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Ford F-150 Lightning
The ‘60s were a high watermark for American performance like horsepower and torque ratings, as well as looks and interesting, fast models. After the early ‘70s tight emission and safety laws, the power went embarrassingly down. It looked like the glory days of octane madness were gone.
Fortunately, in the ’90s, American car manufacturers started investing in performance, delivering faster, more powerful cars to the market. One of those pure performance machines was the crazy, cool F-150 Lightning. Arriving in the early ’90s with only 280 HP, the Lightning was a performance truck with great driving dynamics. But, in 1999 with the redesigned generation of F-150 trucks came the new Lightning.
However, this time it was meaner looking, more aggressive and packed much more firepower. Ford installed its 5.4-liter V8 with a supercharger good for 360 HP at first and 380 HP later. This was higher than the previous model and much more than any truck on the market at that time. The performance numbers were sublime because the Lightning could accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in five seconds and top 140 mph.
Those figures were more suited to a Porsche 911 than a regular pickup truck that could tow cargo just like any other F-150. The second generation of the Lightning proved to be quite popular, staying in production for five years up to 2004. During it run, the Ford SVT department produced over 30,000 Lightning trucks, which are fantastic numbers. This also means the SVT Lighting is relatively inexpensive and plentiful, too.