VW Amarok V6 v Ford Ranger V6 Dragparison: Drag race, sound test & 0-100!

G'day, I'm Paul. It's time for another Car Expert Dragparison, it's where we do a drag race and a comparison, very imaginative. Now, recently we did a drag race between the V6 Ford Ranger and also the four-cylinder version, but then a lot of you were asking in the comments of that video, can you do this against the V6 Amarok, given it is the big daddy in the segment at the moment, and we got one organised. So today we're going to drag race the V6 Amarok against the V6 Ford Ranger to see which one is quickest. And it's going to be interesting because this is going to be the platform basis for the next generation Amarok, so hopefully the V6 in this, which the Amarok will get, won't be any slower than the old Amarok, so we'll figure that out today. So in this video we're going to do an engine and drivetrain spec comparison, we're going to do a sound comparison, I'm going to set some acceleration times in both cars and then we're going to cap it off with a drag race to see which is quickest. So I'm looking forward to that. Now, I have to give a massive shout out to the guys at Berwick Volkswagen for loaning us this car. If you do want to buy an Amarok, they have plenty of them there, link in the description below, have a chat to Mervyn, he'll help you out. Now, if you do want to skip ahead to other parts of this video, you can use the time codes on the screen, or if you're on YouTube, you can scroll down, use the chapters below, and if you haven't done so already, subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon so you can find out every single time we do these, but let's get started. Let's look at the engines, and we'll start over here with the Amarok. Now, this kind of ruffled feathers in the dual cab ute scene when they dropped this enormous V6 diesel in here with prestige history. Now, this is actually a pretty impressive engine because three litre turbocharged V6 diesel makes 190 kilowatts of power and 580 newton metres of torque, but the cool part is that it has an overboost feature, so for 10 seconds you can access 200 kilowatts of power, so it gives you just that little bit more punch. This straight out of the box has more power than the new Ford Ranger, but it doesn't have as much torque. This is all mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission. It's a standard torque converter, and it's a full-time four-wheel drive, so you can't switch between rear-wheel drive or four-wheel drive. Now, how does that compare to the Ranger? So, let's jump over here quickly, crack this open. So, this is also a three litre diesel, but this one is slightly different. So, this comes from used to be used in the Discovery 5, Range Rover Sport. More recently, it was used in the F-150 as the Powerstroke, and now here it's been integrated into the Ranger, so 184 kilowatts of power, but 600 newton metres of torque. It's also mated to a 10-speed automatic with a torque converter instead of an eight-speed, and in addition to that, this can be driven in two-wheel drive, four auto, four high range, and also four low range as well. Now, it's critical to point out there is a weight difference between the two. The Amarok is about 50 kilograms lighter tear, so it is going to make a bit of a difference over the acceleration run, but I have an idea about how we can even it up when we get to the end of our drag races. So, let's get started with a sound test. We'll start off with the Sport first, so that should sound pretty good. Scott, fire it up, give it some revs. So, I said this before, it kind of sounds like a diesel Range Rover, which I guess is a good thing. Let's go over to the Amarok. Let's have a little listen. Go for it, Scott. This sounds a little gruffer, I reckon. A bit more meat to it. Okay, let's kick off with the Amarok V6. So, I will point out just before we start this that the Amarok is on all terrains, but the Ranger is on highway terrain, so we'll see how much of a difference it makes, but just worth keeping that in mind. And the rain is just starting now, Murphy's Law, so it will get progressively wetter as we go, but we'll see what happens. Now, unlike the Ranger, this is just a permanent four-wheel drive. You can't switch this to two-wheel drive. There are no drive modes. The only thing is Sport mode, so I'll pull that down to put that into Sport mode, and then I'll load up the throttle, mash it, and we'll see what happens. So, here we go. Sounds good. Scott's punch, it really comes on hard. So, there you go. We get that over boost for 10 seconds as well. That actually felt really good. It just has a lot more punch off the line there than the Ranger does. So, zero to 100 k's an hour in eight seconds flat, so it's really quicker than our previous quickest time with the Ranger, which I think was 8.2 seconds. So, we'll go back and try it again, this time with traction control off. Okay, run number two. This time, we will switch traction control off. There we go. That is disabled. See if this makes any difference. You never know. So, I'll dial up a few revs, mash the throttle. We're in Sport mode, and see what happens. Let that start off the line. Here we go. Flat to the board there. We're getting our over boost for 10 seconds. K's an hour. That's interesting. Slightly slower. 