A new limited-production pickup truck is strutting its stuff out of the Mopar Custom Shop at Fiat Chrysl—we mean, Stellantis. It’s called the Mopar 2021 Ram 1500 Special Edition, and it’s best you dash any hopes that slapping the Mopar name on Ram’s Hemi-powered 1500 might result in a muscle street truck with beefed-up performance, an athletic stance, and a demeanor akin to the V-10 Viper truck of years past.
Even though Ram has recently been enamored with the production of performance trucks (think TRX, or to a lesser extent, the 2500 Power Wagon), this Mopar Special Edition is a bit less involved. The Mopar touch amounts to a performance appearance package and includes zero modifications for the 5.7-liter Hemi V-8 under the Ram’s hood. Alas, the unmolested Hemi still pushes out 395 hp and 410 lb-ft of torque, so it has the potential for muscular Mopar performance of truck generations past.
So, no, the Mopar 2021 Ram 1500 Special Edition isn’t performance-oriented, but it is exclusive. Only 250 of these trucks will be made—210 for the United States and 40 for Canada. Ram celebrates this exclusivity with a Mopar ’21 owner’s kit that includes a custom-made, personalized metal certificate of authenticity capped by a serialized build number and a nifty rendering by the Mopar Design team. It all adds up to a touch of nostalgia, perhaps.
The special edition Mopar Ram will be built off the 2021 Ram 1500 Big Horn/Lone Star trim Crew Cab 4×4 configuration. These Rams already offer some cool exterior elements out of the gate (ones that aren’t unique to the special edition), including black-painted 20-inch wheels, side mirrors, and grille badges, as well as body-color bumpers, door handles, and fender flares. The Special Edition package builds upon this with some general add-ons: Mopar accessory running boards, a spray-in bedliner, tow hooks, adjustable tie downs, dual-trailer camera prep, a body-color tonneau cover, and all-weather floor mats.
Package-exclusive content—the stuff that really makes the Mopar Special Edition unique—really comes down to five main elements. Most obvious are the black exterior decals that travel along both doors before darting up the bed in front of the taillight and over the tonneau cover. The graphics almost form the illusion of a rear spoiler. Less obvious are the gloss-black grille surround and black exhaust tips. Inside, cloth seats stitched in Light Diesel Gray have embroidered Mopar logos in the seatbacks. Lastly, a serialized instrument-panel badge identifies its build-sequence number.
Four paint colors will be available: Billet Silver, Bright White, Flame Red, and Hydro Blue. The patriotic palette corresponds beautifully to the Mopar ’21 pickup’s summertime arrival in select dealerships. The package will retail for $8,500 on top of the price of a qualifying Ram 1500 Big Horn or Long Horn.
