Tested: 2022 Ford Expedition Stealth Performance Brings Sneaky Speed

Performance packages are often accompanied by fanfare and peacockery, especially when it comes to tuned-up SUVs. An SUV already makes a statement about your lifestyle aspirations, so naturally, the high-horsepower ones typically aren’t shy about upping the braggadocio. Back in 1992, when GMC stuffed a 280-hp turbocharged V-6 into the S-15 Jimmy, they didn’t just 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 also had a hood scoop, racing stripes, and an exhaust note that can be heard from the police helicopter that’s probably chasing it. But the Stealth Performance package for the 2022 Ford Expedition Limited is different, as its name implies. Aside from its red brake calipers, the resulting vehicle is actually more subtle than the rest of the Limited lineup. Trim is blacked out and power is cranked up, resulting in what might be the sneakiest drag racer on the market. With twin turbos huffing boost to its high-output 3.5-liter V-6, the Stealth Performance vehicle hits 60 mph in 4.9 seconds and clears the quarter-mile in 13.7 seconds at 101 mph. Try that after a run through the Dairy Queen drive-through and you’ll be wiping Blizzards off the back window.

To get your hands on this fleetest of Expeditions, you’ll need to order a Limited (either rear- or four-wheel drive, regular wheelbase or Max) and add equipment group 304A, a.k.a. the Stealth Performance package, for an additional $9880. That brings an extra 40 horsepower and 30 lb-ft of torque. Be not tempted by equipment group 303A, which costs $4670 and is merely Stealth without the Performance. What’s the point in being stealthy if there’s nothing to hide?

Besides its high-output V-6 (440 horsepower, 510 lb-ft of torque) and dual exhaust, the Stealth Performance pack brings a sport-tuned suspension, a 3.73:1 final-drive ratio, black-painted six-spoke 22-inch wheels, and those decidedly unstealthy red brake calipers. It also gets a lot of blacked-out trim (grille, roof rails, power-deployable running boards, headlight bezels), and panoramic glass roof, and a 22-speaker B&O sound system. Oddly for a model positioned as the performance zenith of the lineup, there are a few key pieces of hardware that remain optional. We say you might as well go all the way and add the electronically controlled limited-slip rear differential ($1500 and available only on four-by-fours) and adaptive dampers for an extra $995.

Despite the promise of a “sport-tuned suspension,” the Stealth Performance remains a comfy pleasure palace and drives as such. While the potent twin-turbo V-6 can disguise our Expedition’s 5837 pounds, you feel that weight in the corners, where the big Ford can manage only 0.75 g of lateral grip. A Porsche Macan this is not, but that number at least betters the 0.69 g we recorded from the 2023 Cadillac Escalade-V, which has much more overt sporting pretensions. The Stealth Performance’s mien is akin to that of a big old Bentley, something like a Mulsanne that could light the afterburners for an on-ramp but wanted to heel over onto the door handles when the off-ramp arrived. And the Expedition is similarly hushed going down the road, with an interior sound level of 68 decibels at 70 mph and just 74 decibels at wide-open throttle. This hot rod might have a dual exhaust, but not the kind that annoys the neighbors.

FoMoCo aficionados may have noted that the Stealth Performance seems to have borrowed the Lincoln Navigator’s engine, and they’re right—this is the same powertrain that hustled our most recent test Navigator to 60 mph in 5.3 seconds. And at $78,730 for a standard-wheelbase rear-wheel-drive model and $81,780 for a four-by-four, the Expedition Limited Stealth Performance can overlap the Navigator in price too. Fortunately, Stealth Performance buyers can’t really go much higher because the Limited is already decked out with most of the Expedition’s available options: a heated steering wheel, heated second-row seats. And yeah, the Expedition’s black leather seats with red stitching look sharp, but have you seen the Navigator’s interior?

Then again, we suppose the Expedition Stealth Performance courts a different sort of audience. The Navigator is all bombast, chrome, and flash. Meanwhile, the Stealth Performance doesn’t even wear any badges that identify it as such. But if you see an Expedition Limited with red brake calipers easing up to a stoplight like it’s the Christmas tree at the local quarter-mile strip, maybe think twice before getting into an impromptu drag race. While other Expeditions might also seat eight passengers and tow 9300 pounds, only this one can give EcoBoost Mustangs a run for their money.

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Source: www.caranddriver.com