Ford struck a chord right from the start with the Maverick. Even though it wasn’t particularly sporty in stock form, tuners saw the potential and quickly started modifying it for speed to keep up the street truck tradition. Lowered suspension, stickier tires, and, of course, more power were the hot mods. Now, Ford has a factory go-fast Maverick called the Lobo that offers most of those upgrades in a package built by the Blue Oval. It’s great to see a factory offering like this again, and I figure now’s a good time to look back at the owner-built examples that helped inspire this corner-carver.
First, some details about the Lobo. It takes the all-wheel-drive, 2.0-liter EcoBoost from the regular Maverick and adds a larger radiator as well as a transmission oil cooler. It still makes the same 238 horsepower and 275 lb-ft of torque, but as owners have proven, you can get more out of it by tossing on a tune, an exhaust, and a bigger turbo. Ford also added the twin-clutch, torque-vectoring rear diff from the Bronco Sport Badlands and Maverick Tremor, the brake calipers from the Euro-market Focus ST, rotors from the Lincoln Corsair PHEV, the quicker-ratio steering rack from the Kuga sold abroad, and front strut mounts from the Mustang Mach-E.
In short, it’s a parts bin special, but in a good way that undeniably takes inspiration from owners. Maverick drivers adopted this practice from the get-go, not only swapping in digital gauge clusters from the Escape but also entire engines from other models—don’t forget the 2.3-liter EcoBoost truck that gets its power from a Lincoln Corsair lump. It’s sticking to the idea of doing what you can with what you have.
Vorshlag Motorsports was quick to cut up the suspension and develop coilovers for the Maverick back in 2022, and 5 Star Tuning was helping these trucks run 12-second quarter-miles not long after they first hit the streets. Livernois also put out an ethanol tune that elevated output to 325 hp for just $600. The aftermarket has been strong all this time and owners have taken advantage of it, and we’ve featured our fair share of builds here on this site.
Both the Lobo and most owners can trace their inspiration back to the Tucci Hot Rods build from the 2022 SEMA show. Ford was directly involved in that project, and its killer look that combined a lowered stance, wide wheels, and custom body parts was enough to spark inspiration. The automaker actually namedropped that project in its Lobo announcement, and as we’ve seen, Ford pays attention to what owners are saying and doing.
That’s probably the biggest takeaway from all this: What us enthusiasts do, matters. It’s never a given that car companies will listen or even give it a second thought, but unless we’re voicing what we want and actively creating it on our own, they’ll ask boring suits to make the decisions instead. I’m glad Ford didn’t do that with the Maverick, because after so many years without a dedicated factory street truck, this is starting to feel like a moment worth remembering. And it’s all thanks to people like these:
- Ivan Rodriguez and his 2.3L-swapped Mav
- David Buschur of Buschur’s in Ohio
- Terry Fair of Vorshlag Motorsports
- Antonio Diaz and his VIR slayer (Story by The Autopian)
Maybe, just maybe we’ll see a factory mini truckin’ special inspired by Adam Edwards’ slammed Maverick and Kenneth McCay’s tribal-wearing silver bullet.
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