How about a perspective from a bean counter.....(well, I'm not sure if this would be a perspective from a bean counter but it's still one perspective):
Who's gonna buy a Lightning now? The current sports car market is saturated with well performing cars.....Camaro, GT500, SRT's, the Mustang once it gets the newer engine, EVO, WRX, 370z, used Z06's, M3's, even the Hyundai Genesis is trying to get a piece of the action.....competition is tough for a pick up truck that probably won't be much faster, if at all. Who does that leave.....Us? NLOC? Who here would actually go out and drop 40k on a sport truck right now.....maybe a few hundred at most?
Consider public perception as well....what will the general public think of Ford when they produced another gas guzzling sport truck in times when global warming is crammed down everyone's throat. They'll look at that and think, "wow, what a useless truck.....why the hell would you need a truck that can go fast....it's a truck, it's made for work and you can't take it off-road. Oh no, it's raining, garage it. What? Only holds maybe 3? Stupid." Sure car enthusiasts might get it, but they're so out numbered by those who aren't that it's a waste of breath trying to convince them otherwise. At least with a truck like the Raptor, it can go off-road, carry some kids in the back, it can be used as a truck, albeit one that can't do as much as a regular F150 could but still does as much as the Lightning and more than the SRT-10.
Also consider that a lot of the newer Lightning owners are Lightning owners because we were able to get them used (aka cheap), like myself. That's just looking at potential buyers looking for a performance car. Let's look at it from potential truck buyers as to performance car buyers. Ford's a little over half million sold a year on the F150's. How many of those 500,000 potential buyers are looking to buy a fast street truck? How many are looking for 4WD? How many are looking for extended cab. Would a person buying a regular cab consider getting an extended cab?
The Lightning corners itself for a buyer that's only looking for one thing, a fast truck...someone who'd buy a Lightning wouldn't buy any other kind of truck from Ford unless it was fast. How many fast trucks will Ford produce? Is it even cost effective to put money into developing more fast trucks when I'd imagine the majority of truck buyers buy trucks to do work (ie, tow or haul)?
Now consider the Raptor...........who is gonna compete with the Raptor....no one. And at 38k, it's just a few grand more than the FX4 for more capability and cheaper than the King Ranch.....I bet you could convince more potential F150 buyers to consider a Raptor over a sport truck. Plus, what's to stop someone into turning a Raptor into a drag truck? Nothing really. Even the majority of Lightning owners use their trucks for drag racing.....road course owners are the minority here...and that's one of major selling points of the Lightning, that it could handle fairly well.
I'm sure the sport truck will be back. But is there something wrong with the Gen 2's? Is it not fast enough? With the amount of aftermarket support, I would imagine that building up a Gen 2 that would be quicker than most sports cars out and would not be nearly as expensive as plopping down 40k for a new truck that'll probably on par with the competition.
Just like the old Rough Rider off road program that provided the performance DNA for cars like the Cobra R and Ford GT, looks like the Raptor R will be leading the way again with their testing of the Boss 6.2
Well, wasn't that a short post.
