Snow Donuts and the Ford Explorer Sport Trac Adrenalin.

It's snowing here in Minneapolis.  During the day on Tuesday, we had snow that hit and melted onto the pavement.  After the sun set, the temperature dropped and that accumulated water turned to a slushy, slippery ice mess.  The the flakes of snow that continued to fall didn't just melt away when they hit that ice.  They began to accumulate.  So, we have a slippery layer of snow atop a slick layer of ice.  It's just the type of thing that will cause many a motorist to have to activate their insurance policies.  But, if you're careful and choosy about where you go and what you do, you might just have some fun with the surface of the roadways. When I drove into the parking lot at my gym around three in the morning, I noticed the plow truck had not been through yet.  I took the opportunity and the wide open, vacant, snow and ice covered parking lot to make some experimental snow donuts.  

One might say that this was reckless or careless, but I assure you, this driving was done in the name of research and experimentation.  You see, the large loops of the snow donut in the foreground of this shot represent what type of a radius can be achieved when one does not shut off the traction control before attempting to make snow donuts with a Mustang.  The smaller diameter circles in the background represent the tighter radius one is able to achieve by shutting down traction control....  It's very scientific, you know.  Anyway, I'm not sure I got traction control totally shut off because I was mid-slide when I jabbed the button to shut it off as I moved into the next donut.  Unfortunately, before I could properly complete my experiment, the plow truck pulled into the lot, interrupting my revelry er, uh, I mean, important research, and I had to clear out and just park my car to go to the gym.  On the way home, I found a smaller, empty and unplowed parking lot and attempted some true traction control free donuts for comparison.  That lot was a complete slip n' slide under the snow, so my donuts ended up more like sloppy looking cursive than nice, neat snow loops and circles.  Guess I'll just have to continue to compile my scientific snow donut data another day.  That will probably work out just fine, because it's supposed to keep snowing through Thursday from what I've been told.  

Mustangs aren't really ideal for winter driving, but you can have some fun with them anyway if you don't mind a few controlled slides here and there.  Sometimes, I think I ought to just get a truck or SUV to lighten the driving load on my little green pony.  That brings us to today's vehicle, which is an SUT, or Sport Utility Truck.  This one we have to look at isn't quite so rugged as most like it, but it represents a kind of blend of the type of things I like about a Mustang and some of the advantages of an SUV/truck (it can even be had with a 4.6L V8 like my Mustang has).  So, without further ado....   

Let's have a look at the Ford Explorer Sport Trac.  When I sold Fords, I sold a lot of trucks, but only one Sport Trac.  I was always surprised that we didn't move more of these, because trying to convince folks who already owned one to trade it in on something new was akin to asking them to part with a vital organ or something.  That low turnover was probably at least part of why Ford discontinued the Sport Trac in 2010 after roughly 10 years of production. 

I always liked the Sport Trac, but it was the notion of the vehicle as a compromise that drove its prospective buyers into the driver’s seats of the Ford Explorer or the F150 instead of the Sport Trac.  People who wanted the vehicle for its truck-like characteristics often decided to just go ahead and get a full-fledged truck, thus the F-150.  People who wanted the SUV characteristics bought Explorers.  The logic behind these purchases was that when push came to shove, and the buyer needed the truck capabilities, or the SUV passenger capacity or what have you, the Sport Trac might come up short.  And it’s true, there were compromises made, but the void that the Sport Trac filled was definitely there, it’s just that people didn't realize that it was until after they had a Sport Trac to fill that space.

My take on the Sport Trac is that it’s a perfectly fine vehicle, and capable of a lot of things, from towing and hauling, to just cruising around.  Today’s Sport Trac fits into that second category.  Before we get into that, let’s talk about Sport Tracs in general.  They were made to compete with things like the Honda Ridgeline, the larger Chevy Avalanche, and to an extent, 4 door compact pickups like the Dodge Dakota double cab.  The Sport Trac is based on the Ford Explorer, and having owned one of those for several years, I can say that’s not a bad thing.  I heaped all kinds of neglect and abuse on my Explorer in addition to racking up over 200,000 miles on the odometer before selling it.  The only repair I ever had to do aside from wear and tear stuff like brakes was when I needed to replace a belt pulley –a part that cost me about $30 and 20 minutes of messing around under the hood of the car.  I wasn’t nice to my Explorer because I didn’t find it to be an exciting thing to drive, but it took very good care of me.  In retrospect, I should have held the vehicle in higher esteem than I did when I owned it.  -So, solid underpinnings for the Sport Trac that I can attest to through first hand ownership of a shared platform vehicle. 

The first generation Sport Trac encompasses 2001-2005 model years and offered a 4.0L V6 engine with 210HP and 254 lb-ft of torque.  This engine would carry through as standard throughout the production run of the Sport Trac.  The second generation Sport Trac encompasses 2007-2010.  Did you notice the missing 2006 there?  There were no 2006 Sport Tracs offered.  There were some made in 2006, but they were sold as 2007 model year vehicles.   So, what we are looking at today is a 2^nd generation Sport Trac. 

