For 25 years, a pristine 2000 Ford Mustang SVT Cobra R sat untouched in a North Carolina Ford dealership, a tantalizing glimpse of automotive history for anyone passing through Tri-City Ford in Eden.

Performance pickups used to be a thing. From the Chevy 454 SS in the early 1990s to the sports car like performance the Toyota Tacoma X-Runner was throwing down in the early 2000s fast trucks had ...