The turnaround for Stellantis’ American divisions is going to take some time, but they certainly seem to be acting quickly after the dubious strategies employed under the leadership of former CEO Carlos Tavares. Hot off the heels of Ram putting the 5.7-liter V8 back in its half-ton pickup trucks, it seems like another instance of eight-cylinder rumble is set to make a comeback. The 702-horsepower Ram 1500 TRX is reportedly returning to the land of the living, and I’m stoked.
Call it the worst-kept secret in trucks for the past few months, but the cat’s out of the bag now. As Mopar Insiders reports, on Stellantis’ mid-year 2025 financial call, CEO Antonio Filosa said, ““The V8 engine on versions, such as the Ram 1500 TRX, will delivers to us additional volumes but also accredited margins per unit.”
Sweet! In case you missed the Ram 1500 TRX the last time it came around, this top-dog truck was built to take on the Ford F-150 Raptor by deploying even more firepower. We’re talking about a 6.2-liter supercharged Hellcat V8 under the hood, making 702 horsepower and 650 lb.-ft. of torque, hitched to an eight-speed ZF automatic transmission and a full-time four-wheel-drive transfer case.
From there, Ram beefed up the, well, everything else. The TRX got 14.9-inch brake discs, 35-inch-tall tires, enormous fenders that swelled the body to 88 inches across, 35-inch all-terrain tires, a full-floating Dana 60 rear axle, stronger front arms, Bilstein Black Hawk e2 adaptive dampers with 2.6-inch pistons, 13 inches of suspension travel up front and 14 out back, and a brand new high-strength frame for moments of flight. The result was a 6,350-pound truck that could run from zero-to-60 mph in 3.7 seconds, leap like a gazelle, and gobble up whoops.
Yeah, it’s wasteful. Yeah, it’s arrogant. Yeah, it’s probably not the vehicle the world needs right now, but none of that matters because the TRX is capital ‘F’ Fun. It’s a real-life incarnation of America’s action hero archetypes, an endearing mother of violence worthy of the silver screen. As soon as you fire that V8 up, self-consciousness simply vanishes, replaced by childish giggles.
Beyond that, are we really going to let the Ford F-150 Raptor R be the only horse in the V8-powered, warranty-backed Baja Blaster race? Sure, the current situation around pollution control is sad, but even though the Ram 1500 TRX bowed out at the end of 2024 due to CAFE requirements, all that work is effectively on the shelf. With fleet emissions penalties being waived for the time being, why not blow off the dust and have a bit of fun? If the Ram 1500 TRX is indeed set on a swift return, I’d expect it to roll back into showrooms sometime within the next year. Looks like we’ll just have to keep an eye on the future, right?
Top graphic image: Ram
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As an automobile enthusiast, I should like the big, loud motor Dodge way and yet, I mostly find their offerings and especially the way they market them to be pretty cringe and off-putting.
This was clearly happening
“Childish giggles” pretty much sums it up. Big motor go vroom vroom. Same demographic as the decaying and dying Harley crowd.
Put the Challenger back into production with the 6-speed manual! My 2010 still has under 100k miles but the time I was in the market for a Hellcat, you couldn’t get it with a manual.
Cool, now make the hemi a durable engine, please.
Hell yeah! This is so awesome
Marriage is scary, what if they look at how much you spend on fuel?
In my view, I think bringing these Hemi V8s back is a great idea so long as they are priced high enough to account for the impact they will have on CAFE.
But they could also offset the impact of this by pricing the Ramcharger hybrid in a way where they sell enough to offset the impact of the Hemi sales.
Or a combo of these two things.
And an electric Ram pickup is apparently coming… which will also help.
Remember CAFE penalties are now $0.00. They should step up the game and use the 1025hp engine from the Demon 170.
That’s not gonna last in the long term and it’s only in the USA.
Stellantis needs to assume that short term freebie in one market is just a temporary blip against a much bigger overall global tide.
So yeah, sell the Hemis as long as people pay. But be prepared for that party to end at some point.
I’ve monologued in comment sections with this take and I’m here to do it again: this thing needs the 4xE hybrid system.
The new BMW M5 got the formula exactly right with having enough plug-in range to daily without using the V8. Lots of the reviews like it for that. It’s feasible as an “only car” that can be daily driven AND do performance car stuff.
Jeep’s 4xE system should be very parts-bin-able with this truck, and even if it only got 20 miles’ EV range, it’d be so much more livable. Big comfy daily driver that can also do mild jumps in the desert, now without the monstrous running costs!
I’m very much in the “why not both” camp when it comes to cool powertrains in vehicles. The Hellcat motor is badass. EV performance is badass too. A combo like this would be a really smart move for Stellantis, because it’d still appeal to their Badassador basket they’ve put all their marketing eggs in lately, but also would be a halo truck that’d demonstrate that batteries and a motor actually do add a ton of utility.
So, how long until we see the Ultimate Final Last Call Cilmax For Reals This Time Edition?
I give it 6-12 months.
Come on now, nothing a RAM owner has ever touched has climaxed
Nonsense, they’d “rather be Cummin than Strokin” after all.
Damn it you have me there
Believe the last sticker I saw was – “She prefers my slow Powerstoke to your fast Cummins”
Sorry
Please let them do the 800HP redeye version so the last call units squirreled away by speculators suddenly become less special and thus I can get one with just 700 HP for about half the price with little to no miles on it.
