The most powerful truck offered by the folks at Hennessey is dubbed Mammoth 1200, with the 1200 being the advertised power figure in mechanical ponies. The question is, can this Hellcat-engined supertruck hold its own against a proper supercar in the quarter mile?
Hennessey Performance Engineering's vice prez of marketing and Shmee150 are much obliged to answer that question with three digs, of which the vlogger's Ford GT wins one by a whisker. From a rolling start, however, the body-on-frame leviathan gets schooled by the much lighter GT.
Unfortunately, neither Alec Wyman nor Tim Burton have used performance meters in said races. On the other hand, we do know that a second-generation Ford GT weighs 3,054 pounds (1,385 kilograms) while Ram's most powerful internal combustion pickup tips the scales at more than double that. Ram's curb weight estimate is 6,443 pounds or 2,922 kilograms.
These vehicles couldn't be more different under the skin. As opposed to a supercharger on top of a hulking V8, the Ford uses a sixer with a couple of turbos for extra oomph. Although related to the 3.5-liter EcoBoost in the F-150, said engine develops way more power and torque. It also happens to be connected to a quick-shifting DCT from Getrag rather than a torque-converter automatic.
The carbon-fiber monocoque makes it way more expensive than the Ram 1500 TRX with Hennessey's Mammoth 1200 upgrade package. For the 2017 model year, the retail price of the GT was $453,750 before optional extras. A tremendous amount of cash, for sure, and it's even pricier used because of many reasons. For example, Multimatic finished the final example in March 2023.
Photo: Hennessey on YouTube
Multimatic is also tasked with producing the Mustang GTD, of which approximately 1,000 units will be produced at $325,000 from the outset, making the Mustang GTD the most expensive road-going 'Stang ever developed by the second-largest automaker of the Detroit Big Three. By comparison, second-gen GT production totaled 1,350 units through March of last year.
While it's not clear how many TRXs were sold in the United States in 2023, we do know that its farewell special edition is capped at 4,000 examples of the breed. Prior to Ford's 2024 model year update for the F-150 Raptor R, the TRX was king of the hill thanks to its 702-horsepower supercharged V8.
The Raptor R started out with 700 ponies on deck, then leveled up to 720 horsepower at the crank. Torque stays put for model year 2024, meaning that Ram's iconic TRX still has the upper hand in this regard (650 lb-ft/881 Nm vs 640 lb-ft/868 Nm). The Ram's indirect successor is called RHO, and in stark contrast to its forerunner, the newcomer flaunts a twin-turbocharged I6 that puts out 540 ponies.
At press time, it's not clear if the half-ton Ram truck will ever get another V8 going forward. Given the aforementioned, both Ford Motor Company and General Motors are primed to steal customers that would have otherwise considered the Ram 1500.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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