard with a 10 speed auto
but no manual option it's only available
in three trim levels the XL the XLT and
the 4x4 lario there's been some talk
about a ranger Raptor come in the u.s.
quick announcements starting next week
we're gonna start uploading up to speed
a little bit later it's gonna go up at 9
a.m. Pacific Standard Time which means
it's noon for you fools on the East
Coast so don't freak out when it's not
up at 7:00 because it'll be up at 9:00
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