Well the salesman called me and said the one I wanted was sold. So the dealer found another one identical to it up in Sterling Heights Michigan, they had to send someone up there to get it. It has the same options, color, and the exact same sticker price. I went down to the dealer today to look at it to make sure it was the same and that it was actually there. And this one is not going anywhere, I called dibs already.

 

I have a lady friend that has a 2018 Sport with the 3.5 EcoBoost. She has a love hate with it. She's in her 40's and never had any tickets....until now. She is now on her 3rd speeding ticket. She claims you can easily be doing a hundred and not know it. I won't ride with her. Her's is black, I'm not a fan of hers. The blue looks pretty sharp.

 

Up here about 3 out of 4 explorers you see are either black or gray, I wanted something different. I'm not really a fan of the blue they used on the explorers, in person it looks like a mix of blue and gray. The salesman said it reminds him of that crayola color "cornflower" and after he mentioned it I would say yes that is exactly what it looks like, just metallic. I wish ford would have used the lightning blue from the F150's or even the older blue flame. Those two colors would look great with the blacked out trim on the sport model. Something else that bothers me, no matter what color you get on the sport, the door handles and mirror caps are painted black, why? I think that will be the first exterior mod I do, have them painted body color or swap them for the XLT ones which are painted body color. Of course it will be tuned and I'm going to swap out the map sensor. The explorer and the taurus SHO version of the 3.5 EB uses a 2 bar map sensor which limits the engine to 15 lbs of boost ( actually the tune). But by swapping to a 3 bar sensor, (and a tune to utilize it) you now can go all the way to 29 lbs of boost. Going over 15 lbs really wakes up the ecoboost. There a plenty of videos on YouTube where they have gotten mid 12's out of this 5,000 lb beast. There is plenty of other go fast parts for the explorer sport, but they a big money and not as much bang for the buck as the tune and 3 bar sensor.

 

I got it today, but it was dark out by the time I got home, so no pics yet.

 

2 bar is good to 22 PSI, but I would say ti doesn't read accurate much above 20. It may be different in the explorer, but most tuners won't hit that PSI with a stock Eco. Also, keep in mind that you can't run the stock tune with the 3 bar.

Awesome, glad you got it home!

 

I would not want them to go that high, but by having the 3 bar sensor, it allows the tuner to go beyond 15 PSI. And I figured it would be like a CAI that requires a tune, you can't run the tune with out the sensor and you can't run the sensor without the tune. Thankfully the 3 bar sensor is cheap, about 70 bucks. What I might do is get two sets of tunes, 1 set that uses the stock 2 bar sensor, and another set for the 3 bar unit.

 

As the say, pics or it didn't happen, so here they are. Not the greatest pics but they will have to do.




Only the sport gets EXPLORER in block letters on the hood

dash/front row seats

2nd row bucket seats with sport exclusive red stitching

3rd row seats

 

 

Thanks, now that you mention it, it does look like medium wedgewood blue. Ford is good for doing that, taking an old color, tweaking it slightly, and giving it a whole new name. True blue and dark blue pearl are very similar, so similar that I have to look closely at what year the truck is to know what color it is. 04-06's were true blue, 07-08's were dark blue pearl. Another one is the nitrous blue on the focus RS, from a distance you would swear it was grabber blue, but when you get close it has metallic flake in it and grabber does not.

And I noticed that the black mirror caps and door handles, along with the steering wheel and some of the trim around the radio bezel and around the shifter are piano black, like what the harley f150's have. Also there is a strip on the lower doors, the front bumper, and the rear scuff plate that is chrome on the limited and platinum versions, but on the sport they are piano black. So my thought is to leave them alone. But I do want to get a set of 22's from a 12-14 edge sport, the first generation edge/MKX had the same 5x4.5" lug pattern and the same hub bore size as the 11-19 explorers do so they are a direct bolt on

 

 

The sun is out today so I grabbed a few pics in the sunlight.