no i do know they make one now but he said his '91 explorer,and i guess i thought he meant both were '91's,but when i reread his post i noticed he didn't mention the year of the one with the auto,so he probably meant a later model.....
and yes explorers can be pretty peppy off the line,like you mentioned especially with the steep rear gears....but then couple that to a nice 302(which were still available in the explorer until '00 or '01 i can't remember exact year)and those 302's also had the nice gt40p iron heads,and an intake very similiar to the gt40/cobra intakes...and i'd think they'd be even quicker off the line than the v6's....
