Ford’s Second-Gen SVT Lightning Emerging as Powerful, Capable Collector Truck
Tire-smoking muscle never goes of style, and if that rubber-shredding ride can also haul wood and tow your boat, all the better. Ford’s hot muscle truck, the SVT F-150 Lightning, is one such multi-talented vehicle. The Blue Oval’s first stab at the Lightning formula has aged remarkably well in the collector vehicle market and remains an affordable classic. However, second-generation SVT Lightning models are coming into their own in the collector car market; prices for top-condition trucks have risen as younger generations of buyers show keen interest.
Despite its all-American persona, the second-generation SVT Lightning was exclusively built in Canada. Ford’s factory in Oakville, Ontario, churned out 28,124 examples between 1999 and 2004, also assembling the truck’s 5.4-liter, supercharged Triton V-8. Though the Lightning’s iron block was cast in the U.S., Ford workers added the aluminum-alloy heads and specially forged pistons in Canada. The SOHC powerplant, blessed with eight pounds of boost courtesy of a Gen IV Eaton supercharger, came paired with a four-speed automatic transmission.
Detroit engineers plucked the 4R100 transmission from Ford’s Super Duty, rated at 1000 lb-ft and originally built to cope with Ford’s 7.3-liter, Power Stroke diesel. In 1999–2000 SVT Lightnings, that beefy four-speed channeled 360 hp and 440 lb-ft of torque to the rear wheels via a 3.55:1 rear end. Not many turn-of-the-millennium pickup trucks could snap off 60-mph sprints in 5.8 seconds — impressive for a 2.3-ton truck that retained its 5000-pound towing capacity. 2001–04 models slashed that 0–60-mph figure to 5.2 seconds thanks to a 10-mm larger mass airflow sensor (80mm to 90mm), a better breathing intake manifold, and a shorter, 3.73:1 final drive ratio. Though these later models boasted 20 extra hp and 10 more lb-ft of torque (380 and 450, respectively), the increased power and performance came with a $1460 uptick in price. Those extra dollars certainly didn’t scare away buyers — Ford sold more 2001 Lightnings (6381) than any other model year. It certainly helped the Lightning’s street cred that, when Car and Driver tested a 2001 model, it banged off a quarter mile in 13.8 seconds at 104 mph. And did we mention the three-inch, side-exit exhaust pipes?
(photo credit: Chad Horwedel | Flickr)
