Allen Cornelius wanted to make a statement that his shop, AC Customs in Shreve, Ohio, could blend old-school Ford muscle-car performance with a new style truck, giving it the performance and looks to match.

Cornelius’ shop has built custom street bikes, golf carts, cars, trucks and even semis with builds ranging from simple paint and/or airbrush work to full-blown, ground-up, frame-off rebuilds. The truck you see here is one of the most unique F-150s we have ever seen with the power and performance to go road or drag racing, along with all the gear to hang out at a show or tailgate at the game.

Since he wanted the truck to be a muscle truck, Cornelius turned to the Mustang building specialty team at PowerHouse Automotive in Girard, Pennsylvania, where they turbocharged the original 4.6-liter, two-valve per cylinder engine. Mike Bowen fabricated the one-off turbo system using 304 stainless steel tubing for the air inlet and outlet along with the custom exhaust manifolds and downpipe with Stainless Works tubing. Hose Techniques silicon hoses are used to join the sections of stainless steel tubing used for the turbo inlet and outlet.

The system uses a Precision Turbo 62mm turbo that works in conjunction with a 38mm TiAL wastegate to deliver a steady 8 psi of boost from 2,300 rpm all the way to the 6,000 rpm redline. The turbo is lubricated with engine oil, using braided stainless steel lines to and from the engine along with a billet aluminum oil-filter relocation kit from PowerHouse. An S&B air filter is used to make sure the 4.6-liter mill is able to ingest large volumes of filtered air. To keep up with the increased airflow, Bowen installed Ford Racing 39-pound injectors to provide additional fuel. To keep the turboed engine cool, a pair of SPAL 12-inch cooling fans is used along with a custom-fabricated fan shroud from CHE Performance.

The turbocharged engine puts 400 hp and over 400 lb-ft of torque to the ground on the chassis dyno, thanks to the turbo and some custom tuning with an SCT programmer. Amazingly, the engine makes all that power reliably on 87-octane pump gas for everyday driving. On occasions when Cornelius really wants to punish the rear tires, he can increase the boost from 8 psi to 10-12 psi and unleash 500-plus horsepower and 500-plus lb-ft of torque, sending the rear tires up in smoke, as seen here.

Speaking of smoke, look at the rear of Cornelius’ truck and you’ll see that he can be smoking even when he is not behind the wheel, thanks to the Freedom Grill mounted in the hitch receiver. Knowing he was building a show truck that needed to do more than just be powerful and look good, Cornelius wanted something unique as well.

To that end, he installed an A.R.E. TopUp scissor-lift tonneau cover with a large 23-inch Sony LCD monitor suspended from the underside of the cover. To complement the video monitor, a pair of 12-inch Sony Xplod subwoofers and two pairs of Sony Xplod 6.5-inch two-way speakers provide audio entertainment. A Sony Xplod 800-watt amplifier powers each pair of 6.5-inch speakers, while a 1,000-watt Sony Xplod mono subwoofer amplifier powers the pair of subs. The audio/video system in the rear of the truck acts as a standalone system, complete with its own Sony CD/DVD-receiver and a DirecTV receiver for audio or video pleasure. You can also listen to the audio through a set of Unwired Technology wireless headphones. About half of the bed is dedicated to the audio/video system, which leaves plenty of secure storage space in the rest of the bed, which is protected with a BedRug carpet kit.

The FG-50 Freedom Grill mounts in the hitch receiver with a swing-away arm that locks for transport, allowing the grill to be transported outside the truck bed from event to event. After arriving at an event, Cornelius simply raises the tonneau cover, swings out the grill, drops the tailgate, cranks up the system and fires up the grill to enjoy the day!

While Cornelius and his group are hanging out by the grill, everyone else’s attention is pulled away from the grill to the rest of the truck, starting with the custom hood that Cornelius and crew at AC Customs built to make the statement that this in no ordinary F-150. They also added a Street Scene Equipment body kit with custom side exit exhaust fabricated by the team at PowerHouse Automotive. Rounding out the front end of the truck are stainless steel mesh upper and lower grille inserts from Street Scene along with a Cobra emblem and KC HiLites driving lights. Front and rear replacement lights from APC are also installed on the F-150 to give it a clean look while enhancing the lighting on both ends of the truck.

To give the his F-150 the proper stance, Cornelius installed a lowering kit with Belltech components and KW Automotive shocks to get the truck low and make it carve corners like a modern muscle car. To further improve the handling characteristics and complement the AC Customs cosmetic theme of the truck, the team chose 22×9.5-inch American Racing wheels in the Shelby Razor Six design wrapped in high-performance Goodyear Fortera 305/40R22 tires front and rear.

AC Customs painted the body kit, tonneau cover and bumper covers using DuPont ChromaBase Premier paint in matching factory CX gray with black Cobra-style racing stripes over the top of the truck like a true Shelby Cobra. Then, the guys painted the wheel centers to match the main body color to make the truck unique. Before laying the new color, an Inalfa Sunroofs power-sliding moonroof was installed to make the cab inviting.

Moving inside the truck, the build team installed a Sony Xplod audio/video system complete with an in-dash CD receiver, two 800-watt amplifiers and new 6×8-inch front and rear coaxial door speakers. Low frequencies in the cab are supplemented by a single 10-inch Sony Xplod subwoofer mounted behind the rear seat, which is powered by another 800-watt Sony Xplod amplifier, matching the ones driving the front and rear speakers. The audio/video systems in Cornelius’ F-150 is wired with StreetWires power cables, speaker cables and audio/video signal cables for optimized signal transfer and excellent performance.

The interior features custom seat upholstery from Roadwire using dark gray leather with light gray snakeskin inserts. The crew at Roadwire even used their heat-seal process to emboss the Cobra logo into the leather seats, which goes with the rest of the Cobra theme. The headrests feature 5.5-inch LCD monitors from Sony that allow the rear seat passengers to enjoy a video while driving to and from events. To protect the carpet, Cornelius installed a set of Lund International floormats since the truck is a driver rather than a trailer queen.

Cornelius and his team set out to build a unique muscle truck with the flavor of a modern muscle car like the Shelby Mustang. His Cobra-inspired truck is truly unique right down to the turbocharger under the hood and the barbecue grill on the rear. He calls his creation Snake-Bitten, and if you pull alongside the Cobra-inspired truck on the road, you better watch out as it is likely to smoke you, but hopefully you can catch up to him later and convince him to throw a steak on the grill for you!