I have a 98 Grand Marquis. I noticed that when you use "drive 2" on the gear shit selector, the car starts out in second gear, and there is less torque to the rear wheels. This seems to work good for me when there are icy roads.
I had a 1965 Ford Galaxy that had the same type of arrangement with the transmission. Is this a patented thing with Ford? I have had GM cars and Chrysler and those cars had different speeds in the lower gears.