During the sport-truck mania of the 1990s and early aughts, Ford’s SVT unit graced us with two versions of the Lightning. Out of production since 2004, that hole in Ford’s lineup ostensibly has been filled by the flatbill-ready, improbably lovable Raptor. And while FoMoCo wasted no time displaying a second-gen Raptor based on the new, aluminum-intensive F-150, SVT’s successor unit, Ford Performance, has yet to offer any official word on a Lightning replacement. But that doesn’t mean one isn’t on the way.
Ford says it has 12 new Performance vehicles in the pipe for delivery by 2020, but we’ve only seen the Focus RS, Mustang GT350 and GT350R, the next Raptor, and of course, the very spendy, very limited GT supercar. We’d expect to see a Mustang GT500 added to the mix, which brings us to six. And it’s hardly inconceivable that Ford would want to further butter its share of the F-150’s pie. While the recent F-150 Tremor had the short-cab, short-box silhouette of a classic sport truck, it wasn’t particularly packing in the muscle department. Its 6.0-second 0-to-60 time was handily bested by the Lightning we tested in 2001, which made the same run in 5.2.
2001 Ford SVT F-150 Lightning
The 2017 Raptor dispenses with V-8 power in favor of EcoBoost V-6 motivation, and we’d expect a Lightning successor to continue to emphasize outright muscle. Whether that means a six- or eight cylinder engine or twin-turbo or—like the second-generation Lightning and ’00s Harley-Davidson trucks—supercharged forced induction is unknown at this point, but we’re betting on a couple of snails given Ford’s major EcoBoost push of late. Whatever happens, Ford recently applied for a trademark on “EcoBeast”, and that name would sound pretty rad applied to a streetgoing Raptor analogue.
Our artist’s rendering suggests what such a machine could look like, replete with a Felicia Fun–grade combination of yellow paint and tailgate spoiler. The blacked-out maw of a grille echoes other zoot-oriented Ford vehicles like the Focus ST and Mustang. Because you need a hood scoop, it’s got a hood scoop. Because you’ll want front-fender air extractors, it’s got those, too. Bigger brakes and stiffer suspension naturally would be on the menu, because when you’re hustling your truck through the Southern Cascades and Northern Sierra Nevada, say on a run from Bieber, California, down to Butt Lake, Momma ain’t got no time to wallow.
Predictably, Ford has refused to comment on any future product, but seems to us that with Ford Performance on such a tear, a hot-rodded, road-oriented pickup can’t not be on the future-machines docket.
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