Of all the automotive trends that have emerged over the last 25 years, the fast pickup truck is among my favorites. Utterly pointless and completely counter to the point of a truck with a bed, these hot rod haulers thumb their noses at sensibility, and isn’t that the calling card of some of our favorite niche vehicles? No one ever said the Countach made sense, and the Ford F150 Lightning isn’t much further away on the silly scale. But then again, an F150 can make dump runs, which is more than be said for the Lambo. Check out this ’94 Lightning here on craigslist in Tennessee for $3,800.
Of course, to understand why the Lightning was ever produced, you have to look at the era it was sold in: GM was churning out Syclones and Typhoons, and Chevy had the blacked-out 454 SS in showrooms. The proverbial shot-across-the-bow had occurred, and Ford needed an answer. There are some parallels to the era we’re currently in, wherein good sense gives way to horsepower wars, with manufacturers giving the green light to vehicles that might otherwise never make it off the drawing board. A fleet of fast pickups on dealer lots was one such era, which coincidentally followed on the heels of Dodge offering a convertible version of the Dakota.
The F150 Lightning was powered by a version of the 351 Windsor V8, giving the truck a stump-pulling 340 lb-ft of torque and 240 horses under the hood. The Lightning eclipsed 60 in under 8 seconds, and was available only with a 4-speed automatic. Give credit to GM for letting owners row their own gears in the Syclone, if desired, but there’s something to be said for just dropping it into drive and letting the transmission and 4.10 gearing do the work in concert with the standard limited-slip. One of my favorite features of the Lightning engine is the GT-40 aluminum cylinder heads developed by Ford’s skunkworks team of motorsports engineers, adding some pedigree to the overall package.
While the miles are high on this craigslist example, the truck appears clean and stock, with no major deviations from new. White is one of the rarer colors, added for the 1994 model year. The color-keyed bumper and air dam, along with the attractive alloys, round out the package for me, and I’d choose this any day over the 454 SS from Chevy. While the Syclone may be the one enthusiasts fawn over, the Lightning is a gem that we’ll all wish we jumped on when they’re gone.
Love it! hot rod dump runs yahoo.
Looks to be in great shape, nice seats.
this is a great find.
It’s interesting that the 1989 Dodge Dakota Convertible is mentioned, but not the 1989 Dakota that re-ignited the sport truck industry, the 1989 Shelby Dakota. While the 318 CI conversion performed by Shelby for these trucks is tame by comparison to the Lightning, there arguably hadn’t really been a real attempt at a performance truck by a big three manufacturer since the Li’l Red Express/Warlock of the late 70’s.
Don’t be forgetting the SRT10 Dodge…. “World’s Fastest Pickup” I was part of the official timing crew for the record runs. Something like 154mph, IIRC. Yea, that was fast…. Really fast. Of course, a Viper engine in anything will be expected to perform pretty well. Probably quite a while before any of those can be featured here, though, unless it has been wrecked, or otherwise trashed.
I loved those trucks, Alan. Pretty wild you were on the original timing team! I don’t see them pop up often, so I guess owners are pretty attached. There was another version of the Ram – the previous gen – that came in either white w/ blue stripes or red w/ grey stripes. Had unique wheel design. Shoot, can’t remember what they were called!
The truck went by “warming up” at around 130, and that was an attention-getter. But when it came by again at terminal velocity, it was obviously punching a huge hole in the air, and the shock wave was impressive. I had known enough to stand back a bit, but a crew of journalists were right behind the guard rail. They got treated to a real buffeting as the truck hammered by, only a few feet away. Takes a lot of HP to push a non-aerodynamic object along that fast.
BTW, I’m thinking that the whole concept of the truck was executed to trump Ford’s Lightning as the “World’s fastest pickup”. The war ended that day, as Ford did not choose to try and beat it.
Are you thinking of the Ram SST?
That’s it, Eric! Love those trucks. Another one you can pick up rather cheaply.
and the SRT10 could be had with a 6 speed manual transmission, according to the internet.
i like this truck which looks real good in the limited photos. it is too new for antique tags and might need to pass a smog test ( which means no manual transmission swap ). very nice interior, fast and a bed on back for hauling ( but not much heavy stuff ). yes i would autocross it also. should be sold already but is still for sale.
Funny how things change. The look of this just screams “Ranger” to me, even though I know it is not that small. Current pickups are so much more uber-macho!
I am a FORD BLUE BLEEDING country boy,and when THEY stop giving away MY powerball money, Two of the first 10 hotrod’s i buy will be a Lightning and a GMC Syclone. My buddy tried to find one when they come out but ended up buying a S-10 Tahoe SWB 4.3 / 5spd,3:73 Posi, Stage 3 chip, underdrive pulley’s & cold air intake. I hate to admit this but he outran a 90 GT Mustang bone stock,BUT REALLY. I had much respect. But I tore his hind-end up with my 1965 Falcon warmed over 289 with 3:50 gear.