Henry Payne: Ford F-150 joins Maverick with hip Lobo model
DETROIT - The street truck craze is back, and Ford is jumping in with both feet - or at least both its F-150 and Maverick models.
The F-150 Lobo joins the Maverick Lobo in the market with a modified, slammed and tricked truck. Where the Maverick's signature trick is a dual rear clutch pack for tire-burning, sideways drifting, the F-150 Lobo brings an old-school trick: Ford's raucous, 400-horsepower, 410-torque, 5.0-liter V-8 engine. Similar to Mav, the F-150 is lowered (by two inches) with painted rocker panels and signature, brooding fascia and grille lighting.
"The F-150 Lobo is the result of recognizing an under-served audience of potential F-150 customers," said street truck enthusiast Josh Blundo, Maverick/F-150 Lobo lead exterior designer. "For years, they have been taking factory pickup trucks and lowering them. Adding more power. Leaning on street styling. From an automaker, this has been an untapped market for two decades."
Factory street pickups of yore - think the 1990 Chevy 454 SS, 1993 Ford SVT Lightning, and 2005 Dodge Rumble Bee - have been distinguished by aggressive front air dams, hood scoops, lowered chassis, painted rocker panels, sporty wheels and growly engines. Growly V-8s like the 345-horsepower 5.7-liter Hemi that was stuffed into the Dodge.
The F-150 Lobo delivers on many of those features while building the street rat in-house, complete with factory warranty. When Lobo goes on sale this fall, customers can enter the F-150 website configurator, choose the menacing, midnight-trimmed STX package starting at $42,015, then select Lobo. The Lobo starts at $59,995 and comes standard with a roomy Crew Cab and 5.5-foot pickup bed.
"When it came time to imagine an F-150 Lobo - on the heels of helping create the new Maverick Lobo last year - I didn't have to look far to know what prospective customers would want," said designer Blundo, a veteran street trucker. "Drop it. Give it V-8 sound and performance. Make dual exhaust tips standard. Add aggressive styling. And give it a face that looks ... sinister."
If the Maverick Lobo upgrades to a 238-horse turbo-4 from the standard hybrid, then the F-150 chooses one of the big pickup's most menacing engines for its soundtrack.
The F-150 Lobo gets its muscle from Ford's 5.0-liter V-8, complete with dual exhaust out back under the painted bumper. Insert the key in the ignition, wake Lobo up and give it a couple of good BRAAAPS to wake the street. Ford then marries it to a standard 4x4 system to put that power to the ground.
In the case of Maverick Lobo, Ford added twin clutch packs in the rear to encourage drifts. Further enhancements include bigger brakes, enhanced cooling, stitched and Lobo-monogrammed seats, and a Lobo mode for truck-focused hooning.
Not F-150 Lobo.
The big Ford's focuses on aesthetic enhancements like black trim, a light bar bisecting the front grille, hood vents, and its signature Lobo badge aft of the front fender. Beneath the skin is STX's familiar cloth interior and V-8. No drifting kit, no special stitching – not even the dramatic Turbofan wheel option found on little brother Lobo. The big truck will tow 7,900 pounds, however.
For motorheads looking for more V-8 punch, they can option the $12,350 Performance 700 package on top of the Lobo model - which brings in the Mustang GT500's fire-breathing, supercharged, 5.0-liter engine that pushes out a staggering 700 horsepower. Huzzah.
F-150 comes with one wheel option: gloss-black 22-inchers.
The new F-150 Lobo is available in five exterior colors: Agate Black Metallic, Atlas Blue Metallic, Carbonized Gray, Oxford White and Rapid Red Metallic Tinted Clearcoat.
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