1997 Ford F-150 “Buckster”

The 1997-2003 Ford F-150 is the tenth-generation truck, the model year that moved the half-ton onto a new body and a new chassis with a markedly more aerodynamic shape than the squarer OBS trucks before it. The 1997 Ford F-150 replaced the long-running pushrod engines with Ford's overhead-cam modular family: a 4.6L single-overhead-cam Triton V8 and a 5.4L single-overhead-cam Triton V8, with a 4.2L Essex V6 as the base engine in place of the 300-cubic-inch inline-six. On the chassis side, the 1997 Ford F-150 dropped the Twin-Traction Beam used since 1980 and adopted an 8.8-inch independent front suspension; the four-wheel-drive F-150 stayed independent up front rather than switching to a solid axle. For 1999, Ford spun the heavier three-quarter-ton and one-ton trucks off into the separate Super Duty line, so from the 1999 model year the F-150 name refers specifically to the half-ton. The four-door SuperCrew cab joined the lineup for 2001, and the supercharged second-generation SVT Lightning, built from 1999 through 2004, used a blown version of the 5.4L Triton V8.