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Cheap Ram TRX Vs Expensive Ram TRX Drag Race Makes Strong Case for One of Them

Who knew sticking a supercharged V8 engine under the hood of a truck would get everyone talking about it for months? Well, probably everyone, so the real question is what took Ram so long and why hasn't Ford done it already?
Cheap Ram TRX Vs Expensive Ram TRX drag race 8 photos
Photo: YouTube screenshot
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No point in dwelling on that now that we have the wonderful Ram 1500 TRX among us, the Hellcat-powered truck nobody really needs but everyone is happy it exists. Apparently, it's one of the easiest recipes: take the 6.2-liter V8 out of a Dodge Charger or Challenger Hellcat and paste it into the engine bay of a Ram 1500. Non-existent problem solved.

Obviously, it's not nearly as simple as that, and the fact we often refer to the Ram TRX as the "Hellcat-powered truck" is actually bringing a disservice to the whole development process of the model. The engineers did a lot more to make sure the T-Rex can take tons of punishment without even batting an eye, which means there's a lot more to take into consideration about the TRX than just the admittedly brilliant engine.

That's what makes it so cool, but also so expensive. Paying close to $100,000 for one isn't exactly the exception, with the potential to even go over that milestone being there. At the other end of the spectrum is the completely bald TRX: the truck, the engine, the transmission, and no extras. But who in their right mind would do that?

Shane, that's who. Who is Shane? Well, that's not really important here, so let's just say he stands in for anyone who's done or thinking of doing what he did, which is to buy the least expensive TRX possible. In Shane's case, that meant he had to fork out just a little over $72,000 - still a ton of cash, but a lot more digestible than $100,000, we're sure you'll agree.

The question now is whether the nearly $30,000 gap brings any difference in terms of performance. It shouldn't, considering the powertrain remains unchanged, but you can never know how carmakers make can bend the laws of physics to make you spend more on their products.

Luckily, the guys at TFL own one of those "expensive" TRXs and, as it happens, they also know Shane, so they organized a little get-together on a track to settle the dispute. On the face of it, the less expensive TRX (the white one in the video), if anything, should actually edge ahead due to a difference of about 70 lbs (32 kg), but is that kind of weight really going to matter for a 6,350 lbs (nearly 2.9 tons) truck that develops 702 hp and 650 lb-ft (881 Nm) of torque? The answer is in the video below.

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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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