More than a century of engineering milestones has led Ford to create the U.S. Heritage Fleet, a living archive of the concepts and one-off builds that laid the foundation for real-life models. One of these is the 2003 Ford SVT Lightning concept (no relation to the all-electric Ford F-150 Lightning), which broke cover at the same time as the 2004 F-150 as a surprise model offered in the lineup.
The Ford SVT Lightning concept was the antithesis of the work-oriented F-150 lineup. Built for play, not work, the pickup featured a six-speed manual transmission an independent rear suspension, and a supercharged 5.4L V8 powerhouse delivering 500 horsepower and 500 pound-feet of torque.
The pickup was even saddled with the cutting edge "SuperCooler" tech, which tweaked vehicle subsystems to give the SVT Lightning a burst of speed when asked. The SuperCooler tech harnessed the pickup's air conditioning system to chill a small storage tank of coolant. When activated, the system fed that chilled coolant into the engines' intercooler, dissipating up to 20 percent more heat from the charge air and delivering a denser air charge. That meant 50 more horsepower in short bursts, similar to a nitro system.
The concept's beefed-up suspension and heavy duty brakes ensured that all that power was kept in check without sacrificing the thrill of the drive. Beyond that, the pickup was instantly recognizable compared to its counterparts, dressed up with side exhausts and clear taillights along with round fog lights.
Inside, the Ford SVT Lightning concept built on the Lariat trim's cockpit, furnished in Mustard Yellow leather with Ebony carpet and door trim. These colors complemented the pickup's Liquid Silver Metallic exterior, making it an eye catching one-of-one.
This 2003 Ford SVT Lightning is housed alongside its F-Series brethren, including a 1999 Ford F-150 SVT Lightning concept and even the 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning concept that inspired the real deal.
Comments
Cool looking truck, but, why wasn’t it put into production?
It gained over 300lbs in that new body style and thusly was too heavy for the increased output to show noticeable performance metric increases vs the previous Lightning generation. And increasing the engine output further would have potentially made the, at the time, upcoming GT500’s 500hp/480tq look much less impressive. To which you’d argue, then bump the GT500’s power, sure, but I imaging they were fairly deep into it’s development and certification and messing with that would have caused even larger delays in it’s release.