Not to be confused with the current electric pickup Ford markets under the Lightning name, the SVT Lightning is a limited version of the Ford F-150 pickup, worked over in two different ways by Ford’s Special Vehicles Team. Both generations of the SVT Lightning were regular cab, short bed (“Styleside” in the second generation), rear-wheel drive (RWD) only pickups with exclusive V8 engines. While the electric F-150 Lightning is expected to introduce Ford customers to EVs, the original F-150 SVT Lightning introduced the Ford Motor Company’s clientele to high-performance pickups, and they were unique in the marketplace among competitors.

Generations: Two

Ford SVT Lightning 1st Generation Ford SVT Lightning 2nd Generation

Pros: Tire-blistering performance from V-8 engines, Eaton M112 supercharger (2nd Generation), Improved handling
Cons: Grim EPA fuel economy, Miniscule payload capacity (2nd Generation), Relatively tall rear axle ratio (2nd Generation)

SVT Lightning 2nd Generation (1999-2004)

The second-generation Ford F-150 SVT Lightning was based on the SN96 chassis F-150, essentially unmodified from any of the zillion standard, step-side F-150 short-beds you’d see swarming the streets in the late 1990s. The second-generation truck debuted after a five-year hiatus, when the first-generation truck bowed out after the 1995 model year, as the SN96 pickup truck was being introduced in 1996. Like the SVT Mustang Cobra, the second-generation SVT Lightning grew out of a dedicated performance team.

We’ll get to the driveline in a minute, but there was a lot of cost-savings going on with the development of the second generation, in addition to its pedestrian chassis. The front suspension was largely the same short-/long-arm front suspension found in a conventional F-150, though the front setup was an inch lower than standard and had a fat 31-mm stabilizer bar. At the rear, you got the same solid axle with a leaf-spring suspension, albeit lowered two inches and also including a 21-mm stabilizer. For the first three model years, Monroe provided the shocks, but between 2002 and 2004, Bilstein provided the dampers. The SVT Lightning also featured 18-inch alloy wheels specific to this truck, wrapped in bespoke, directional Goodyear Eagle F1 tires.

The draw, of course, was the engine, which boasted impressive specs: the 5.4-liter Triton SOHC V-8 you could purchase in lesser F-150 models was capped with an Eaton M112 blower, producing 360 hp and 440 lb-ft of torque in the 1999 and 2000 model years. In 2001, horsepower increased to 380, and torque went up to 450 lb-ft. With your foot on the accelerator, the supercharger sounded like it was going to suck the hood right into the intake.

The transmission was the same fairly conventional 4R100 four-speed automatic transmission that you’d get in any 5.4-liter or better V8-powered F-Series. Along with the lesser horsepower and torque of the first two years, the early SN96 SVT Lightning was also hamstrung slightly by a tall 3.55 rear axle ratio. The 2001 and later trucks not only got a boost of 20 horsepower, but they also got the hole shot advantage of a 3.73:1 rear diff, plus a sewer pipe 4.5-inch aluminum driveshaft to replace the 3.5-inch steel unit in the earlier trucks.

In general, the feedback was positive from the get-go, except for payload. Not that anybody was hauling 2,000 pounds of potatoes in the back of a $29,335 shortbed pickup, but the first two years only had an 800-pound payload capacity, half of what you’d see in a 1999 Ranger and 42 percent of what you can get out of a current Hyundai Santa Cruz. The later SN96 SVT Lightning had a more reasonable 1,350 pounds. When Car and Driver evaluated the truck, it managed a top speed of 142 mph and a 5.2-second zero-to-60 time, which beat the first-generation truck handily.

Ford produced nearly three times as many second-generation SVT Lightnings as it did first-gen, with 28,124 trucks produced over six model years.

SVT Lightning 1st Generation (1993-1995)

As is often the case, you’ll find that opinions of the two SVT Lightning generations differ dramatically. Some like the supercharged powertrain of the second generation, but there are just as many people who are interested in the boxy simplicity of the 1993-1995 SVT Lightning, which was based on the ninth-generation F-150.

These trucks were developed to compete with the SS454 from Chevrolet, and they largely blew the competition straight out of the water. The SS454 was a cool truck for sure, but it was essentially an unmodified Chevrolet C1500 shortbox with a giant, yet rather sleepy, 454-cubic-inch V8. While the 454 that gave the truck its name was certainly thrilling to think about, it only offered 230 hp (though it did have 380 lb-ft of torque). And it put all that power to comically undersized rear tires through an unmodified chassis, meaning that all that displacement took a yawning eight seconds to hit 60 miles per hour and didn’t really stop or turn any better than the C1500 it was based upon.

The Special Vehicles Team at Ford took an entirely different tack with the SVT Lightning’s drivetrain. Instead of shoehorning a giant V8 under the hood, it used the 351-cubic-inch Windsor V8, modified with GT40 intake and heads to offer 240 hp and 340 lb-ft of torque. To more effectively utilize the Windsor’s lower torque, the SVT Lightning had a 4.10:1 rear differential, which the SS454 only got after 1991.

What was even more impressive about the first-generation SVT Lightning was the chassis. First, it wasn’t just any conventional light-duty pickup frame. It had the beefier frame rails of the four-wheel drive F-250, with unique gusseting that provided much greater chassis stiffness to start with. The suspension featured uniquely calibrated Monroe Formula GP performance shocks, front and rear stabilizer bars, and modified leaf springs in the rear that had a rubber snubber, which worked to eliminate wheel hop under hard acceleration, the way a set of traction bars would on a drag car. Thanks to input from F1 legend Jackie Stewart, the first-generation SVT Lightning could pull .88 g on a skid pad, something no SS454 was ever going to accomplish.

Rounding out the package were the unique 17x8-inch alloy wheels, which were a major upgrade from the SS454’s 15-inch chrome steel wheels. They were equipped with 275/60HR17 Firestone Firehawk GTA tires.

Much like its electric truck namesake, the SVT Lightning didn’t look much different from a regular F-150 XL on the outside, which was kind of its appeal. It had a painted grille and a chin spoiler, plus a few decals thrown on the bed sides, but other than the big wheels, there wasn’t much to visually distinguish an SVT Lightning from any other pickup in the lineup.

Unlike the second-gen pickup trucks, the first-generation SVT Lightning had the same payload and towing capacity as a shortbed F-150.

Over three model years, the Ford Motor Company produced 11,563 SVT Lightnings in just three colors. Most were black, while the lowest percentage of total pickups sold were the red 1995 models, which totaled just 695 units.