The rumors claiming that Ford will bring the outdoorsy Transit Trail to America are getting louder. Some of the van’s defining styling cues popped up in a trademark office in August 2021, and a new report claims Ford is testing some of the changes it would make for our market.
Citing anonymous sources, enthusiast website Ford Authority wrote that the Blue Oval has started evaluating what sounds like an American-spec version of the off-road-focused Transit Trail. The company won’t simply channel some of the production output to our side of the pond; we’d get the van with an engine that’s not offered in the Europe and with a dual exhaust system. That’s not entirely surprising, because the only engine that European buyers have access to is a 2.0-liter turbodiesel four-cylinder available in three states of tune and not sold in the United States.
Precisely what Ford will stuff behind the black grille with massive “FORD” lettering hasn’t been revealed, but don’t expect to pop the hood and see the 3.0-liter twin-turbocharged V6 from the Bronco Raptor, or anything like it. While the Trail looks brawnier than the standard Transit, the updates that it adds are mostly visual — this isn’t a Raptor for your local FedEx driver. Odds are that one of the Transit’s available six-cylinders (a 275-horsepower 3.5-liter V6 and a 310-horsepower 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6) will be standard if the van indeed comes our way. We’re lucky — on the Old Continent, the base Transit puts 128 horses under the driver’s right foot.
Ford hasn’t commented on the report, and it hasn’t announced plans to bring the Transit Trail to America. If the report is accurate, more details about the big, mean-looking van could emerge in the coming months. Expect to pay a premium over the regular Transit.
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Source: www.autoblog.com