Ford SVT

Unless you’re living under a rock (and we doubt you are, since very few of them have internet access), you probably know that today is Thanksgiving here in the U.S. of A. And while there are many more recently established traditions observed on this holiday – playing touch football with the relatives in the backyard (or, if you prefer, the alley where the annoying neighbor kid and his buddies like to get together and smoke pot), camping out in front of stores for Black Friday sales, and getting felt up by an airport security screener while you’re still nursing a tryptophan hangover – the root of the last Thursday in November’s significance is giving thanks for the good things and good people one has in his or her life. And dag nabbit, not enough folks these days seem very interested in doing that.

To make things easier, we decided to compile a list of new cars we’re most thankful exist. So even if you can’t get psyched about family and friends who love you and a roof over your head (or maybe you have neither of those things), we’re pretty confidant you can feel some gratitude toward the deity/all-powerful force of your choosing for allowing these rides to be. After all, you do come here for cars and nothing else, right? Anyway, on with the show!

As the 1960s drew to a close, the American muscle car arms race reached its apogee. Engine displacement grew, quarter-mile times dropped, and the performance cars from the Big Three (and AMC) got altogether more raucous. It was truly the golden age of muscle cars…

Or at least, it was the golden age until the segment’s current halcyon days began. The current boulevard bruisers from Ford, GM and Chrysler are not only faster in a straight line and more powerful than their Nixonian Age ancestors, but also handle better, stop shorter, run smoother, require less maintenance, produce barely a fraction of the pollution, use less gas and are much nicer to drive and ride in. And yes, there’s another horsepower war going on, and Ford has just dropped a nuke on the hapless heads of the General and Ma Mopar.

Pickup trucks, by design, are beasts of burden. They usually give up things like a cushy ride, fuel economy that won’t give a Greenpeace member facial tics and handling that doesn’t resemble that of a Panamax container ship in exchange for the ability to carry large amounts of cargo. Again, that’s usually the case.

Sometimes, though, automakers get a little sauced, and instead of putting a lampshade on their heads, they ask themselves, “What if we made a high performance version of our pickup truck?” It’s happened more times than you might think; enough times, in fact, to warrant the following top 10 list.