Shelby American Unveils 578 kW Super Bakkie

Aside from a few imports here and there, the “biggest” bakkie on sale in South Africa is the Ford Ranger Raptor, however where our bakkies stop is where US bakkies start – enter the Shelby American F-150 Super Snake.

So you’re the kind of guy who needs more than a big “pickup truck” – you need something loud and shouty and thirsty and frighteningly fast. Shelby American, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Carroll Shelby International Inc. has just the thing for you.

Limited to just 300 two-door (Sport) and 300 four-door 2021 year model vehicles, the Shelby F-150 Super Snake muscle truck is a veritable feast of V8 power and American Pride. It was unveiled at Monterey Car Week, where the president of Shelby American, Gary Patterson, noted that “Shelby American forever changed the perception of performance beginning with the Shelby Cobra, the Shelby version of the Ford Mustang pony car and then the muscle truck.”

Serving up 578 kW and roughly 1 200 N.m, its 5,0-litre Supercharged V8 allows the bakkie to propel itself to 100 km/h in 3,5 seconds and from 0-160-0 km/h in just 8,3 seconds. Of course, the ‘Super Snake has to have the looks to match its performance, and so Shelby has turned that knob up to 11, too. A ground effects package, Super Snake stripes and badges, and split-spoke 22-inch wheels wrapped in performance street tires make quite the statement, as does the enlarged grille which now has to feed that monstrous, whining supercharger.

Shelby American worked closely with partners such as Fox, Ford Performance, and Borla in order to transform the updated F-150 into a serious performance vehicle, using the F-150’s increased refinement, updated technology, and improved handling over the previous model as the perfect foundation.

Adding to the collectability of the F-150 Super Snake, each vehicle from Shelby American is documented in the official Shelby Registry.

The Shelby American F-150 Super Snake comes standard with a 3 year/66 000 km warranty, with pricing in the USA starts at $98 690 (Approximately R1,4 million), which includes a well-optioned Ford F-150 XLT 4×4.