The truck world is one I don’t follow anywhere near as closely as the car world, but there are still models that intrigue me. Recently I had the opportunity to take a look at one of the 2017 Raptors when it arrived in town (the photos of that went up just a couple of weeks ago) and following that, another model arrived which caught my attention and prompted me to make my way down to the dealer when I had the chance; this Shelby F-150.

There’s more to this truck than a horsepower figure but it’s definitely something that they want everyone to know about, since they advertise it right on the front grille, so that’s where we might as well start!

700 horsepower, in a pickup. A platform designed as a workhorse, and they gave it more power than many supercars. Why? Well, why not?

In my opinion, the Shelby F-150 is a vehicle that makes absolutely no sense; and that is exactly why I think it’s such a neat concept. (Alternatively, there are other vehicles that I think make no sense that shouldn’t be built for that same reason, but that’s a topic for another day. I’m looking at you, Mercedes-AMG GLE 63 S Coupé…).

Back on the topic of the Shelby; if you’ve read previous posts in the New Car Smell category then you’ll probably recognize this location from a few of them; Advantage Ford. It seems that I was just there to take a look at (slash drool on) the new Raptor, and last week this Shelby joined their inventory which prompted me to head back down.

This was actually not my first opportunity to see one in person as Woodridge had brought a white example out to last year’s Park and Polish show, but this was my first chance to see one in detail. One of the salesmen very kindly opened it up for me and I was able to not only look through it, but also learn a few things that I hadn’t been aware of.

The most surprising thing that I found out was that these trucks are not actually built by Shelby! Upon opening the hood I found this tag confirming just that – these are instead built under license by Tuscany Motor Co. (Side note – the usual disclaimer applies here; you will see dirt in these photos as the truck had not yet been detailed).

I also learned that like other special editions of the F-150, these are limited to 200 units. You definitely won’t be seeing a ton of these out on the roads, unlike ‘normal’ F-150s! On that, I suppose a bonus of buying a Shelby is that even with the F-150’s insane popularity in Canada, you’d actually be able to find yours in a parking lot! Likewise, everyone would hear yours over the others with its supercharger whine and exhaust note.

Speaking of that supercharger, I of course have more photos from under the hood! With the height of the truck (it’s sitting on massive Fox shocks) it was a bit trickier to peer into the engine bay but there was no missing that supercharger with its bright blue housing.

Not to sound cynical, but these days you can never be too sure with so many vehicles receiving vents and scoops; fortunately this hood was indeed functional, as you’d hope from a Shelby-branded vehicle! Air is fed straight to the intake which seals up to that nice big opening you see at the top of the photo, and there’s also the snorkel feeding from above the grille to help further.

The interior was probably the most tame area of the truck with a few badges and some stitched-in logos, but otherwise appeared relatively untouched; not necessarily a bad thing.

On the topic of the badges however, there’s one thing that I didn’t really clue into until afterwards; and in case anyone thinks I’m just endlessly going to praise this truck, brace yourself for I do have a complaint with it. It was only once I began going through the photos that I started to really take note of just how many times the world ‘Shelby’ appeared, and so I started counting…

I found it 21 times on the exterior, 6 times under the hood, and 4 times inside – definitely overkill if you ask me but at the very least there will be no confusion over what kind of an F-150 this is!

All (allllllllll) of the badges aside, I thought this was a pretty neat truck. It’s expensive (“If you have to ask,…”), it’s massive, it’s loud, and it’s unnecessary, but it’s cool. Frankly I’d love to see Shelby (/Tuscany?) build an even crazier version of this thing – or perhaps of the new Raptor – in the future. At the end of the day all a vehicle is meant to do is get you and cargo from point A to point B, but it’s so much more fun to do so with ones that are loud, fast, and have character; and overall are just unique. This thing definitely is.

-Bill