Hyundai and Ford dared to leap forward and bring back compact pickup trucks to the U.S. market. Their faith was quickly rewarded with bonkers sales that ultimately led to even more delays and supply constraints.
Even with those issues, Blue Oval’s Maverick of a unibody compact pickup truck managed to copiously outsell its main rival (Santa Cruz), and by a hefty margin. Naturally, this simply means that just like the F-Series, the reinvented nameplate is turning into another one of America’s darlings, both in the real world and across the virtual realm.
Jim, the virtual artist better known as jlord8 on social media, continues to imagine wonderful new ways of improving our feisty, street bonanza truck dreams. And after showing off an entire series of two-door Single and Extended cab full-size trucks – both of the off-road variety and (above all) of sporty truck demeanor – it was only a matter of time before he also turned the CGI brush on the little Maverick and Santa Cruz.
First on the pocket-sized unibody pickup truck list is, of course, Ford’s Maverick, now morphed by his cool imagination into the Ford Maverick Sport unibody compact pickup truck of our dreams. No massive changes were needed to make this a little star: the pixel master got rid of a couple of doors, lowered the suspension setup to better hunker down on the new, larger wheels, and then slapped a “Sport” sticker on the side.
But that’s only on the outside. Under the metal, there are even more causes for celebration as the mini-truck keeps the all-wheel-drive system but gets rid of the “feeble” 2.5-liter hybrid and 2.0-liter EcoBoost engines in favor of an internal swap to the mighty 3.0-liter EcoBoost V6 found under the hood of the Explorer ST sport utility vehicle, among others.
With twin-turbocharging and no less than 400 horsepower (plus Mustang’s six-speed manual, according to a fan’s suggestion) under its belt, this would be a major hoot to drive! Too bad it’s just wishful thinking…
Jim, the virtual artist better known as jlord8 on social media, continues to imagine wonderful new ways of improving our feisty, street bonanza truck dreams. And after showing off an entire series of two-door Single and Extended cab full-size trucks – both of the off-road variety and (above all) of sporty truck demeanor – it was only a matter of time before he also turned the CGI brush on the little Maverick and Santa Cruz.
First on the pocket-sized unibody pickup truck list is, of course, Ford’s Maverick, now morphed by his cool imagination into the Ford Maverick Sport unibody compact pickup truck of our dreams. No massive changes were needed to make this a little star: the pixel master got rid of a couple of doors, lowered the suspension setup to better hunker down on the new, larger wheels, and then slapped a “Sport” sticker on the side.
But that’s only on the outside. Under the metal, there are even more causes for celebration as the mini-truck keeps the all-wheel-drive system but gets rid of the “feeble” 2.5-liter hybrid and 2.0-liter EcoBoost engines in favor of an internal swap to the mighty 3.0-liter EcoBoost V6 found under the hood of the Explorer ST sport utility vehicle, among others.
With twin-turbocharging and no less than 400 horsepower (plus Mustang’s six-speed manual, according to a fan’s suggestion) under its belt, this would be a major hoot to drive! Too bad it’s just wishful thinking…