While the idea of a dirt-track-tuned Mach-E might seem like a sideshow player, it’s the best riding, most dynamically entertaining one in the EV lineup.
, but it’s not true. After spending a few hours with the Rally last week, I’m convinced that this is the versatile performance pick of the lineup for seat-of-the-pants thrills, and for anyone who even occasionally likes going flying fast and loose.
The Mach-E still doesn’t have a heat pump, but Ford has consolidated its three cooling circuits down to two primary circuits plus climate control, altogether cutting complexity while aiding those charge rates.Inside, the Mach-E Rally gets gloss white accents on the dash, lower steering wheel spokes, and the backs of the front seats, with white contrast stitching for the latter.
Among the few things carried over from the GT at face value are the 15.0-inch front brake rotors with red-painted Brembo calipers.The Rally also harnesses the potential of the MagneRide magnetic damping system that now becomes standard on the 2024 Mach-E GT. The Rally’s suspension offers a bit more travel in compression and rebound—carrying over the same fundamental geometry—but Ford worked with the capabilities of MagneRide and its bump-stop algorithm.
To create that dynamic ease, Ford engineers put in a lot of hard work testing the Rally at a special course in Michigan—incorporating input from rallycross drivers—and then expanding the dynamic mapping that goes into its stability control system to allow more yaw to yield the sideways action.As I soon discovered, if you get too heavy with your right foot to provocatively try to whip out the tail, you will be restrained by the system with a dramatic cut of power.
One of the enabling factors for extracting the dynamics in this mode, Fedullo noted, is allowing as much as a 20:80 distribution of torque between the front and rear wheels, depending on the traction level, while you’re tapping into those four-wheel drifts.I was able to spend an hour or so in the Rally on the road as well.
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