Carroll Shelby famously worked with AC Cobra and Ford throughout the ‘60s and ‘70s, though fewer are privy to the fact that the automotive designer also wrenched with Dodge, helping the company to develop a small batch of high-performance trucks in the 1980s. And while almost a full decade has passed since the death of the 1959 24 Hours of Le Mans-winner, Carroll’s passion for tuning Baja-grade pickups lives on today through Shelby American’s line of trail and crawl-ready trucks like the new 2022 Shelby Ford F-150 Raptor.
Touted by the famed tuner as its “most polished performance truck to date,” the latest Shelby F-150 Raptor boasts the most capable suspension setup the high-performance pickup has ever been equipped with, with a top-of-the-line BDS lift kit and shocks package. The Shelby Raptor also rides on a custom set of 18” Flow Forged aluminum wheels shod in 37″ BFGoodrich KM3 Mud Terrain tires — two full-size spares of which rest in custom bed-mounted wheel mounts shrouded behind bespoke steel side panels. Beneath its intake and extraction-vent-equipped SHELBY Baja Raptor Hood lies a twin-turbocharged Ford Performance EcoBoost V6 engine that’s been gifted a custom cold-air performance intake system and proprietary performance tune that allows for an output of more than 525hp and 610ft-lbs of torque — a boost that’s north of 75hp and 100ft-lbs over the already-potent standard F-150 Raptor. Set beneath a one-piece heat shield, the EcoBoost six-banger has also received a performance aluminum intercooler and a SHELBY-tuned performance exhaust.
Taking the F-Series’ already plush interior to the next level is a SHELBY leather interior upgrade, a set of billet racing pedals, deep-tinted windows, Baja Raptor-embroidered floormats, and a carbon fiber interior accent package. Other off-road-focused upgrades include a painted front grille with integrated LED lighting inserts, LED-lit Power Steps with rock sliders, custom black steel bumpers fore and aft, tow points, airflow vents, a flat black steel chase rack and bed chase rack system, and two 10” LED driving lights supplemented with a pair of square LED lights, a curved 30” LED light-bar, and a tilting, power-actuated 50” LED lightbar.
The 2022 Shelby Ford F-150 Raptor is available for order now, with pricing starting from $124,820 – $60,675, plus the $64,145 cost of a 2021 Ford F-150 Raptor donor. This price also includes a three-year or 36,000-mile limited warranty.
