ZeroNine Design liberates 100hp in Ranger Raptor

Ford's turbo V6 is strangled for Europe - but where there's a will, finally someone has found a way...

By Matt Bird / Tuesday, 9 December 2025 / Loading comments

It’s a great truck, the Ford Ranger Raptor. Not so long ago we proclaimed it the best thing that Ford sells, and that view definitely still holds up. There’s all the rufty tufty attitude of the original, another level of off-road ability, and now with a useful uplift in performance over the diesel. No wonder they’re popular.

But it could be faster still. In other markets free from filters, its 3.0-litre Ecoboost V6 is almost 400hp strong - in Europe, it makes just 292hp and 362lb ft. Which is sufficient enough, if still a little frustrating knowing that the engine is capable of so much more. Which is where ZeroNine Design comes in. They do a lot of Ford stuff, and their most recent work focuses on the Raptor. For £650, they can free up the power the V6 always should have had - specifically 395hp and 445lb ft. Which is going to make a big difference to performance, both off the line and in gear. ZeroNine reckons it ‘adds a massive amount of drivability’, creating a Raptor that you’d always expect to find. And which some customers in other markets already get.

ZeroNineDesign’s work is pretty non-intrusive, too, requiring nothing more than the OBD port and an app to deliver the goods. It doesn’t require busting open the ECU, or hours with the laptop, or even popping the bonnet. The upgrade includes the option to keep a Raptor at standard power, which might be handy in everyday use; then, when there are tanks to outrun (see the video), there’s the best part of 400hp to call upon. It sounds like a win-win.

Especially as there are plenty of Ranger Raptors around that would benefit from £650 of ZeroNineDesign fettling. A new one is going to cost you £52k before the vodka and tonic, still with the same 292hp. But there are trucks like this one around, on a 25 plate but with just 100 miles, for £10,000 less than that. And you don’t need your own business to see the value in that: with another 100hp for an extra few hundred quid on top, Ford’s best vehicle would look even more appealing. We’ll get behind the wheel as soon as possible.