Maverick Lobo Is a ’90s Throwback with a Twin-Clutch Rear Diff that Begs to be Drifted

"I come back stronger than a '90s trend." Taylor Swift first sang that lyric four years ago, and the arrival of the 2025 Maverick Lobo is another reminder that, whatever you believe about her popularity relative to the '90s, that era is back in force.

The trend of lowered trucks tuned to behave a lot more like performance cars than farm machines took off in the late '80s, with sporty trucklets emerging from several American and Japanese brands. The level of seriousness ranged from mere sticker packages to the wild GMC Syclone, a turbocharged all-wheel drive monster that could hang with contemporary Ferraris. The SCCA even ran a brief but popular series called the RaceTruck Challenge.

The Lobo version of Ford's tiniest and most youthful truck, the Maverick, is reimagining the look for 2025. It ditches the flashiest parts of the '90s street truck look-zig-zag, neon, or flame graphics and egregiously cladded bodywork-but retains the stance with a half-inch drop up front and 1.12 inches in the rear.

The flat-face wheels mimic the Rotiform AeroDisc that has proven so popular in the modern aftermarket, a look that cribs its style from decades-old race cars. Their sleek profile is a boon for aerodynamics, so you'll find similar designs on expensive track cars as well as on fashionable builds: check out this very fancy Porsche, and this one.

The understated exterior makes sense, since this is a factory build. Ford wisely went further than a simple wheels-and-springs package, adding parts to the Lobo that regular Mavericks don't get, like a torque-vectoring twin-clutch rear differential (the truck is all-wheel drive). The dual-piston front brakes are borrowed from the Focus ST, which is still on sale in Europe. The Lobo gets the more muscular of the two Maverick powertrains, a two-liter turbocharged four-cylinder. The release makes no mention of power figures, so it's safe to conclude they are the same as any other two-liter Maverick's: 238 hp and 275 lb-ft of torque.

Ford borrowed the larger radiator and fan from the Towing Package for the Lobo, along with an upgraded cooler for the eight-speed auto. Put another way, all Lobos appear to have the 4K Towing Package, judging by the standard tow-assist tech like Pro Trailer Hitch Assist and Pro Trailer Backup Assist. We're guessing that was a "might as well" decision: Ford encourages customers to autocross the Lobo, so they upgraded the cooling system using the towing-pack parts … and apparently tossed in the whole kit and caboodle.

Unfortunately, we don't know how much it costs yet. But we're confident it will be the priciest of the Maverick line, which is currently capped by the Lariat trim. Ford hasn't announced full pricing for the 2025 model, which just debuted yesterday, but given that the 2024 Lariat costs about $12K more than the base model, and the 2025 model starts at $27,890, we'd guesstimate the Lobo will land in the low $40K range.

To everyone who clicked on, commented on, and generally geeked over Ford's 2021 SEMA build, whose popularity helped make the case for the Lobo … pour yourself a drink, and give a cheers to the Blue Oval. It may not be able to make EVs profitable yet, but it sure knows how to get us excited about trucks.