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Wow!

There’s no better word than that to describe the experience of driving the 2000 Ford F-150 SVT Lightning pickup, which is probably the fastest production-model truck in the world, and one of the fastest vehicles I’ve ever driven.

It’s really a good thing I just had the Lightning for one week, because if I had kept it much longer, I probably would have gotten in trouble. With just light pressure on the accelerator, this baby jumps out and starts running, and without even knowing it, you’re way beyond the speed limit.

I’m not sure how handy that’s going to be in this country, where the highest legal speed limit is 75 mph (just 70 here in Texas). This is a truck that needs a place to run, and public highways just aren’t the place for it. Perhaps anyone considering purchasing the Lightning should arrange for some regular track time at a nearby speedway.

SVT stands for “special vehicle team,” a group of Ford Motor Co. car nuts who have been given free reign to take ordinary, everyday vehicles and make them special — both in appearance and performance (but with the emphasis clearly on performance!).

These folks have reinvented the Mustang Cobra, Contour and a handful of other Ford vehicles, but I don’t think any of those compares to the good looks and extraordinary performance of the Lightning.

You’ll pay dearly for the right to own one. List price is $30,895, including transportation. You can buy a base model F-150 for not much more than half of that.

Under the hood is a special supercharged version of Ford’s 5.4-liter Triton V-8 engine, rated at a whopping 360 horsepower and 440 foot-pounds of torque. (That’s 100 horsepower more than in the regularly aspirated 5.4-liter V-8.) This is a far cry from the version of this engine that comes in the regular F-150. SVT engineers added a forged steel crankshaft, forged-alloy connecting rods and forged pistons, and lowered the compression ratio to 8.4:1 to allow addition of the Roots-type supercharger, which sits on top of the intake system.

That’s as technical as I’m going to get; the gearheads among you can buy one of the car-buff books for more of that stuff. What you really need to know is that this engine, along with a four-speed automatic transmission from the Super Duty F-series, pushes the Lightning from zero to 60 mph in just 5.4 seconds.

There are some sports cars out there that can match or slightly exceed that, but not any pickups except perhaps the 1991 GMC Sonoma Syclone pickup. It had a 4.3-liter turbocharged V-6, and was pretty quick.

Like the Syclone, the F-150 Lightning is a limited-production model and it won’t be found at all Ford dealerships.

To ensure the best handling to go along with the Lightning’s speediness, the SVT engineers decided to use a regular cab, short-bed, flare-side version of the F-150. You can get three people in the front seat if you need to, but there is no extended-cab version to all ow you to take the kids along in the rear seat.

Round driving lights and a special front fascia design are peculiar to the Lightning. Our test truck, with Oxford white clearcoat paint, came with a factory-installed soft cargo-area cover that made the vehicle look really, really cool.

The interior is rather luxurious for a truck. The seats are covered with a combination of textured ebony leather and graphite-colored cloth; the door panels are ebony leather; and there is a leather-wrapped steering wheel.

The driver’s seat is the 40 percent part of a 60/40 split front seat, but it is like a bucket seat, and it holds the driver in place very snugly during tight turns. The driver’s side has electric controls. There is a flip-down armrest/storage bin that can be pushed up and out of the way to allow a third person to ride in the middle.

I loved the instrument panel, with its luminescent white-faced gauges that turn blue-green at night with bright orange needles.

Other standard equipment includes dual air bags with a passenger-side cut-off switch; a premium AM/FM stereo with single-disc in-dash CD player; dual electric remote-control outside mirrors, four-wheel disc brakes with three-channel anti-lock system; power windows and door locks; manual air-conditioning, overhead console with electronic compass and exterior temperature gauge; cruise control; remote keyless entry; and floor mats.

Standard are eight-inch, five-spoke, cast-aluminum wheels and special Goodyear Eagle tires — Z-rated for high-speed operation. There is a solid rear axle and a 3.55:1 limited-slip rear end; the rear suspension has five-leaf springs, and there are gas-tuned shock absorbers all around. Up front, there are coil springs and a solid stabilizer bar. Steering is power-assisted recirculating ball type.

The only options offered are the soft tonneau cover ($150), towing package ($245) and an AM/FM/cassette stereo with six-disc remote CD changer that fits behind the passenger seat ($210).

Our test truck came with “The Club” attached to the steering wheel to prevent theft, but that’s really not necessary. The Lightning has Ford’s passive anti-theft system, which uses a tiny radio transponder built into the ignition key, set to a special security code. It must correspond to the code stored in the truck’s engine computer; if not, the vehicle won’t run. Steal it without the proper ignition key, and the Lightning will be useless.

Ford says the Lightning stops from 60 mph in just 137 feet, which is 10 feet more than it takes to stop the much-lighter SVT Mustang Cobra. Top speed is 140 mph, according to Ford. I didn’t try this.

No fuel-economy figures were provided for the 2000 model, but the 1999 version was rated at 14 miles per gallon in the city and 17 mpg on the highway. The tank holds 24.5 gallons of gasoline.

2000 FORD F-150 SVT LIGHTNING

THE PACKAGE: Limited-production, high-performance, full-size, two-door, rear-drive, three- passenger, flare-side, regular-cab pickup from Ford’s Special Vehicle Team.

HIGHLIGHTS: Back for another year with a few minor refinements is Ford’s most fun pickup ever. With its supercharged 5.4-liter Triton V-8, the Lightning has 360 horsepower and zips from zero to 60 mph in 5.4 seconds. Included: nice leather interior, automatic transmission; other luxury features.

NEGATIVES: No extended-cab version or manual transmission offered.

MAJOR COMPETITORS: This vehicle has no peers; it’s in a class by itself.

EPA FUEL ECONOMY: 14 miles per gallon city/17 highway (1999 ratings).

BASE PRICE: $30,255 plus $640 transportation.

PRICE AS TESTED: $31,045, including transportation.

ON THE ROAD RATING: A-plus.