It’s a must to hand it to Ford. When the corporate introduced the Bronco again to life, not solely did Ford retain the texture of the 2004 Bronco idea, however Ford additionally debuted a gnarly (if less-boxy) off-roader by making use of what it realized after making the F-150 Raptor. This culminated within the Bronco Raptor, which is able to sadly by no means be bought as a two-door SUV that resembles a pickup. And, but, the Bronco Raptor isn’t the gnarliest compound animal from the Ford steady. That honor goes to the Bronco Lobo idea, which was an early ’80s fever dream.
To start with, this factor has the identify LOBO in its identify, which robotically makes it cool. We’ve seen pseudo-pickup styling with basic Broncos, which could be made to appear like a snub-nosed pickup, à la Worldwide Harvester Scout. There’s a wild horse on the market often known as the Bronco Lobo that favored truck design and merged the look of a midsize pickup truck and SUV — kind of like the brand new Bronco would come to take action in 2021, albeit beneath its exterior design.
At this time’s Bronco Raptor relies on the bottom mannequin Bronco, which relies on the Ranger. Some 40-odd years in the past, the Bronco Lobo idea additionally borrowed from Ford’s smaller truck on the time, the Ford Courier, predecessor to the Ford Ranger, which might not be launched till 1983.
The Bronco Lobo debuted on the 1981 Chicago Auto Present nevertheless it had little in frequent with early Ford Bronco fashions. It was reportedly constructed atop the body of a first-generation Bronco, a 1977 mannequin, per Motor Development. Completely different sources name it both the Bronco Lobo or Bronco Montana Lobo, making it the “Horse Wolf” or “Horse Mountain Wolf,” which is nonsense. Nevertheless it certain sounds cool!
Each Ford and Ford Efficiency name it merely the Bronco Lobo, however the truck is labeled Montana Lobo in promo, down at its license plate. The Bronco Lobo was an overbuilt machine powered by a 5.0-liter V8 with a stable Dana 44 entrance axle. There are side-mounted exhaust pipes and louvres and a roll-bar with off-road auxiliary lights. Effectively, extra of a roll-plank.
There’s not a lot on the Bronco Lobo that appears simply recognizable as a Bronco or F-150, or Courier, for that matter. The idea was not a full-size nor compact truck, and neither was it an SUV. It was someplace in between, though the idea has extra in frequent with a truck. Once we take a look at it nearer, we are able to see that it aspires to be greater than a two- or three-seater. There are two rows of bench seats within the mattress, tucked inside its sail pillars.
Different path toys on the Bronco Lobo embody its heavy-duty bumper, winch, and all-terrain tires. The sealed beam headlights have been tucked beneath a protecting grille. And the white wheels are significantly good. Oh, did I point out it has bubble doorways? I believe the actual motive the Bronco Lobo by no means got here out wasn’t that the idea would have been exhausting to repeat on an meeting line, however that different carmakers pleaded with Ford, asking it to chorus from dominating the SUV and truck area for the following decade or so with the novel Bronco Lobo.