Second generation Sport Tracs could be had with the standard V6 that I mentioned earlier, or with a 4.6L V8 option with 292HP and 300 lb-ft of torque.  They also featured reinforced frames, updated styling, four-wheel independent suspensions, and some updated safety features.  You could get it in one of two trim levels, XLT, which is nicely appointed but not luxurious, so it comes with things like cloth seats, and then the Limited trim level, which gets you leather seats and similar goodies.  But our Sport Trac for today isn’t just a second generation Sport Trac.  It’s not an XLT or a Limited.  It's something a little more special. 

Around 2007, Ford’s Special Vehicle Team (SVT), built a special Sport Trac for the big custom car/aftermarket tuner show in Vegas known as SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association).  This special Sport Trac edition was called “Adrenalin”, and the one in the SEMA show was pretty cool.  It featured a supercharged version of the 4.6L V8 that had an output rating of 390 HP.  It also featured special body work that differed its front and rear fasciae from a regular Sport Trac.  Most of the aesthetic elements of the SEMA Adrenalin carried over into the production version of it, but the supercharger did not.  The grille was painted black instead of featuring chrome bright work.  In profile, the body work below the belt line differed from a regular Sport Trac, too, in that it swept lower to the ground.  This gave the Adrenalin a more slammed, low profile look without actually lowering the vehicle’s stance or chopping its top.  Roof racks were deleted to add to this sense of hovering just above the ground.  The Adrenalin sported 20” polished aluminum rims, front fender vents, and blacked out headlight surrounds within the lighting enclosure to compliment the blacked out grille.  The single exhaust was fitted with a dual tip, so at least it looked like it might be packing some punch even though it had the same power plant options as any other Sport Trac.  The production Adrenalin did have a unique, fully automatic AWD system with no low range, so it was not at all suited for off-roading…. Which is fine because just from looking at it, any fool can see that this is clearly a sport truck.  Inside, there were material specifications that differed from a standard Sport Trac.  The Adrenalin’s gauges featured charcoal gray faces, and the interior upholstery was done in charcoal gray leather.  Brand new in 2008, when the production Adrenalin was first available, starting MSRP on one was right around $43,000.  By the time you upgraded to the V8 and added some goodies, you could end up with a $50,000 truck –a price that people may have been able to justify if it had the supercharged V8, but one that is otherwise hard to account for based on just looks alone –though it is a pretty wicked looking little rig, isn’t it? 

Bottom line according to me is that Sport Tracs are not bad things.  Buying a used one might actually make the idea of purchasing and Adrenalin seem reasonable.   Besides, buying a used one means that the factory warranty is probably expired, so adding something like, say, a SUPERCHARGER (!!!!!) wouldn’t void your coverage because it is already gone (I do hate waste, you know).  I wouldn't mind having a Sport Trac, though I would prefer the accommodations of the Limited model or better yet, the looks of the Adrenalin.  I’ll just take a moment or two to shop around and see what I can find….

Interesting…. The Sport Trac seems to be holding its value better than I expected it would.  A Car Soup search gives me a range from up near $38,000 for a very low mileage 2010 Adrenalin –it’s still under factory warranty, I’m sure, so maybe the seller figures that justifies the price, but it’s just the 4.0L V6, so it’s not like we could recreate the SEMA Adrenalin by adding a warranty-voiding supercharger.  Besides, this one is all black, and I think a proper Adrenalin should be Traffic Ticket Red like the one pictured today, which I spotted in Iowa this past summer (I’m sure that’s not the name of the factory paint color, but it ought to be).  The Adrenalin’s blacked out grille and headlight surrounds don’t pop against a black paint coat the way they do against a bright cherry red.  It’s just gotta be red, I say.  The other regular XLT and Limited Sport Tracs I am finding seem to be falling in at $30,000 on down based on mileage, trim, and mode, year.   A 2010 limited with around 35,000 miles will cost between $26,000-28,000.  Similar year and mileage XLTs cost a bit less.  When we look at models with over 60,000 miles, prices start to fall to around $20,000.  The oldest ones with over 200,000 miles seem to bottom out around $4,000.  A google search brings us a white 2010 Adrenalin in Quebec with 65,000 miles and an asking price of $26,994 (not sure if that’s Canadian or US dollars) and a black 2009 Adrenalin with 139,000 miles for $21,500, from Canada, again.  Both V8 optioned, though.  An Autotrader search brings us a red Adrenalin in the form of a 2009 model with a V8 and 93,000 miles for $22,900. 

Man!  By the time we get this thing and buy and install our supercharger, it’s going to be a rather expensive high-mileage used SUT.  Cool though it may be, I’m not sure I can justify this hypothetical Adrenalin shopping spree if it’s going to rack up that many hypothetical dollars in cost.  It’s getting a little spendy for a used vehicle that isn’t even in production anymore –not to mention the cost of our hypothetical gasoline to run this thing (14/20 mpg city/hwy if we don’t drive all crazy, and a lot less if we do).  Well, I did say earlier that it wasn’t easy getting people to part with these things, didn’t I?  Guess that goes double for the Adrenalin.  For the time being, I'll just have to be happy making snow donuts in my Mustang, which is good for its own kind of adrenaline boost.