Ford is enthused about its 2011 Edge Sport, which gets a major upgrade including suspension, wheels, interior and exterior facelifts, plus 22-inch wheels and the 3.7-liter Mustang V-6 installed sideways. We have to wait until August for a press drive, when customers also can find the midsize crossover in showrooms.
Meanwhile, we'll ponder two big numbers; price and weight. The new Edge Sport starts at $36,995 and weighs 4,750 pounds. And that's for front-wheel-drive, before the big panoramic glass sunroof option.
Vehicle engineer Rich Kreder says the Edge Sport's ride-v.-handling tradeoff has been mitigated by high-flow shock absorbers, which handle at high-speeds differently than at low speeds. This results in much less ride quality tradeoff than the '09-'10 Edge sport, Kreder says. The Edge has been around since late '06 and the Sport was added to the '09 model year, but the '11 Edge and Edge Sport represents a major revision, not unlike the '10 Fusion. Ford adapted the rear suspension from the larger Flex crossover for the new Sport.
Ford is proud of the 5x2-spoke 22-inch wheels shod in Pirellis, standard on the Sport, which also features the Mustang's 3.7-liter V-6, rated 305 horsepower and 280 pound-feet, and 18/25 mpg on the EPA cycle. Obviously, it has been mounted transversely in the front- or all-wheel-drive Edge Sport. It's coupled with a six-speed automatic transmission with paddle-shifters.