Is a Mustang-Based Ranchero Reboot Next?
By Brian Dally

Do reports of returning Courier and new Focus-based pickups mean a Ranchero will be next?

 

Ummm...NO!!!!

 

Please No!

Why not stick with the one they were building. Seems like the Ford Falcon UTE was pretty popular down under. Bring that one to the US.

 

Now, now... rushing to judgement and all that...

Remember, the Mustang was based on the Falcon chassis, and the Ranchero was a *Falcon* Ranchero. So they're all the same car, really, back then.

Therefore, given that lineage, a Mustang based Ranchero would be a good thing(tm), especially considering the cross pollination of parts that'd bring. Excepting the bed, all the Mustang gofast hookitup handleawesome lookyerbest parts would all translate to the Ranchero, making it the hella mini truck you'd all want.

Well, that I'd all want. Gimme.

...but in S197 05-09 form, because that's really what I want.

/I'm... I'm broken, aren't I? Still, gimme dat 05-09 S197 Ranchero, plznthx.

//Oh, and for a change, I approve this article!

///Now I know I'm broken...

 

Ummm...once again NO!!!

 

The more I see of these new Mustang based concepts the more determined I am to keep my S197 in one piece.

 

Well, that's, like, your opinion, man.

 

Ummm...this was your quote JS!

 

No thank you! Do not make it look like a Mustang!

 

Speaking completely out of my b*** here but wouldn't the IRS stand higher than the solid axle? So it would impinge on the available depth for a bed. It would be the Ford incarnation of the Chevy SSR-good performance but neither fish nor fowl. I'll pass.

 

The current Mustang IRS is pretty compact. Most of it is below pumpkin height. The only real thing sticking up are the top of the pumpkin and the mounts. You'd just have to engineer the thing to fit under a regular ol' bed... or more correctly, a regular ol' bed to fit on top of it... and that wouldn't be any real trick, I'd think, but then I'm not an engineer. Still, that was one of the things about the S197's IRS. They were really trying to make it as compact as possible because Mustang itself needed it to be.

Now the question is... would it hold up to moderate(!) truck usage? I'd wager you couldn't pull stumps with it or such.

And this all could be moot. Just because current Mustang is IRS doesn't mean they'd have to engineer the truck(?) to be IRS. It wouldn't take much to engineer a solution for a live axle if they chose to, I'd bet. Not like they don't have any lyin' around or couldn't get their hands on a few to test with...

I still want one. Either kind of axle. Let's go, Ford!

/I still say I'm broken, but whatever, gimme!