2021 Ram 1500 TRX review: Glorious overkill

Again when the Dodge Hellcat lineup was very first unveiled, I joked that it was only a issue of time prior to that hulking supercharged V8 created its way into just about every motor vehicle its mother or father business builds. Even though my hopes of a Chrysler 200 Hellcat have been sorely dashed, that whining lump did at some point find a weird bedfellow in the Ram 1500 pickup. The consequence is the 2021 Ram 1500 TRX, and while it defies frequent perception, I’ve been acquiring way much too a great deal pleasurable to detect.

Fashionable pickup trucks presently glimpse like they are chiseled from sound blocks of testosterone, nonetheless someway the TRX manages to amplify that even even further. The Ram is just about 2 inches broader, about 2.five inches taller and has .3 inches a lot more ground clearance than the Blue Oval’s Baja big-boy, the F-one hundred fifty Raptor. In my quaint, peaceful community, the TRX looms significant on my driveway — nicely, generally on my driveway, because it is so vast that the passenger-aspect tires bleed more than onto my neighbor’s garden. Not that my neighbor would dare say anything, due to the fact the body fat fenders and copious black accents make the truck glimpse like it is ready to conquer you up just for searching at it the completely wrong way.

When it arrives to functionality, the Raptor and TRX are really evenly matched, but the Ram squeaks in advance by slender margins. The TRX can tow eight,one hundred kilos, a hundo a lot more than the Raptor can muster, and it will haul one,310 kilos in the bed, one hundred ten a lot more than the Ford. Ram’s also acquired the advantage in breakover and departure angles (21.9 and 23.five levels, respectively) albeit by a couple of tenths of a degree, while tactic angle is similarly matched at 30.2 levels. Both of those trucks also boast a foot or a lot more of suspension journey front and rear, which matters less on the road than it does in the grime.

Even although I know this truck is a good deal able, as our very own Antuan Goodwin proved by basically leaping the thing, odds are many of them will in no way see that type of intense off-road action. But it is not like the TRX doesn’t glow as a garage queen, either. In point, it is 1 of the dumbest and most grin-inducing experiences I’ve experienced in months, and it left me seeking a lot more just about every time.

Underneath the hood is the exact six.2-liter supercharged Hemi V8 as just about every other Hellcat-centered merchandise out there, and in this occasion, it is tuned to deliver 702 horsepower and 650 pound-toes of torque. When I jam my ideal foot into the firewall, the standard four-wheel-push technique pushes me forward with shocking haste — a 4.five-next jaunt to sixty mph just isn’t quick in the grand scheme of issues, but when it is in a crew cab pickup that weighs just about six,400 kilos, it damn close to feels like I am rewriting mechanical physics. Blend that just about unnatural experience of velocity with the loud supercharger whine and the basso profundo roar coming from the exhaust pipes out back again, and it will make for really the engaging sensory working experience. The only way you can overlook a hole in targeted visitors is by overshooting it. The V8 can drone a bit at highway speeds, but people in it for the seem and the fury most likely will not care.

The experience excellent is… truck-ish. With up to fourteen inches of suspension journey and meaty 325/65R18 Goodyear Wrangler all-terrain tires, issues are on the softer aspect, with the standard entire body-on-body actions that are section and parcel with all pickups. But the TRX is considerably from a discombobulated mess, many thanks to Bilstein adaptive dampers on every single corner. In its standard Car environment, the truck is really nicely balanced, and throwing it into Activity adds some stiffness while boosting throttle response. Modes for snow, towing, rocks, mud and sand and Baja-model dune-blasting are all standard, much too. Braking is astonishingly very good, given the thing’s heft, but it is hard not to be keenly conscious of the momentum I am carrying at all times.

Just make absolutely sure you’re very good at being in your lane, due to the fact the TRX is roughly the measurement of the lane, so there is certainly not a whole lot of room for deviation.

The only thing that really sucks about the TRX is its fuel financial system, which, as you may possibly expect, is pathetic. The EPA could not do much better than ten miles for every gallon metropolis and fourteen mpg highway — and even accomplishing those people numbers demands a lightness of foot that flies in the face of the Hemi mantra. After a pair hundred miles of urban and highway driving, I hardly break into double digits. Yikes.

The newest iteration of Ram 1500 offers 1 of the ideal and most magnificent interiors in the gentle-responsibility pickup phase, particularly in comparison to the Raptor, which still works by using Ford’s past-era entire body. My TRX tester is thoroughly kitted out, many thanks to a $7,920 products deal that incorporates ventilated leather-based front seats, leather-based dashboard and doorway-panel trim, adjustable pedals, a heated steering wheel, the total nine yards. 

Whether it is for people or for stuff, there is a ton of room in listed here. The rear seats are exceptionally spacious, which helps for hauling issues that you never want in the bed, while doorway and armrest pockets swallow up every little thing from purses to tablets and regardless of what other tchotchkes I provide together. The 12-volt outlet atop the dashboard is a pleasant minor touch for admirers of radar detectors, and there are 10 USB ports (5 USB-A, 5 USB-C) scattered about the interior, in addition to a wi-fi product charger just underneath the infotainment display.

Ram’s mother or father business continues to enhance its presently-fantastic cabin tech, and the Ram TRX gives some of the most recent, flashiest kit on offer. Normal products incorporates a honkin’ 12-inch portrait infotainment show managing the automaker’s Uconnect technique, which offers Android Car, Apple CarPlay and Performance Pages, which permit me to choose and opt for settings for diverse components of the motor vehicle, in addition to checking issues like wheel articulation and steering angle. I like that the display can demonstrate several corners of the technique at once, whether it is audio, navigation or Sirius-centered weather conditions maps. The controls are significant and legible, producing for simple use with negligible distraction. A significant show in the gauge cluster is able of exhibiting just about every little thing the major display can, with lifeless-straightforward steering wheel controls to cycle by means of tire pressures, transmission temperatures and a variety of other data, all wrapped in this rugged-searching style and design that retains the beefy TRX theme alive.

Some more challenging-main motor vehicles eschew the standard panoply of energetic and passive safety units, but most of the very good stuff is readily available in the TRX. In addition to standard forward-collision warning, my tester has a $995 deal that adds crisis braking with pedestrian and bicycle owner detection, adaptive cruise regulate with stop-and-go capabilities and lane-retaining support. The $7,920 products deal also throws parking sensors into the combine, due to the fact attempting to in shape this thing into a standard parking room requires a minor a lot more energy than standard.

Stellantis’ superior-horsepower choices are not inexpensive, and the 2021 Ram TRX is no exception. Its beginning cost of $71,690 (together with $one,695 for desired destination) leapfrogs the Challenger and Charger Hellcat twins, and with a significant dose of options, my tester rings in at an eye-watering $87,370. You could purchase a serious sporting activities automobile for that a great deal.

But there is certainly absolutely nothing really like the Ram TRX. The Hellcat’s six.2-liter V8 has constantly been a thing specific but throwing it into a pickup truck effects in a motor vehicle that exceeds the sum of its components, offering equivalent doses of superior performance and hilarity. It truly is a hoot.