Ezra Dyer: 2023 Ford Maverick Tremor Is Almost a Great Rally Car

Ford wants to position the new 2023 Maverick Tremor as a baby off-roader, a tool for tight trail work and the type of mud slinging that we in Maine used to call “field-bombing.” As such, you can lock the four-wheel-drive system front to rear, and there’s an electronically locking rear differential as well. The Tremor package also brings a one-inch suspension lift, all-terrain tires, and a steel skid plate up front. So, yes, it’s an off-road truck writ small. That’s one way to look at it. The other way? I see the Maverick Tremor in a light that Ford evidently didn’t consider: as a bargain rally car.

There’s a GKN torque-vectoring rear diff up in there somewhere.

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Because, proto-Raptor posturing aside, the Tremor has the hardware you’d expect for a solid entry-level rally rocket: a 250-hp turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder hooked to all-wheel-drive with torque vectoring. That’s right—the Tremor’s rear diff is a GKN twin-clutch unit that can send almost all the torque to either side. You know what else used a GKN torque-vectoring rear end? The Ford Focus RS. And also various Buicks. But hey, the Ford Focus RS! With a base price of $29,450, the Tremor looks like a rally bargain. So go ahead and splurge on the $180 mud flaps to enhance the special stage vibe.

But to make the most of this promising setup, the Tremor would have to allow the left-foot gravel-slinging shenanigans that make rally driving so much fun. Essentially: When you dive-bomb a corner on dirt, you need to be in the right gear and you’ve got to be able to slide around without the car shutting down the fun. To find out whether it likes to party, I took the Tremor to a dirt road that goes from nowhere to nowhere else and ends in a washout. The Acropolis Rally it was not, but it would do.

Tow/Haul is the Maverick’s sneaky Sport mode.

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Before I even got there, though, I experimented with the Tremor’s drive mode settings in an attempt to enliven the eight-speed transmission’s sleepy responses. Ford didn’t see fit to endow the Tremor with a sport mode, which seems a shame for a truck that, in 2.0 FX4 trim, hit 60 mph in 5.9 seconds. But I think there are engineers on the inside who see things my way, because Tow/Haul is like an undercover sport mode: the transmission holds lower gears longer, downshifts more aggressively, and the turbo four stays primed to lunge toward peak power the moment you flatten your right foot. If only there were an equivalent workaround for the stability control system.

Ford Maverick Tremor, seen just before the arrival of the StabiliTrak Fun Police.

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I regret to inform you that after much experimentation, followed by some nagging of Ford, I’ve affirmed that you just can’t fully disable the Maverick Tremor’s stability control system. In fact, repeated efforts to do so (by holding down the traction control off button) will cause the Tremor to put you in stability control jail, with the system fully activated until you restart the truck. The best you can do is traction control off, which allows a little bit of sideways action but is the electronic equivalent of your parents coming home early from vacation just as the keg is tapped.

Can your rally car do this? (Carry some lights?)

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You can throw the Maverick into a slide with decent slip angle, but just at the moment you’d hope for that torque-vectoring rear end to start shooting rooster tails of gravel, there’s a weary groan as stability control system steps in to straighten everything out and cut the nonsense. I’m pretty sure the Maverick Tremor put me in detention, so scolded was I for my antics. And the shame of it is, it was almost there!

If the nannies could be banished, however temporarily, the Maverick Tremor could be a surprise hit with a crowd that Ford never considered courting. Less expensive than a WRX, with a pickup bed and a 2000-pound tow rating, a rally-ready Maverick Tremor would be a cult hit. Tell me there are at least five of you that are on board with this. Any tuners out there want to jailbreak a Tremor ECU? Ford Performance, are you listening?

The Maverick Tremor already has the right hardware to start its own rally-truck niche. Now all it needs is the software.