Forgive us, oh Performance Gods, for we have forsaken thee! Shelby American sells about two and a half times as many performance-oriented F-series pickup trucks than it does Mustangs, according to a statement obtained by Autoblog. When something as glorious as Shelby’s 825-horsepower Super Snake Mustang exists, why would you even consider the F-150 a viable option?
According to Shelby’s Jonathan Marsh, the company based in Las Vegas builds about 300 hot Mustang variants per year. This includes the big-power Super Snake, the Shelby GT, and Shelby WideBody, as well as the rental-only Shelby GT-S Sixt. Obviously this number does not include the Ford-built GT350 and GT500, which license the Shelby name but are not properly associated with Shelby the company.
Meanwhile, the company builds about 750 Ford F-series based Shelby conversions per year, and Marsh says the trucks began outselling pony cars five years ago! The Shelby truck lineup includes the Shelby Raptor, Shelby F-150, Shelby F-150 Super Snake, and the new two-seat Shelby F-150 Super Snake Sport. Most of these truck builds [about 70 percent] are outsourced to a shop in Indiana called Tuscany.
In addition to suspension add ons, Shelby does the typical horsepower boost thing that it is known for to these oh so many trucks. The Raptor, for example, bumps horsepower up to 525 and torque up to 610 lb-ft. The V8-powered F-150 models are available with an optional supercharger, kicking power up to 755 horses. Those supercharged pickups start at the low low price of $105,000.
What, pray tell, has the world come to? Ford perfected the sport truck with its first generation Lightning, why would anyone need this over-the-top power truck with a hardly useable pickup bed and limited seating options?
I guess what I’m trying to say is buy more Shelby Mustangs, you cowards!