8.1 seconds, zero to 100 there. It's actually pretty close compared to the Ranger. So, I was expecting this to actually be significantly faster, but I think it's going to just come down to the start, and if we match the weights of the cars, it might actually be all that different. So, there you go. 8.1 seconds, traction control off for the Amarok. Okay, time for V6 Ranger. So, I know that we've done this before in our previous drag parison, but today it's dry. At the moment, it is starting to rain, the surface is dry. We also have highway terrains on this car instead of the all terrains that we had last time. So, I'll be curious to see how that goes. Now, recap, we have two-wheel drive high range, so that's just sending torque to the rear. We have four auto, which will distribute torque to the front and rear axles as required, and you can use that on sealed and unsealed surfaces. Then we have four-wheel drive high range and low range as well, both of which you can't use on a sealed surface. If you want to know why, click up there. So, first run here is going to be two high traction on, and we'll see how it goes. So, let's load this up. I love how the back lifts a little bit there. Let's go, let's go. Always feels like it's torque limited in first and second because it gets this big surge as it goes past that point. That's not too bad. So, 8.7 seconds, zero to 100 for two-wheel drive traction on. Okay, the rain has started to fall a little bit now. We will do our two-wheel drive high range stability control off. Now, stability control kills traction control as well. So, it's the whole kit and caboodle. You can see that it is switched off there. We'll load it up and see if we can improve our zero to 100 time. That felt good. It's such a smooth engine. It doesn't sort of throw you back like the Amarok does, but it is nice and smooth. Okay, 8.7 seconds again there, zero to 100. We didn't actually spin our wheels off the line now, but it's sort of still fairly dry. So, that looks like it's kind of the limit there for two-wheel drive mode. Let's do 4A with traction control on. It's just done the switch there. I should be able to dial up some revs here and then just shoot out of the box. So, we'll see how that goes. Here we go. Nice. It is hoofing along. All right, there we go. 8.5 seconds, zero to 100 that time. Let's see if we can extract a little bit more out of it with traction control off this time. Okay, time for 4A with traction off. I'll just kill stability control altogether just so we know everything is definitely switched off. Yeah, look, the numbers are interesting because it doesn't feel as quick as the XLT that we drove. That was on all terrains and it was wet. So, maybe it is getting a little bit of slip off the line that's allowing it to hook up. Who knows? We will try this once more and see what happens. Back to the board. 100 k's an hour. There you go, 8.6 seconds. So, it definitely isn't getting any quicker and it's definitely not as quick as our last run in the XLT, which I think was 8.2 seconds from memory. So, yeah, it's interesting how there is a variance there in terms of our zero to 100 times. Now, we were just sort of having a look at these numbers because Igor, cameraman Igor, was saying that it looked slower as well from the outside because he's covering the camera down the end of the drag strip. So, yeah, it does look slower and then we had a look at the numbers with the weight difference between the XLT V6 that we used in our previous video and the Sport V6 and there's about 15 kilograms difference. So, it's not a huge amount but it could come down to tires and also the weight difference being, I guess, the big difference there in terms of how these two perform. So, yeah, it is fascinating that this is slower than the other ones. So, now, I've been playing around with this just a little bit here and I think I figured out a way to launch it a little quicker. I'm going to just try that now, see if we can get a better number at all. A little stronger off the line there. Okay, so 8.4 seconds. So, yeah, I can squeeze a little bit more out of it and I think that if you kept launching it, you would eventually hit the marker that you want. But, yeah, it definitely doesn't feel as perky as the XLT V6 that we had here and best time of 8.4 seconds with our 4WD traction control off. Okay, so, it's time for our drag race. Just looking at the numbers, I think we're going to get smashed here, unfortunately, but let's see how much quicker it is across the eighth mile. So, we're doing an eighth mile just because we don't have quite enough room here to do a quarter mile run, but I will show you some quarter mile numbers on the screen at the end with the results that I recorded earlier. So, let's reset our V-Box. I'm feeling dejected already, but we'll give this a shot. Scotty, you ready? I am and can I say thank you for putting me in a car with a chance this time. It's a nice change. He always complains. He's really hard to please. What he doesn't know is that I'm going to jump the start a little bit to annoy him. All right, Igor, we're ready for the countdown. Okay, three, two, one. I needed to get at least one win in, so here it is. Scott, what happened there? I just did that thing where you don't go until the starter says go. You should try that one next time. So, just for our numbers, what did we hit there? Zero to 108.8. This really isn't going very well for the Ranger. Okay, take two this time. I won't cheat. Scott, are you actually ready this time? I was ready last time. I was just waiting to hear the right words to start. Okay, Igor, count us in. I won't cheat this time. All right. Go, go, go, go, go. Oh, what is going on here? Go. He's got me right at the end here. Go on. I am curious to see who won that. Okay, so my time across the eighth mile was 10.7 seconds, 112.7 kilometers an hour, and our zero to 100 time was 8.4 seconds, so that was my best time so far. Scott, what was your eighth mile time and your zero to 100? Eighth mile was 10.4 seconds at 114.5 kilometers an hour, and my zero to 100 was 8.2 seconds. Did that get me on the board as a winner? Just. So, you were basically, what was your eighth mile time again? 