3. Shelby Dakota
The Dakota was a compact pickup truck Dodge sold between 1987 and 1996. It was dependable, tough-looking and came with a wide arrange of engines and trim levels. But Dodge wanted more. In the late ’80s, the company envisioned a performance version.
They enlisted Shelby, who was working with Chrysler Corporation at the moment, to create it. Shelby took a regular production Dakota and installed a 5.2-liter V8 engine with 175 HP in it. Even though the power output was relatively small, the Dakota was light.
Since it had lots of torque, this compact truck delivered a convincing performance.