As we mentioned in this post back at the beginning of the month, Ford's flagship SUV -- the Explorer -- will undergo a major overhaul for 2011, ditching the truck-based design for a leaner unibody frame. AutoWeek was able to snap some spy shots of the vehicle (click through to see them here), though a heavy dose of shrouding kept a lot of body details from being revealed. (It is, however, based on the Ford Explorer America concept revealed at the 2008 Detroit Auto show -- check out our video from that unveiling here.)

What is obvious, though, is that the new platform echoes some design cues of the models for which it's currently used (the Ford Flex wagon and the Ford Taurus/Lincoln MKS sedans). The A-pillars and roofline are evocative of the Flex, though the square body keeps the look, er, squarely in the Explorer family. Four- and six-cylinder options should be available for the direct-injection, turbocharged EcoBoost engine, which gets more power out of smaller displacements -- necessary to haul around the amount of people that the Explorer's three rows of seating can accommodate.

If this has some of the design elements from the aforementioned Explorer America concept, we really can't wait to see this thing out from under its cover.