i drive a front wheel drive on a daily basis. i dont race, but i do have a pretty peppy driving style. i run out of traction on a regular basis. normal acceleration on wet pavement, accelerating into traffic from a side street (thats the worst), even just driving through a grassy feild becomes a chore (i have decent tires). downshifting to pass someone on the highway requires heavy driver input to counter torque steer...which tries to PIT-manuever the vehicle your overtaking (although many newer transaxles adress this problem). i must spend hours every month waiting for my FWD to find traction so i can accelerate at a respectable rate. limited slip differentials are available for some applications, but they are extremely expensive and difficult to install.
in short, trading even a low-powered RWD drivetrane for a higher powered FWD drivetrane is a considerable downgrade in drivability/performance. and that doesnt even adress the issue of what your going to do with the rangers framerails which will not allow your FWD engine and transaxle to fit into the engine bay (and mounting them on top of the frame rails will likely lead to a very top heavy design with axle clearence problems, hood clearence problems, and probably more).
but heres an idea: wack a hole in the bed of your truck and place the FWD engine and transaxle in the BACK of the truck. now you have your high-powered cadillac engine, RWD, and PLENTY of weight over the drive tires to provide all the traction you could ever need. box in the under-hood area to form a weather-tight trunk (to make up for the reduced bed space) and ta-da!