1993-’95 Ford F-150 Lightning

Today, the standard cab, short-box, two-wheel drive pickup seems like an odd choice for a factory performance vehicle. But in the late 1980s and 1990s, they were like the Plymouth Road Runners or Chevrolet “Bisquick” Biscaynes of the ’60s: cheap to build, preconfigured to accept the biggest V-8 engines in manufacturers’ lineups, and rear-wheel drive. (Something many cars were not at that time.) As a bonus, light trucks were subject to a lower corporate average fuel economy standard than passenger cars.

Pickups were also hot with younger buyers in the ’80s and ’90s, the way muscle cars were hot with baby boomers. As the prices of GTOs, first-generation Mustangs and Camaros soared, young people turned toward cheap pickups as a platform for personalization, and thus the sport truck/ mini truck phenomenon of the 1980s-’90s was born.

It’s no wonder then, as Ford’s Special Vehicle Team was seeking examples from Dearborn’s lineup to whip a little performance on, it tapped the F-150