10.4. Right. So, over the eighth mile, you were quicker because I could see you gaining on me there, and the zero to 100, you were quicker by 0.2 of a second, but yeah, I think that it was very close, but that kind of just edges it, and it is only a very small difference. I thought it was going to be a massive difference there across the eighth mile. Right. Now, let us have another crack at this. We have both had a chance here to perfect our launches. Scott, are you ready? Let us do this. Three, two, one. Oh, good start there, and he is pulling away from me now. That is so annoying. That is so interesting. I got almost the exact same eighth mile time, so 10.7 seconds at 113.4 kilometers an hour, so it was ever so slightly quicker across the eighth mile than previously, and our zero to 100 time was 8.6 seconds. So, yes, so slightly slower than last time, which is the confusing bit. So, it loses speed above 100 kilometers an hour, it looks like, which is interesting to me. So, zero to 100 in 8.6. Let us see how Scott went. Scott, how did you go for your eighth mile and your zero to 100? Eighth mile was 10.2 seconds at 114.9 k's an hour, and zero to 100 was 7.9 seconds. I do have to say, though, I think I may have slightly jumped the start, then got back on the brake. I was trying to get up to the edge of where it would hold, and I might have gone slightly past it. Cool story, bro. Video reference says you did have a quarter wheel rotation before go was called. Is that a new personal best for the Amarok off the line, though? It is with a bit of cheating, but perhaps we need to do it once more just so everyone is satisfied. Okay, final run, no excuses. It actually really doesn't look that much quicker across the end. You know what I mean? Like, I thought it would be a much bigger gap, but it's kind of not. All right, Scott, you ready? I'll wake up this time. Let's do it. I've got my air conditioning off just for every bit of advantage here. Igor, ready for the countdown? Three, two, one, go. Good start there. Come on, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go. All right, that was my fastest run so far, but he still had us pipped there. So 10.5 seconds across the eighth mile, 112.8 k's an hour. So it was my fastest run in terms of seconds, but the slowest in terms of the VMAX and then our zero to 100 time, 8.5 seconds. So that is almost our fastest run. Scott, how did you go for zero to 100 and the eighth mile? 10.2 seconds at 114.4 k's an hour for the eighth mile. And my zero to 100 was... Bet you it was 7.9 again. Eight seconds left. Eight seconds, there you go. Okay, so he pretty much matched his eighth mile time, and his zero to 100 time was slightly slower. But I think it's conclusive that that is the quicker car. But I really want to match the weight. So what I'm going to do is stick Igor in the car with Scott so that these two then weigh the same, and we'll see if we get the same results. Okay, so this is the final, final, final run. We've got Igor in the car now, and I'm thinking it should make the weight of these pretty much equal. And then we'll get a good idea of which engine has more guts across the eighth mile. So here we go. Igor, are you ready? Scott, are you ready? We are ready. I hope you're feeling light. Count us in. Three, two, one, go. Oh, this is looking even. This is looking very even. He is pulling away ever so slightly. Oh, yes. I think we may have had him there. Well, it certainly looks like it. Across that finish line, it was bloody close. So let's have a look at this. Scott, what was your eighth mile and your zero to 100 time? Eighth mile was 10.3 seconds at 114.1 k's an hour. And zero to 100, 8.2 seconds. So Igor's costing you 0.2 of a second there. That was so close. So my zero to 100 was 8.3, which is the best one I've had so far in this car. OK, so across the 200 metre mark, we were 0.2 of a second apart. Zero to 100, we were 0.1 of a second apart. So it sounds like if you've got a V6 Ranger and you want to drag race someone in an Amarok, make sure they have a passenger and it'll be quite close. Exactly. So there you go. I actually thought the Ranger was going to have daylight between it and the Amarok, but it ended up being pretty close. Even when we matched the weights, they were kind of almost neck and neck across the finish line. So it was pretty exciting to see that. I think ultimately the Ranger with its 10-speed auto, it spends a lot of time shifting gears, where the Amarok with an 8-speed auto is just hauling the whole time. It is still pretty impressive for a car that's on a 10, 11-year-old platform, which is pretty cool. So I think Volkswagen still has time to tweak the V6 that they'll inherit from Ford and to put into the new Amarok, and maybe they will give it a bit more oomph so it is quicker than the current generation. But let me know in the comments section below, what did you think about all of that? Do you think that this was going to be quicker, or were you kind of happy with where the Ranger sits in the grand scheme of things? And what else would you like to see us drag race? Let me know down there. If you did enjoy this video, please make sure you like it, you share it with your mates, and if you haven't done so already, subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon. But until next time, take it easy.