Ram’s off-road prowess has merged with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ street racing chops.
The result is the 2021 Ram 1500 TRX, a 702-hp pickup that’ll zip from 0 to 60 mph in 4.5 seconds, a new standard for truck performance. The bulky powerhouse is loaded with a premium interior and technology. It comes with the supercharged, 6.2-liter Hemi V-8 that powers Dodge’s Hellcat line.
After Ford took a shot at Jeep with the Bronco in July, Ram responded by leapfrogging the high-performance F-150 Raptor last week. The TRX, which tops out at 118 mph, is slated to go into production early in the fourth quarter and is expected to arrive in dealerships by the end of the year.
The TRX — a play on “T. rex” — will mark the arrival of the newest predator in the pickup world. Ram’s North America head, Mike Koval Jr., said the battle will hark back to the prehistoric era by declaring that the TRX “destroys” Raptors.
Now it appears the truck sector won’t have to wait long to see Ford bite back with the F-150 Raptor, a bruising pickup in its own right that achieves 450 hp in its current form. Ford’s pickup was spotted recently during testing with the supercharged 5.2-liter V-8 engine that powers the Mustang Shelby GT500. It reportedly gets 725 to 750 hp, according to spy photography company Spiedbilde.
A Ford source told Spiedbilde: “Honestly, we had to counter Ram once we knew they installed the Hellcat in the TRX.”
Analyst Karl Brauer wasn’t surprised to see that Ford already has a response in the cards.
“You can’t keep a secret in this industry, and I think there’s been rumors for a while that Ram was going to unleash something along the lines of a Raptor,” Brauer told Automotive News. “I think Ford, wisely, started prepping for such a contingency with their own Raptor efforts and studying the options to crank things up a bit in the Raptor if and when necessary.”
