The Roush F-150 SC’s grille makes it look like a Raptor. Its supercharger helps it move like a Mustang.
There’s more to Roush than just Mustangs. Roush Performance has spent decades adding power to Ford’s automotive icon, but it also turns its wrenches on other vehicles. The F-150 is the Mustang of Ford’s pickup lineup and happens to share the basics of its available 5.0-liter V8 with the Mustang, making it the perfect truck for Roush to upgrade.
In the video up at the top, Roadshow‘s Jon Wong gets his hands on a Roush F-150 SC. It features a Fox 2.0 suspension, 20-inch wheels wrapped in Mickey Thompson Baja ATZP3 all-terrain tires, and a side-exit exhaust. The “ROUSH” grille brings a certain high-performance Ford truck to mind. Wong relays that Roush doesn’t consider its truck a true competitor to the Ford F-150 Raptor and agrees, seeing it as more of an alternative to a Ram 1500 Rebel or Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Z71.
However, one area in which this Roush has the Raptor beat is under the hood – in more ways than one. Its engine is not only more powerful than the Raptor’s high-output 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6, but also sounds like a proper badass truck should. That’s because Roush doesn’t use a V6 at all. The company bases the F-150 SC on an F-150 with the 5.0-liter V8, then bolts on a supercharger. Output for the pre-2018 Coyote V8 goes from 385 horsepower and 387 lb-ft of torque to 600 and 557, respectively. That’s plenty of grunt to get Wong to the top of a huge sand dune.
Raptor or not, the Roush F-150 SC ticks a lot of the right boxes as a special, high-performance truck. It’s big, loud, powerful, and can perform off-road. It looks the part. As a bonus, it also sounds the part.
Derek Shiekhi's father raised him on cars. As a boy, Derek accompanied his dad as he bought classics such as post-WWII GM trucks and early Ford Mustang convertibles.
After loving cars for years and getting a bachelor's degree in Business Management, Derek decided to get an associate degree in journalism. His networking put him in contact with the editor of the Austin-American Statesman newspaper, who hired him to write freelance about automotive culture and events in Austin, Texas in 2013. One particular story led to him getting a certificate for learning the foundations of road racing.
While watching TV with his parents one fateful evening, he saw a commercial that changed his life. In it, Jeep touted the Wrangler as the Texas Auto Writers Association's "SUV of Texas." Derek knew he had to join the organization if he was going to advance as an automotive writer. He joined the Texas Auto Writers Association (TAWA) in 2014 and was fortunate to meet several nice people who connected him to the representatives of several automakers and the people who could give him access to press vehicles (the first one he ever got the keys to was a Lexus LX 570). He's now a regular at TAWA's two main events: the Texas Auto Roundup in the spring and the Texas Truck Rodeo in the fall.
Over the past several years, Derek has learned how to drive off-road in various four-wheel-drive SUVs (he even camped out for two nights in a Land Rover), and driven around various tracks in hot hatches, muscle cars, and exotics. Several of his pieces, including his article about the 2015 Ford F-150 being crowned TAWA's 2014 "Truck of Texas" and his review of the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider, have won awards in TAWA's annual Excellence in Craft Competition. Last year, his JK Forum profile of Wagonmaster, a business that restores Jeep Wagoneers, won prizes in TAWA’s signature writing contest and its pickup- and SUV-focused Texas Truck Invitational.
