Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the last 20 years (welcome back, we have a lot to discuss), you’ve noticed that full-size pickup trucks are not-so-subtly elbowing their way into the overlanding segment.
The increased prevalence of big-hauling trucks in overlanding makes sense. Rigs like the triple-locked Ram 2500 Power Wagon are essentially gigantic Jeep Gladiator Rubicons with a 6.4-liter V8. And who wouldn’t want a 410-horsepower 4×4 family hauler?
Photo: Shelby American
Turns out, though, the mighty Power Wagon is just the jumping off point for overland-capable full-size trucks. Shelby American, the brand that makes insane performance variants of virtually every Ford pony car and pickup truck, has released its take on the full-size 4×4.
It’s called the Super Baja. And it produces two-and-a-half times the torque as the Power Wagon.
To be specific, the Super Baja produces 1,050 foot-pounds of torque — and 475 horsepower — from its 6.7-liter Power Stroke V8 turbo diesel engine. Meanwhile, the Ram Power Wagon pushes out just 429 horsepower from its 6.4-liter gasoline-burning V8.
Photo: Shelby American
The Super Baja is more than a torque monster, though. It’s also had a bunch of other upgrades performed to it.
FOX laid their hands on the suspension and fitted it with Adjustable upper control arms, custom BDS lift system, custom front radius arms, FOX 2.0 dual steering stabilizer, Front coil overs w/Fox 2.5 adjustable reservoirs, Front 2.5 Fox backup adjustable reservoir shocks, Rear 2.5 Fox Factory Race adjustable shocks with piggyback reservoirs.
Photo: Shelby American
They finished that new ride off with custom 18-inch wheels wrapped in 37-inch BFG KM3 tires.
The front and rear also were blessed with steel bumpers and a pair of 11.75-inch LED driving lights — at both ends of the rig. The front bumper also got a 40-inch LED curved light bar. And a steel chase rack mounted in the bed was topped with a 50-inch LED light bar as well.
The interior got the Shelby treatment, too, including leather seats and billet racing pedals, among other accoutrements.
Photo: Shelby American
All told, the F-250 Super Baja will cost you $125,805. What’s more, Shelby will only be building 250 of them. So they’ll be rare and expensive.
Now I am not necessarily saying these Super Bajas are actually ideal overlanding rigs. Given their rarity and price, they’d actually make for unwise overlanding vehicles. That said, if you want to ensure your adventure rig is the only one of its kind that you’ll ever see on the trail or in the backcountry, you could do worse than the Super Baja.
Header: Shelby American
