Workday Hero/Weekend Warrior: 1500 TRX Drag Races ZR1, GT-R, Drops Quarter-Mile High Nines

This appears to be a Florida secret to nine-second quarter-mile runs – drive three hours to the speedway, line up your devoted, trusted, money-earning TRX, and floor it. Oh, yes, that small detail I forgot to mention earlier – have a wild HEMI monster, to begin with. It helps (a lot!) with winning or at least coming within tenths of seconds of your counterparts.

The 440-yard enthusiasts from Drag Racing and Car Stuff YouTube channel caught the culprit 1500 TRX in the act at the Orlando Speedworld Dragway in Orlando (go figure…), Florida. The black monster flexed its supercharged 6.2-liter V8 against some proven fast-footed sprinters and did not disappoint.

Given the minor detail of its sheer bulk, the TRX is pretty quick for a 6,334 lbs. automobile (2.9 tons), with low tens coming as a "bad day" score. As a matter of fact, with the official RAM Trucks claim of 4.5 seconds on the naught-to-sixty run, the TRX is "pretty quick" by any standards.

The owner and driver – who goes by the tarmac name of @305trx – is not afraid to pick up gauntlets laid down by battle-hardened names, like Corvette, GT-R, Charger, or Mustang. Sure, the piston-addicted athletes have half as many doors as the truck. Still, the 702 hp (712 PS) and 650 lb-ft (881 Nm) are severe arguments in favor of the all-terrain king with trigger-happy habits.

That's why a seemingly one-way drag race can turn into an "it ain't over till the fa(s)t lady sings" type of affair. The first video shows four short races, during which the TRX keeps improving. Against the C7 ZR1 Corvette – a monstrously fast car – the truck comes within 0.04 seconds of a tie.

The same microscopic gap separates the beefy off-roader from another speed-injected missile – a Nissan GT-R. If it weren't for that less-than-ideal gear shift into second, probably the RAM would have gotten the better of the 1320-foot run.

However, the 1500 TRX wasn't built to quit, back away, or go around challenges. Quite the contrary, albeit the quarter-mile performance might not have been among the top five attributes of the truck on the approving committee list. Nonetheless, the Baja-forged rocket is not afraid to stretch its legs.

And the Dodge cousin quickly learns that it's not always a good idea to judge a book by its covers or a truck by its tires. The 392 HEMI powers the TRX and the challenging Charger, but there's more to this short story - about half a second in favor of the wrestling-shaped RAM, which takes the win with 10.57 seconds and a trap speed of 127.57 mph (205.28 kph).

No serious drag racing event is ever complete unless a Mustang rears on the strip at some point. And so it is, with the TRX pitted against the American legend. Ever the considerate athlete, the truck has an truck trick up its sleeve – aerodynamics.

I know I said something else at the beginning, and frankly, there isn't a whole lot that can be done to flatten the monster's profile. Actually, the only thing that can be done is to drop the tailgate – less air resistance, hence more speed. Add a drizzle of nitrous oxide, and that's about it – 9.82 seconds, 137.06 mph (219 kph), job done, race won.

Maybe that last bit could be considered a below-the-belt punch by purists, but the TRX doesn't care about limits. It was, after all, built to step over them, not to be confined within. That's why it takes another swing at the quarter mile dash - see it in the second video - and gets a Personal Best reward of 9.7 seconds and 140.55 mph (226 kph).

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