Everybody scoffed at the idea of a high-performance pickup truck when this 1995 Ford F150 Lightning was built, but today muscular trucks are a regular sight on our streets. The one that started it all is now an appealing collectors' item and this low-mileage Lightning proves that some things just never go out of style.
The odometer shows 56,000 miles, and that's the correct miles. You could get your Lightning in black, red, or white, with a majority choosing black. Our Lightning has white paint that was factory-applied and nearly 20 years old yet shines up beautifully and shows little use. Ford dipped everything on the truck in the same white, including the bumpers, and grille, so there's nothing shiny about it, and all that trim is equally nice. Lightning badges and a subtle chin spoiler were the only real indicators that this was something special, which was just how the SVT guys liked it back in the day. For practicality's sake, this one does sport a drop-in bed liner, effectively making for a 4-by-6-foot trunk. There's also a custom tubular rear bumper and a hitch, because this slick pickup can still be used as a truck, unlike many of its competitors.
The interior got a big upgrade over the standard F150 guts, starting with those comfortable cloth bucket seats. Grippy yet comfortable for all-day drives, they offer power lumbar support and just enough side bolstering to handle the corners. There's an extra-wide center armrest that offers plenty of storage and just about every option on the F150 was standard on the Lightning: A/C, power windows and locks, a full array of instruments, cruise control, and even a tilt steering column. The speedometer reads to 120 and this truck will probably use most of that, unheard-of for something with the profile of a barn and a 6-foot bed on the back.
The Lightning got a reworked version of Ford's 5.8-liter V8 with heads and intake very similar to the GT-40 setup used on the Mustang Cobra. All the usual 5.0 bolt-ons work just as well here, but instead this one remains almost entirely stock and that intake manifold is still one of the most beautiful castings to ever come out of FoMoCo. It starts easily and runs surprisingly smoothly, with a bottomless well of torque that threatens to overwhelm the tires at low speeds. It's linked to a quick-shifting AOD 4-speed automatic transmission that combines with optional dual gas tanks to make for truly bladder-straining fuel mileage.
Would we have today's high-performance SUVs without the Lightning? Who knows? What we can say is that even 20 years later, the Lightning remains an A-list piece of performance hardware. Call or email today with any questions!
