1966 Mercury M250 Sleeper Flexes Modern GT500 Muscle, Savage Growls Included

The short review of this 1966 Mercury M250, dubbed "King Mercules" by its owner, Roman, begins with a cold engine start, which quickly reveals that the V8 under the hood is no ordinary one. This truck was actually built by Roman's good friend, Kyle Delfel. "I twisted his arm, I had to have it," said Roman as he describes the difficulties he had to go through to convince Kyle to sell him the truck.

When it came out of the factory, it used an inline-six-cylinder engine, and it only had 2WD to work with. This truck was initially commissioned for the Manitoba Hydro-Electric company, and it used to have mostly blue paint job. But since its early days, quite a few things have changed, even though it still bears signs of old age on the outside.

The most impressive part about this truck is its source of power. That thundering exhaust note at the beginning of the video belongs to a 2014 Shelby GT500 5.8-liter V8 engine. Even though this unit was originally capable of outputting 662 horsepower and 631 lb-ft (855 Nm) of torque, it was further tuned to an extent where Roman can now unleash 740 horsepower by the push of the throttle.

What's even more insane about the whole thing is that this is his daily driver, and he's put around 9,000 miles (14,484 km) on it in the past 9-10 months. He does claim to get an average of 15 mpg (15.68 liters per 100 km), which is still not bad considering the circumstances. Of course, there's a 4-inch (10.15 cm) lift kit further increasing the ground clearance of this M250, and Roman had to mount AMP Research steps for his wife and kids to be able to climb aboard.

Even though this truck comes with 740 horsepower, the choice of tires doesn't look ideal for fast driving on public roads, as they are 35x12.5 Goodyear MTR Wranglers. Still, we can only imagine how "King Mercules" would feel on the off-road; that's where it probably shines. More Mustang accessories can be found on the inside, with some era-correct bucket seats and a Cobra steering wheel.

Going around the car, Solomon asks Roman about the camper top. "When I first got into the old truck game I had a '71 Bronco, I sold that and got a 2008 Tundra, which had a shell on it. My boy loved it, I loved it, it's so useful having one, and I've actually got another camper top prepared for Mercules."

Up next, we get a few drone shots of the truck, and then they're off for a bit of driving. The dual Magnaflow exhaust does a terrific job at letting everyone know this is no ordinary vehicle, and the short rolling burnouts are a testament to what that supercharged V8 can accomplish if flexed accordingly.