Ram's 1500 TRX is a Hellcat-engined 700bhp truck (2024)

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Crack open the popcorn folks, this is the 692bhp Hellcat-engined 1500 TRX – the first major competitor that the Ford Raptor has had to deal with in the history of ever. And it’s got what all those Raptor naysayers want: a big ‘ol thirsty V8 with a supercharger whacked on top – not some sissy twin-turbo V6. Their words, not ours.

This absolute anvil of power (and biggest flex at Jewsons possible) follows on from the news that every single model in Dodge’s range can have a Hellcat-powered, 700+ horsepower SRT version. ButFCA’s truck brand wanted in on the looney asylum, so hasfollowed suit, by dropping the familiar 692bhp (702 American horsepower) and 650 lb ft supercharged 6.2-litre V8 in a crew-cab pick-up.

That’s not all though, as there are some rather comprehensive upgrades. And you should hope so too – given that it starts at $71,690, nearly $14k more than a crew-cab Raptor. Fully loaded, you can expect the TRX to be nudging $90,000. Yowch. So what do you get? Well, it may not look like it, but it is actually a RAM 1500 underneath. It’s justgrown a bit. Quite a bit. The arches are a whopping eight inches wider than standard, to hold a track width increase of six inches. But to be able to not bend like a banana at Full Send, the frame and suspension have been beefed up –just like a Raptor's.

Underneath there’s new suspension, with an independent front axle andnew forged aluminium control arms up front.Out back, there’s the standard Dana 60 solid axle but with a new five-link setup whileBilstein has developed chunky 2.5-inch remote-reservoir dampers all roundfor when you pound the sand. Andmake no mistake about it, the TRX has been designed to run hard and bait out that blue oval.

That’s why Ram engineers have fitted that monster 6.2-litre engine with a new airbox (mounted above the engine so it’s not rattled to death) fed by the grille and the hood scoop, so the motor can breathe through massive filters so it gets a clean supply even during high-speed desert running. There’s also a new oil pan and a new alternator, mounted higher up to increase wading depth to 32 inches. Or navel height for most people, if you need some dubious scale. Rameven went to the extent of moving the front axle forward to give the TRX 13-inches of suspension travel front and rear, plus a ground clearance of 11.8-inches, a near three inch growth spurt.

Flattering the Raptor, there’s also a “Baja” mode. This doesn’t mean a lot to us You-row-pee-ans, but it basically means that with one press of a button the truck is set up to smash across a slither of Mexico thanks to a special desert calibration for the four-wheel drive system, stability control, engine and transmission maps. We’re sure it’d work in Bedfordshire too. If the mahoosive truck could fit down the lanes, that is. But because ‘Murica',Ramhas also developed the truck to run on tarmac. Well, sticky drag strip bitumen.

Weirdly, Ramis very proud of having produced a pick-up truck that can not only beat up the Atacama, tow 3,600kg (8100lbs) and swallow 600kg of whatever in its bed, it can also tear up the drag strip. Equipped with a dedicated launch control button secreted in the dash, onceactivated, Ram claims the TRX will hit 60 mph in 4.5 seconds, 100 mph in 10.5, and it'll run the quarter-mile in 12.9 seconds with a 108-mph trap speed. It'll run out of puff shortly afterwards, with the top speed being118 mph. But only because all those numbers have been run on knobby 35-inch Goodyear Wrangler Territory All-Terrain rubber. Which is crazy.

Inside, a TRX is very similar to all the other Ramtrucks. Which is no bad thing, as they're the most car-y trucks on sale. There’s a Tesla-esque 12.0-inch portrait centre touchscreen, plush seats and paddles to play around with the ZF eight-speed automatic ‘box it comes with.

So, if you’ve been waiting out for a TRX since the concept in 2016, your dream has come true. Mainly because they’ve given you a couple of hundred more horsepower on top of that. But would you have one of these over a Ford Raptor? Let us know in the comments below.