OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS; Roush Performance's Stage 3 F-150 takes the edge off the wait for the next SVT Lightning.(Special Vehicles Team (ford))

Byline: MAC MORRISON It's past midnight on a warm summer night and suburbia is fast asleep. Most of it, anyway. The mall rent-a-cop roves the parking lot in a light-bar-equipped Geo Tracker. First thought is: "No good,'' but just then he loops around and motors to a distant blacktop, likely for a nap.

Perfect timing. Five minutes later he hotfoots it across the lot, alerted to our presence by the distant thunder of tortured rubber and a cumulus of white smoke that envelopes a near light pole. But it's too late. We've spun donuts, recorded acceleration times, and we're out ...

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