In a segment that Ford has dominated for years with The F-150 Raptor, RAM has decided to throw its hat into the ring with the TRX – a monstrous creation that blows the doors off just about any another pickup in the market.
The TRX is the most powerful pickup ever made. It’s a 700+ supercharged racing truck that MOPAR threw everything into. No expense was spared in creating this performance machine.
Under the hood we have a Hellcat-sourced 6.2-litre V8 with a the afore-mentioned supercharger that emits the familiar whine that any gear head will recognize. It makes 705 horses and a whopping 650 lb-ft of torque under 11psi of boost. The location of the intake, alternator and a few other parts have been altered for better off-road performance. The package can propel the TRX to a stunning quarter mile time in around 13 seconds flat which is good for most sports cars.
The RAM TRX is 15 cm wider than the already-wide standard model and with the added body flairs it reaches 20 cm wider. The massive tires are 35 inches tall, 325 inches wide on 18-inch wheels. The spare is mounted in the truck bed (a fact I found rather inconvenient because I needed to transport some items).
The driving experience is none other than exhilarating. Hit the gas and the whine of that supercharger drowns out just about every else. The TRX propels you into your seat and keeps you pushed back in the chair until you’ve either run out of pavement or room to accelerate.
The launch control button is conveniently located on the dash and has a drag strip Christmas tree on it. Thank you RAM for doing this correctly as that’s how every launch control button should look like.
Where the truck excels is in off-road conditions thanks to a crazy suspension setup. Coupled with the wider track, the front suspension arms have 40% more travel with links made from forged aluminum. The adaptive shocks have remote reservoirs and there are even jump sensors on each wheel so that if the truck leaves the ground, the shocks are pre-emptively stiffened for impact.
In daily driving duty, the TRX is certainly bumpier and rougher than a standard RAM. The sheer girth of it makes for a difficult driving experience in urban and downtown settings. Forget parking it at Walmart or Costco and just accept that you’ll have to walk a long distance to whatever store you’re at.
Forget fuel economy while you’re behind the wheel of the TRX too. I averaged over 21 litres per 100 km but honestly, I’ll just say what everyone is already thinking: nobody cares. Nobody is buying this vehicle to save fuel.
The RAM equally impresses on the inside with one of the most attractive cabins available. The large and spacious cockpit with its beautiful dashboard design is a sight to behold. The carbon fiber trim of the TRX goes quite nicely here. I was never a fan of electronic gear selectors like on other RAM 1500s and the TRX has a physical gear selector which is nice. Across all trim levels, the Ram 1500 features push-button start and an electronic parking brake as well.
The highlight is the massive vertical 12-inch reconfigurable touchscreen on the higher end models. It’s fully configurable and has a split-screen function while using Uconnect4. The one you see pictured here is the 8.4-inch and there is also a 5-inch with the older Uconnect3 interface. Uconnect is a very easy-to-use and intuitive system that’s among the best on the market.
The starting price of a RAM TRX is just north of $100,000 at $101,095. With all the options, my tester came in around $120,000. That’s a heck of a lot of money to pay for a toy that is designed to be operating in the Baja desert miles away from anything resembling civilization. That being said, I don’t think RAM will have any trouble selling them as there is a huge market for these type of performance machines – especially in Canada where snow mountains are the sand dune equivalent.
