For our preview drive, we had the chance to compare the EcoBoost-equipped MKT against a more SUV-minded crossover, the 4.2-liter V8-powered Audi Q7. The Audi was chosen because, like the Lincoln, it can accommodate seven occupants (five in actual comfort) with a similar footprint. When developing the MKT and MKS, Lincoln considered whether to offer a V8 engine to compete with premium competitors. However, given the expectation that fuel economy and emissions standards would get tougher, the choice was made to follow a different path.
The key to these new engines is direct fuel injection. With the turbochargers now pushing nothing but compressed air into the combustion chamber, there is no longer an opportunity for pre-ignition. Directly injecting fuel into the combustion chamber actually cools the compressed intake charge allowing the compression ratio of the EcoBoost engines to be kept much higher than in the past. The result: the 3.5-liter EcoBoost hits its torque peak of 350 lb-ft at just 1,500 rpm and stays there all the way to 5,250 rpm. The power peaks at 355 hp at 5,700 rpm. By comparison, the Q7 V8 generates only 325 lb-ft and peaks at 3,500 rpm.
For our preview drive of the EcoBoost MKT, we started off with three laps of the Romeo Proving Ground's five-mile high speed oval in both vehicles. For the first lap, we ran at speeds of up to 100 mph to evaluate the power and smoothness of the engines at sustained high speeds. For the second lap, we dropped speeds down to about 40 mph and tried out light to medium throttle tip-ins to simulate what a driver might need to make a pass on a two-lane road. For the third and final lap, we set the cruise control to 70 mph and reset the mileage readout to record highway mileage at constant speed.
Anyone who's driven any of the bigger Fords and Lincolns of the past couple of years will be familiar with Ford's 6F50 six-speed automatic transaxle. This unit was co-developed with General Motors, but each company does their own control software. In Blue Oval guise, this transmission is one of the smoothest shifting units on the market. For EcoBoost applications, the gearbox has been upgraded with beefed-up gears and clutches and an optimized torque converter. The EcoBoost versions also get steering wheel-mounted paddle shifters and standard all-wheel drive.
Where the EcoBoost engine really showed its performance advantage over the Audi was when it came to throttle tip-in. The EcoBoost's fat and flat torque curve gives the Lincoln a response that is almost diesel-like, albeit without the attendant soundtrack. A light squeeze on the go pedal results in a seamless sweep of the speedometer needle clockwise around the dial, even without a kick-down of the transmission. Simply put, it's just a rush of acceleration. Regardless of whether you're going from 40 to 60 mph, from 50 to 70 mph, or 70 to 100 mph, the result is the same. Attempting the same feat in the Q7 results in a response far less impressive in its forcefulness. As good an engine as the Audi V8 is, it simply doesn't have anywhere near the low-end torque of the EcoBoost V6.
Of course, the biggest reason for going with a boosted V6 rather than a V8 is better fuel consumption. We ran a five-mile lap in each vehicle with the cruise control set at 70 mph. This is obviously far too short a test to be considered definitive, but it gives a reasonable indication of the results we can expect. Winds were blowing at speeds up to 40 mph on the day of our drive, but since we ran in both directions on the oval, its impact was minimized. The final EPA numbers for the MKT aren't ready yet, but Ford is expecting them to be at least 16 mpg city and 22 mpg on the highway. For comparison's sake, the Audi Q7 is rated by the EPA at 13/18 mpg and it registered 18.8 mpg on our short test. The same resulted in an average of 22 mpg for MKT, with a peak of 23.8 mpg on the tailwind side of the oval. That's a healthy 17% better than the V8-powered Audi, although other factors like weight, aerodynamics, mechanical drag, etc. need to be considered in this comparison.
Following our oval laps, we headed over to the hill route and durability loops for some ride and handling evaluations of the MKT and Q7. When we drove the Flex last summer, we were particularly impressed with the dynamic behavior of the big wagon. For such a large vehicle, it felt remarkably well-balanced with a great combination of spring and damping rates that kept body roll and understeer in check while still delivering a comfortable ride. For the EcoBoost MKT, the engineers have continued tweaking the formula, and when run back to back against the Q7, the difference was immediately apparent. In short, the Flex drives like a vehicle much smaller than it is, and the same is true of the MKT in spite of its luxury ambitions. You can manhandle the MKT hard into a corner, and the combination of well-tuned mechanical bits and seamless stability control intervention allow it to just track through at speeds that are surprisingly high for a CUV.
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In spite of the ten-inch longer Lincoln weighing some 300 pounds more, it felt significantly more responsive both at full and part throttle compared to the Infiniti, whose 4.5-liter V8 is rated at 325 hp and 336 lb-ft of torque at 4,000 rpm. The MKS' mileage results were also similar to its more family-minded sibling. We averaged 25.1 mpg around the loop in the Lincoln, while the M45x only achieved 21 mpg, a disadvantage of 16.4%. Again, the results of our too-brief test should be taken with several grains of salt, but they should also provide a reasonably accurate forecast at what to expect in real-world driving.
All four EcoBoost models go on sale later this summer, and we'll have more in-depth reviews when they are available. Come 2010, Ford promises that a longitudinal version of the EcoBoost V6 will find a home in the F-150 pickup (and most likely in the Mustang eventually, as well). We've already driven an early prototype F-150 with EcoBoost, and while it was far from finished, our initial impressions were positive. In fact, it bordered on "Who needs a V8?" Sometime later next year, we also expect to also see the first four-cylinder EcoBoost engines in the bay of the next-generation Focus. Although the latter application will probably be more fuel-economy minded than performance oriented, but we can hardly wait.
