Shelby boss Gary Patterson is unconcerned about Ford switching to 'Dark Horse' as he reveals in a wide ranging interview.
Shelby American is a bit of an enigma these days. Yes, it has a storied history, but what it engineers and sells today is pretty far removed from its racing-filled heyday.
So I sat down with current president of Shelby American, Gary Patterson, to get the lowdown on what the company is up to in 2026. The biggest elephant in the room is Shelby American’s relationship with the Ford Motor Company. Things were looking mighty fine when it came to previous-generation Mustangs, as Ford licensed the Shelby name for both its Shelby GT350 / GT350R and Shelby GT500 models.
However, the current Mustang has no mention of Carroll's last name anywhere to be seen. Instead, Ford went with “Dark Horse” and “Dark Horse SC” for its high performance models. When I asked Ford why it went away from the Shelby name months ago, the company did not mince words.
“This is a Ford Racing vehicle, and the reality is that Shelby doesn’t race,” a spokesperson told me at the reveal for the Dark Horse SC. “In taking what we do on the track and bringing it to the road, it is really important that we maintain that link, and show that this is a Ford Racing product. ”Barely a week later, Shelby American revealed that it was developing a Mustang for competition in the Trans Am racing series.
So, technically, Shelby is going racing. The company is working with Turn Key Automotive to field the car in the 2026 series, but that doesn’t change the fact that Ford is going in a new direction and no longer handing licensing fees rumored to run around $800 per unit over to Shelby for name usage. I asked Patterson about the situation, and he hardly sounded phased.
“Those things are cyclical, right? And it just depends on what's going on within their own company and what their directives are at any one time,” Patterson said.
“There's been times when Ford would believe that they could do all of this stuff, and then they do, and then they don't. Shelby comes in, we do stuff together. ”Ford truly has taken the Mustang name in a number of different directions over the decades; “Shelby” is arguably the most famous, but high performance versions of Mustangs have used variations of names like Boss, Mach 1, Bullitt, and Cobra.
Today, Ford is trying to bring its newest miniker into that same legendary group of names.
“They’re using Dark Horse,” Patterson said. “But you know what, this isn't any different than the Sixties. They went to Boss, all that stuff. So everybody gets all excited about this stuff. and I'm like, look, it's part of a cycle.
And it'll come and go and so forth. What we do is we stay very focused on who Shelby is, and how we can also help polish the Blue Oval. ”In other words, Shelby American expects Ford to be back at its door again ... one day. In the meantime, the big focus is on trucks.
Patterson didn’t put final numbers on it, but revealed that 70 to 75 percent of Shelby American’s vehicle sales these days are from pickups.
“The Mustangs were always an easy go-to,” he said. “And so that's a lot of it, but we also realized that performance pickups . 'The company's pickup business is going through a big change in 2026, too. Previously, Tuscany Motor Co. manufactured Shelby American’s pickups, but Tuscany’s owners have since left and started a new company named Shelby Performance, and are planning on manufacturing and selling Shelby American’s pickups for the foreseeable future.
With the switch-up comes a new line of trucks based on both the F-150 and F-250 Super Duty. The official reveals for these pickups will be coming this year, but the F-250 Super Baja is already out. I ended my day with Patterson and Shelby taking a few laps in a test development car for its forthcoming Shelby GT350/TA that celebrates the 60th anniversary of the Trans Am racing series.
It has a claimed 830 horsepower courtesy of a Whipple supercharger, and is fitted with Trans-Am-spec suspension, Alcon racing brakes and a mighty aggressive aero package. The team has some kinks to work out, so I’ll reserve impressions for if we ever get to try a finished example. But Shelby hopes to sell 70 of them at a starting price of $219,970.
Ford Mustang Gt350 Trucks Pickup Muscle Car
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