Sporty SUVs are all the rage, and it seems like a simple formula. Take your bread and butter SUV, pop in a bigger engine, tune it to make more power, stiffen the dampers, add a body kit, and garnish it with some fancy badges. As a matter of fact, put those badges everywhere. Door sills, pedals, I mean everywhere. It seems easy enough, no? But pulling it off and striking that fine line between domestic comfort and spirited driving takes some engineering magic.
Want to blend in with the cops? This is your SUV. Want to outrun the cops? Grab the ST. It follows the formula to the tee. Ford took their 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6, plopped it into the Explorer, and tuned it to produce 35 more horsepower and 35 more lb-ft of torque for a grand total of 400 hp and 415 lb-ft, enough to launch it from 0-100 km/h in around five seconds. The dampers have been stiffened to reduce body roll. It gets a more aggressive body kit. And yes, ST badges are everywhere.
Does it drive any good, though? In a nutshell, the Explorer ST is more deserving of the ST badge than the Edge ST, which we found utterly lacking in both driving dynamics and road appeal. But the spiced up Explorer still remains an underwhelming drive, hits way off the bullseye as a balanced and engaging family hauler, and simply fails to be more than the sum of its parts.
The 2020 Explorer rides on a brand-new rear-wheel-drive platform, allowing for better packaging and better weight distribution. The V6 engine with a duet of turbos has been mounted longitudinally instead of transversely, and though all these aspects should make it handle better on paper, there’s another number on the spec sheet: 2,250 kg. This is not a lightweight. Not even a middleweight. It’s a heavyweight by nature and handles like one. The only way they could instill any sort of sportiness into the ST was by stiffening the dampers. But they’ve stiffened them to excess, resulting in an overly brittle ride that becomes rough and unbearable over bumps and pockmarked roads.
It does little to disguise the car’s mass either. On smooth pavement, it does ride better and demonstrates a more soft-edged side than I expected, even with its beefy 21-inch wheels, but since when are roads ever pristine and perfect? The car overall will feel great on the road no matter what.
