This may be one of the biggest middle-fingers ever in the car industry. Ever since the Ford Raptor dropped in 2016, starting the ‘Baja street truck’ trend, other truck makers have been hyperventilating trying to catch up. Until now. Meet the 2021 Ram 1500 TRX, or the T-Rex if you will. To start with the facts and figures, the TRX makes 702 horsepower from the iconic 6.2L Supercharged Hemi V8 that powers all the infamous Hellcat models across the FCA lineup. Not only is 702 a gargantuan number, but that’s just about 250 horsepower more than the F-150 Raptor, and it does 0-60 in 4.5 seconds. Pause here and take that in.
Now that your heart rate has normalized, let us tell you more about this truck. If you remember, Ram has made an absurd truck before titled the SRT-10 that was powered by the huge V10 that was put to use in the legendary Viper of the early 2000s.
Absurdity is where the similarities stop with these cars, er, trucks. The SRT-10 was a dedicated street truck, the TRX is no pavement princess.
Don’t believe me? The TRX has 11.8 inches of ground clearance and 13/14 inches of front and rear suspension travel thanks to the all-new Bilstein Black Hawk shocks, the most advanced suspension to ever be put in a truck off a production line. Add to that the list of eight driving modes, including Sport, Snow, Mud/Sand, Rock, Baja, and Custom modes to suit your fancy. The TRX is 8 inches wider than your basic 1500 and uses 35-inch off-road tires. But we know that as much as you care about the numbers, you can read those anywhere right? You come here to hear about our experiences. So here we go!
This is another one of those near-accidental review opportunities. We’d like to give a huge thank you to Erik @the716_s6 for actually setting us up with this review, he happened to be hosting a meet that we both planned to be at. While we’re at it we’ll thank the owner who we’ll call Bob for taking the time out of his day to bring his TRX out and let us experience it.
This is no ordinary TRX either, meet Vehicle Identification Number 007. This Launch Edition TRX is one of only 702 in honor of the mental horsepower that this truck produces. Painted in Anvil Grey, the truck is brutally stunning. And unlike its SRT-10 ancestor, this is no stripped-out special. Fully optioned with a full leather and carbon fiber interior, heated and cooled seats, and Ram's excellent infotainment system on a huge center screen containing features such as the "SRT Pages". These pages have everything from which of your differentials is locked to a live dyno sheet as you run through the gears on the road or off it.
As you may know, this truck is filled with little quirks (hence earlier reference to the middle finger) like the T-Rex eating a Velociraptor (representing the Ford Raptor here) image under the engine cover. You sit high, looking down upon the flat-bottomed steering wheel and red gauges, not to mention everything else on the road around you. The owner of this TRX has his truck with the fifth wheel in the bed, and as he says, “Makes the bed of the truck completely useless.” but makes the rear of the truck look oh-so-cool.
As you walk around the truck away from the numerous air intakes and scoops on the front end, you encounter one of the most important design elements of the TRX, the Ram Bar. Yep, that’s what they call it. A giant bar spanning the length of the cabin of the truck that can be used to mount lights, but more importantly adds to the menacing looks of the truck.
Once you’ve stopped gawking at the tires, fenders, and Ram Bar, you can finally walk around to the back of the truck and take in the 5-inch exhaust that spits out the most brutal sound a truck could make from the factory. Enough talk, let’s hop in and take this beast out on the road!
As we pull out of the parking lot, Bob says to us, “All the cars at this meet have to slow down to make it over this speedbump up here, not us” and proceeds to floor it over a speedbump. That’s not something a lot of 700hp cars can do.
The seating position towers over other cars on the road, and you sit so far away from the driver and even further from the people in the back seats of the truck. To add to how wide the TRX is, Bob told us, “We actually were late today because it didn’t fit through the automatic car wash so we had to do it ourselves.” Let us remind you this is Bobs’ daily driver, ordered from the factory (obviously) to replace his previous 1500. We pull out into traffic and put the foot down. What does this feel like? You lean hard and the supercharger screams as you build up the revs followed by the snarl coming out of the exhaust pipes; the shifts are lightning-fast compared to most trucks, but not snap-your-neck aggressive.
Coming up to a light Bob slams on the brakes bringing us to a halt with an urgency that most performance cars can’t boast, this motion is then followed by the familiar smell of brake pads flooding into the cabin. At a stoplight, we suggested Bob test out launch control for the first time. Press the button to the right of the steering wheel labeled, “Launch Control” with a drag strip-style Christmas tree printed next to it. Brake and throttle applied, the light turns green and we lurch back in our seats. First gear, second, there’s 60mph, then one final push into third, this truck is unbelievably fast and unforgettably amazing.
So, here we have a powerful, comfortable muscle truck that can give bus lengths of separation to most sports cars and then drive to the dunes and embarrass Raptors left and right. But $93,000 for one? Is it really worth it? Before we come to a verdict, let's remember that Ford Super Duty’s and other high-torque diesel trucks sell for money like this, all your dollars are just going towards a different purpose. And if this is what you’re looking for, a perfect all-in-one monster, there is no doubt this is the truck for you.
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Some of the photographs used in this article were not taken by the SFCN Team. Partial image credit goes to @elliotjames_photography on Instagram
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