Las Vegas, Nevada – Call this a bakkie, Ranger owners, and it’ll klap you. This is a Muscle Truck. To be precise, it’s the Shelby F-150 Super Snake, and it’ll make your blinged-up 2.2-litre Ranger with the fake Raptor grille look like a Bantam.
Just 150 will be made this year, none in right-hand-drive so, sadly, they won’t be coming to South Africa. But for those lucky 150 North Americans with $96 880 (R1.28 million) to spend on a performance pick-up, what they will be getting is the real deal.
Right up front, you get a five-litre Ford Performance V8 with upgraded high-performance fuel injectors and spark plugs, and a Shelby-engineered supercharger on a special inlet manifold. It breathes in through a high-flow air filter, a specially made high-capacity intercooler and a custom throttle body carved out of a block of solid aluminium, and out through a Shelby-tuned Borla performance exhaust system, driving via your choice of rear or all-wheel drive.
Shelby doesn’t quote performance figures, merely saying that the F-150 Super Snake hisses out ‘more than 550kW’, which is on a par with Rolls-Royce saying the power output of its monolithic Wraith GT is ‘adequate’.
This potent pick-up also has lowered suspension, uprated Shelby-tuned dampers, modified front wheel-alignment, and 22 inch Shelby retro chrome rims shod with 305/45 gumballs.
To give you some idea of just how hot the F-150 Super Snake is, it’ll run the speedometer needle clear off the dial, so Shelby has had to include a recalibrated speedo in the price.
Also included is a full aero kit in body colour, from a special front bumper cover with cooling vents, a honeycomb grille insert bearing a Shelby logo, a special Super Snake bonnet with dual ram-air scoops, functional front wing vents with Shelby logos, and side skirts with Shelby graphics on the rocker panels, to custom rear bumper cladding in body colour, a painted tonneau cover with carpet liner, a load-bed liner, and Shelby go-fast stripes and logos all over.
The cabin is actually quite understated by comparison, with a Shelby Registry serial number plaque on the centre stack, Shelby logos on the centre console lid and floor mats, and embroidered snake emblems on the head restraints.
And here’s where local Ford Ranger cowboys get to eat their hearts out; order the Shelby F-150 Super Snake through your local Ford dealership, anywhere in North America, and it comes with a three-year, 60 000km factory warranty.