Horsepower is the benchmark many people use to measure cars, with weight considered a sinful handicap. However, there is one arena where weight can help – the vehicular tug of war. It’s the heaviest vehicle that often has the advantage in these competitions, though there are exceptions, which are on full display in a new Carwow YouTube video.
The video pits a pair of European commercial vehicles against one another and a formidable American foe – the F-150 Raptor. Yes, Ford offers both the Ranger and the Transit Custom (as the Transit Connect) in the US, but we don’t get their diesel engines. Both pack a 2.0-liter, but they have slightly different outputs – 170 horsepower (126 kilowatts) and 309 pound-feet (420 Newton-meters) of torque for the Ranger and 184 hp (137 kW) and 306 lb-ft (415 Nm) for the Transit. The Raptor uses Ford’s twist-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6, making 450 hp (335 kW) and 506 lb-ft (691 Nm) of torque.
Gallery: 2021 Ford F-150 Raptor: First Drive
The Transit is heavier than the Ranger, which should have given it the advantage against the pickup, but the truck’s four-wheel drive and grippier tires helped it demolish the van. The front-wheel-drive van, tuned by MS-RT, wore low-profile tires. The Ranger then hooked up to the heavier Raptor and lost in a solo tug-of-war with the off-road F-150. However, it wasn’t a crushing defeat by the bigger truck. The Ranger held its own.
The final tug-of-wore tied both the Ranger and the Transit Custom to the F-150, and the Raptor stood no chance. It wasn’t a blowout victory for the smaller Ford models, but the two easily overcame the F-150 once the Ranger found its footing – stability control. Weight is often king in these gifts, but tires and all-wheel drive can also help. The ground looked quite wet, muddy, and slick in the video, which certainly did not help any of the competitors.
