Nearly every crossover or pickup on the market either has a dedicated off-road trim or one inspired by it. While we all love bulky tires and useless features, there’s a real lack of variety in trucks nowadays. What if you want to go fast in your pickup? What if you want something luxurious with innovative technology?
We were once spoiled for choice in our trucks. So let’s take a look back at some of the cool pickup models automakers used to give us.
The Cadillac Escalade EXT was introduced as a direct response to the Lincoln Blackwood. Cadillac’s version of a luxury pickup wins because it’s an actual pickup when compared to the Blackwood’s carpeted cargo area with power-opening tonneau cover with a split tailgate.
Part of the EXT’s brilliance was its Midgate bed system. Shared with the Chevy Avalanche and utilizing a bottom hinged door at the rear of the pickup bed, it allowed the bed to be extended into the cabin behind the front seats increasing cargo carrying capacity dramatically. The EXT lasted two generations before it was axed in 2013 due to low sales.
Apparently there existed Chevy Avalanche customers who wanted all the rough and ready looks of the Avalanche Z71 but with more on road drivability. For those customers, Chevy went and created the Avalanche Z66. It came with everything the Z71 was equipped with (17-inche wheels, all-terrain tires and all-weather floor mats) except the off-road suspension and Auto-Trac four-wheel drive. Instead the Z66 came with a sport-tuned suspension and all-season tires.
In 2006 Chevy wanted to honor the late Dale Earnhardt with special edition of the Silverado SS. So the bow-tie brand introduced the Silverado SS Intimidator. More than just a menacing looking appearance package, the Intimidator came with a lowered, performance tuned suspension, stiffer front stabilizer bar, Tenneco shocks and rear-wheel drive; a regular Silverado SS came with all-wheel drive. This is all in addition to the 6.0-liter 345 horsepower V8. Only 1,333 were ever made, with the proceeds from each sale going to Dale Earnhardt’s foundation.
Most of us are familiar with the SSR. If you aren’t here’s the gist: it started life as a concept shown in 2000 and went into production in 2003. A rolling Hot Wheel and the apple of Bob Lutz’s eye, it’s amazing GM’s bean counters approved the thing. Buyer’s didn’t seem to big on a convertible pickup truck with an unusable truck bed: in December 2003, exactly a year after it went on sale, dealers were sitting on a 300+ day supply of the truck, forcing a production stoppage and lay offs at the factory that made it.
The 5.3-liter V8 that was offered initially wrote performance checks it couldn’t cash. In typical GM fashion, GM got it right at the end of its life and offered the 6.0-liter small block for 2006, the same year it got the axe.
The Ram SRT-10 was the stuff boyhood dreams are made of. Dodge engineers stuffed the Viper’s 8.3-liter 500 hp V10 into a regular cab Ram truck. The result was an absurdly fantastic pickup that could hit 60 mph in under five seconds and hit a top speed of 154 mph. Impressive for something that weighed over 5,000 pounds. Dodge expanded the Ram SRT-10 lineup to include a quad-cab four door with an automatic transmission.
Legendary car designer Chip Foose partnered with Ford in 2008 to come up with the F-150 Foose Edition. With the Dodge Ram SRT-10 out of production, Ford got to make a bold claim: the most powerful half-ton pickup on the market. A Roush supercharger got bolted onto Ford’s 5.4-liter V8. The result was 450 hp. Other changes included a body kit, 22-inch wheels on Pirelli tires and a special paint job complete with stripes that looked painted on but weren’t. Unfortunately the Foose edition was heavy, rendering most of those 450 horses useless. Equally heavy was its price which started just over $55,000. Only 500 were ever made.
First introduced on the 10th-gen F-150 in 2001, the F-150 Harley-Davidson edition was extremely popular with buyers. Aside from the body kit, huge Harley badges, flame graphics and billet grille, there was some performance here. A supercharged version of the 5.4-liter V8 made 340 hp and 425 lb-ft of torque. Harley-Davidson F-150s were offered every year until 2015 when the trim was dropped on the 13th gen.
God, I miss performance trucks. First offered on the ninth generation F-150 in 1992, most remember the 10th gen truck seen here. Its specs were perfect: regular cab/short bed configuration, rear-wheel drive, 5.4-liter 360 hp supercharged V8. Sadly the truck was discontinued in 2004 and we’ve never seen anything like it from Ford sense.
The Sierra C3 was a strange offering from GMC. The “Professional Grade” brand started to realize that more and more buyers wanted car-like features and drivability from their pickups. So the Sierra C3 (the 3 was placed like an exponent beside the C) was created. Reading GMC marketing at the time, the brand made it seem as if it was the drivers Sierra, if such a person existed.
Only available in an extended cab configuration, it had the biggest engine in the segment at the time with the 6.0-liter 325 hp V8. All-season tires were thrown on as well as a suspension setup with torsion bars in the front and two-stage leaf springs in the back for better on road handling. In place of an advanced four-wheel drive system, an all-wheel drive setup with a center diff and vicious limited-slip. Inside it was luxurious as hell with thick carpets and leather seats. The Sierra C3 was actually a precursor to the Sierra Denali that would eventually replace the C3.
If all you see in the picture above is an 11th-generation Ford F-150 with a Lincoln grille, you’re not a lone. Ford wasn’t content with the Cadillac Escalade EXT beating the low-selling Lincoln Blackwood so the automaker thought it was a good idea to try again with another luxury pickup for Lincoln. The result was the rather lazy badge job Mark LT. Initially the truck sold OK the first year, but eventually it flopped and it was discontinued in 2008 after just three years on the market. Weirdly it was successful in Mexico, so much so that it was Lincoln’s best selling model and it gained a second generation.