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<\/p>\n<\/div>In 1989, basketball icon Michael Jordan shaved his thinning pate clean and males with receding hairlines wanted to Be Like Mike. They may have had potbellies out to there, but their HeadBlade domes looked as cool as the coolest athlete on earth.<\/p>\n
Auto fashion is like that.<\/p>\n
A pouty-mouth grille and fastback shape has made Aston Martin the coolest cat in autodom. So in 2013, Ford\u2019s frumpy Fusion mid-size sedan modeled Aston\u2019s grille and shape and \u2014 dude!<\/em> \u2014 it was cool.<\/p>\n Four years later and Fusion is due for its mid-cycle refresh. There may be a million of \u2019em on the road, but the sleek sedan still turns my head, its upscale looks rivaled only by the Mazda 6. Meanwhile, Aston style has continued to define auto fashion.<\/p>\n Would Fusion evolve with the sexy Brit? Would it get rounder hips like the Rapide sedan<\/a>? Or copy its full frontal grille? Or get a wrap-around fascia like the stunning DB11 and Bond-inspired DB10<\/a>?<\/p>\n Um, well: No, no, no and no. If it ain\u2019t broke don\u2019t fix it, so Fusion Part Two has played it safe. Rather than rocking out as a full Rapide wannabe, Fusion has just tweaked its Aston cues \u2014 headlights more angled here, lips more pointed there, corners edgier over there. A little bling goes a long way, so Fusion\u2019s tookus gets a nice, horizontal chrome strip connecting the rear taillights. And \u201ceyeliner\u201d front LED running lights. Like the theme song that accompanies Broadway musical characters, cars these days must have their own light signature.<\/p>\n But if the Fusion Part One\u2019s exterior wowed, the headliner for Fusion Part Two is what\u2019s under the skin. Like the Michael Jordan wannabe who shaved his head and then adopted a basketball fitness regimen, the new Fusion has put some serious firepower behind that lovely Aston face.<\/p>\n For 2017 Fusion has added a \u201cSport\u201d badge to its lineup.<\/p>\n But this is no Honda Accord Sport model tarted up with big wheels and a decklid spoiler. Fusion Sport is packed with the same blown, 325-horsepower V-6 found in the F150 and Ford Edge Sport. That would be the first mid-size sedan to pack more than 300 horses.<\/p>\n Whip the Sport out of a Woodward stoplight and it will hit 60 mph in just 5.3 seconds \u2014 two seconds quicker than Fusion\u2019s peppy, turbocharged 2.0-liter and just a half-second off Aston\u2019s Rapide sedan. Now we\u2019re talkin\u2019.<\/p>\n Ford is a decidedly bipolar brand these days \u2014 a fuel-sipping Ecoboost greenie one minute, a hungry twin-turbo drag racer the next. Nowhere is this split personality more evident than the Fusion lineup, which made headlines in 2013 by offering a hybrid version that went farther on a gallon of fuel (42 miles vs. 41) than King Camry. There\u2019s a plug-in too.<\/p>\n That was then, this is now. For Act Two, the 20 mpg Sport is the least efficient Fusion \u2014 part of a Blue Oval performance offensive that has includes the Le Mans-wining Ford GT, asphalt-melting Shelby Mustang GT350, and musclebound Ford Focus ST and RS hot hatches.<\/p>\n \u201cWe decided not to do an ST version of the Fusion. This customer is not quite as hardcore,\u201d says Todd Soderquist, chief program engineer for Fusion. But Soderquist didn\u2019t hold back much. This is a motorhead who spends his leisure time wringing the neck of a GT350 at a two-mile racetrack he built in Nebraska.<\/p>\n The Fusion Sport would sound great on a racetrack, too. WAAUUUUUGHHHHHH!! I nail the throttle coming out of the twisties near Hell, Michigan, and for a moment wonder if it isn\u2019t a masculine Ford V-8 under the hood. Put Sport in SPORT mode and the sound sharpens, the steering tightens and the tranny holds a higher gear to take full advantage of 380 pound-feet of torque.<\/p>\n That\u2019s useful because the Fusion Sport is no lightweight. Exiting a Glenn Brook Road hairpin, the V-6 grunts with exertion to keep the sedan\u2019s porky 3,982 pounds (551 more than the base Fusion) moving. Continuously variable dampers \u2014 a cousin of the magnetic dampers that make GM\u2019s performance cars such a joy to drive these days \u2014 help keep the big fella nimble.<\/p>\n Some of those added calories come from the Sport\u2019s extra two cylinders and all-wheel drive. Other poundage comes from hood insulation and double-laminated glass that contribute to the 2017 Fusion\u2019s biggest advance: a quiet, sophisticated interior.<\/p>\n Beginning at the Fusion\u2019s SE trim (standard on Sport), the much-improved SYNC 3 system is available. SYNC\u2019s console screen is quick to the touch, connects to my smartphone via Android Auto (CarPlay for you Appleheads), and displays its info in the instrument panel for safer, heads-up driving.<\/p>\n Transforming Fusion\u2019s center console is an electronic rotary shifter. Its beauty is in what it adds \u2014 the aggressive, aforementioned SPORT button \u2014 and subtracts.<\/p>\n Eliminating hydraulic cables, the e-shifter also opens up the once-cramped console. The console storage bin is so deep it reaches to China, and a cave of space has opened under the dash screen big enough for spelunking. Add two cupholders and a roomy slot for my monster smartphone and you can have everything and the kitchen sink at your disposal.<\/p>\n Otherwise, Fusion\u2019s dimensions are unchanged. I could sit behind myself in a backseat that is no Honda Accord-sized living room but comfortably average for the class. The Sport (you\u2019ll know it by its unique mesh grille) is also joined in 2017 by an upscale Platinum trim, meaning the Fusion model line now runs from $22,610 to north of $42,000 \u2014 a $20,000 trim spread that is typical of lux models like Audi\u2019s A4, for example.<\/p>\n