2022 Ford Expedition Stealth Efficiency Brings Sneaky Velocity

Efficiency packages are sometimes accompanied by fanfare and peacockery, particularly with regards to tuned-up SUVs. An SUV already makes an announcement about your way of life aspirations, so naturally, the high-horsepower ones sometimes aren’t shy about upping the braggadocio. Again in 1992, when GMC stuffed a 280-hp turbocharged V-6 into the S-15 Jimmy, they did not simply slather it in outrageous graphics and aero cladding—they renamed it the Typhoon. When Dodge put a 475-hp V-8 in the Durango, it additionally had a hood scoop, racing stripes, and an exhaust be aware that may be heard from the police helicopter that is most likely chasing it. However the Stealth Efficiency package deal for the 2022 Ford Expedition Restricted is completely different, as its identify implies. Other than its pink brake calipers, the ensuing car is definitely extra refined than the remainder of the Restricted lineup. Trim is blacked out and energy is cranked up, leading to what is likely to be the sneakiest drag racer in the marketplace. With twin turbos huffing enhance to its high-output 3.5-liter V-6, the Stealth Efficiency car hits 60 mph in 4.9 seconds and clears the quarter-mile in 13.7 seconds at 101 mph. Strive that after a run via the Dairy Queen drive-through and you will be wiping Blizzards off the again window.

To get your fingers on this fleetest of Expeditions, you will must order a Restricted (both rear- or four-wheel drive, common wheelbase or Max) and add tools group 304A, a.ok.a. the Stealth Efficiency package deal, for a further $9880. That brings an additional 40 horsepower and 30 lb-ft of torque. Be not tempted by tools group 303A, which prices $4670 and is merely Stealth with out the Efficiency. What is the level in being stealthy if there’s nothing to cover?

In addition to its high-output V-6 (440 horsepower, 510 lb-ft of torque) and twin exhaust, the Stealth Efficiency pack brings a sport-tuned suspension, a 3.73:1 final-drive ratio, black-painted six-spoke 22-inch wheels, and people decidedly unstealthy pink brake calipers. It additionally will get a whole lot of blacked-out trim (grille, roof rails, power-deployable operating boards, headlight bezels) and a 22-speaker B&O sound system. Oddly for a mannequin positioned because the efficiency zenith of the lineup, there are a couple of key items of {hardware} that stay non-obligatory. We are saying you would possibly as nicely go all the best way and add the electronically managed limited-slip rear differential for $1500, out there solely on four-by-fours.

Regardless of the promise of a “sport-tuned suspension,” the Stealth Efficiency stays a comfortable pleasure palace and drives as such. Whereas the potent twin-turbo V-6 can disguise our Expedition’s 5837 kilos, you’re feeling that weight within the corners, the place the large Ford can handle solely 0.75 g of lateral grip. A Porsche Macan this isn’t, however that quantity at the very least betters the 0.69 g we recorded from the 2023 Cadillac Escalade-V, which has rather more overt sporting pretensions. The Stealth Efficiency’s mien is akin to that of an enormous previous Bentley, one thing like a Mulsanne that would gentle the afterburners for an on-ramp however wished to heel over onto the door handles when the off-ramp arrived. And the Expedition is equally hushed happening the highway, with an inside sound degree of 68 decibels at 70 mph and simply 74 decibels at wide-open throttle. This scorching rod may need a twin exhaust, however not the type that annoys the neighbors.

FoMoCo aficionados could have famous that the Stealth Efficiency appears to have borrowed the Lincoln Navigator’s engine, they usually’re proper—this is similar powertrain that hustled our most up-to-date take a look at Navigator to 60 mph in 5.3 seconds. And at $78,070 for a standard-wheelbase rear-wheel-drive mannequin and $80,620 for a four-by-four, the Expedition Restricted Stealth Efficiency can overlap the Navigator in value too. Fortuitously, Stealth Efficiency patrons cannot actually go a lot larger as a result of the Restricted is already decked out with a lot of the Expedition’s out there choices: a heated steering wheel, heated second-row seats. And yeah, the Expedition’s black leather-based seats with pink stitching look sharp, however have you ever seen the Navigator’s inside?

Then once more, we suppose the Expedition Stealth Efficiency courts a distinct kind of viewers. The Navigator is all bombast, chrome, and flash. In the meantime, the Stealth Efficiency does not even put on any badges that determine it as such. However if you happen to see an Expedition Restricted with pink brake calipers easing as much as a stoplight prefer it’s the Christmas tree on the native quarter-mile strip, possibly assume twice earlier than stepping into an impromptu drag race. Whereas different Expeditions may additionally seat eight passengers and tow 9300 kilos, solely this one can provide EcoBoost Mustangs a run for his or her cash.