We should have different-eye’d versions… Along with the redeye, a blackeye (a less powerful version with the redeye look), a yelloweye (a pre-broken jaundiced version from the factory), a greeneye (high performance version of the hybrid that’s coming), and the blueeye (high performance version of the electric REV truck that’s coming).
When you don’t have new material, the Greatest Hits album can work for a bit.
Until it doesn’t.
That’s when you release the “rarities and B-sides collection”
Cool, I’m happy there are going to be more 3 ton behemoths that hit 60 in under 4 seconds, get single digit MPGs, emit excessive amounts of carbon, and are a nuisance to everyone around them on the road so insecure men can own the libs even louder!
I thought it was required to have a big diesel to roll coal to constitute the physical action of “owning the libs”?
I’m neither a diesel bro or a lib, so when I look at these sort of interactions as an independent observer I just sit there and think to myself how only one of the two parties really started this and I begin to wonder just how many brain cells are left in that sloped forehead. I mean I drive a beige sedan, what more do you want from me on this? 😛
I don’t even know what you’re on about but Mewtwo is a cool Pokémon and beige sedans are great so you’re good in my book
Also I’ve had a rough day today so I apologize to everyone if my dramatic anti truck posting has brought the vibe down. If you like this type of stuff that’s fine just please don’t tailgate me in it for having the audacity to only be doing 15 over…
“The result was a 6,350-pound truck that could run from zero-to-60 mph in 3.7 seconds, leap like a gazelle, and gobble up whoops.”
And guzzle gas like it owned a refinery:
“According to FCA, TRX owners can expect 10 miles to the gallon during I’m driving, 14 mpg on the highway, and just 12 mpg combined, according to Ram.”
https://www.motortrend.com/news/2021-ram-1500-trx-fuel-economy-mpgs-details
In practice these get single digits
Better get TWO refineries then
This is just such a stupid and embarrassing vehicle
Ram knows their demographic well.
nobody that can afford one of these toys really cares about this. Shelby GT500 was getting I think 14 at best in a Mustang envelope. Lambo Aventador 10MPG. those are smallish aerodynamically slippery little things that should get far better Fuel economy when loping around, but they don’t. And nobody cares, except those that in reality can never attain them.
I could attain one of these if I really wanted to, but you couldn’t pay me to drive one.
Yeah, yeah sour grapes!
That’s GOTTA be it!
If you can *actually* afford a new car, you can afford the gas for it, unless you rack up truly heroic miles.
I manage 22-24 mpg on the freeways in my 2010 Challenger R/T 6-speed, depending how fast I’m going. City miles aren’t as bad as you’d think since you can cruise at 1500 rpm or less when you are moving.
So normal hemi engine mpg?
Nah.
Normal hemi engine MPG isn’t much different from N/A V8s from GM, Ford or Nissan:
https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=46566&id=46174&id=45793&id=45740
THIS hemi engine ties the Ford Raptor in giving a premium octane IDGAF middle finger to the environment:
https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbsSelect&id=46185&id=46229
The 5.7 isn’t half bad for a V8. People get high 20s with them on the highway, although I assume in city traffic you’ll be lucky to break double digits. I had a rental Camaro SS for over a week a while back and it averaged like 12. If you really baby modern V8s they can return *okay* mileage but the second you return to monke a quarter of a tank will be gone in the blink of an eye.
As Toecutter has pointed out a few times a mildly tuned C5 corvette driven with a light right foot can return 40 MPG highway yet still put out all the power when asked to do so:
https://www.motor1.com/news/386945/tuned-chevy-corvette-40-mpg/
Dunno how the NOX works out though.
My Hemi powered Jeep Commander struggles to get 12 MPG in the most favorable conditions. It drops to 8 pretty regularly.
Thats actually excellent economy. For the type of performance and capability you are getting. We are not that far removed from the days of v10 Ford super duties that did 8mpg unloaded.
As a few people have noted those numbers are somewhat optimistic.
While I’m not impressed it’s coming back, I do wonder how they’ll do it?
Slap it in like the eTorque 5.7 (Update the electrical architecture to work with the ’25 update)?
Give it the 2019+ Hellcat “bump” (Give it an extra 10 horsepower by increasing the redline from 6,000 to 6,100 rpm)?
Or, will they just say “oh screw it”, and give it the Demon motor?
I’m still seeing these in increasing numbers, so I had no idea they had axed it. It’s still far shy of the Raptor in anecdotal numbers in my area, but catching up quickly.
And IMO it’s much more low-key than the Raptor ever was. It almost looks like a normal RAM from 100 yards away, so of like a WRX vs an Impreza.
Sure you aren’t seeing the RHO?
Good call, but since most of this would have been at least a year ago, those would still be TRX. The newer ones could definitely have been RHO, which I just learned about. Right now.
At this point, I’m guessing the Ramcharger is effectively cancelled, and the full EV Ram is probably not gonna happen either (if it ever was). All engineering efforts seem to be aimed at re-installing V8s. Not all-around bad, but, short-sighted (as can be expected with Stellantis).
I don’t know where it came from, but someone Timmy boy was about the Ramcharger and REV, and he said they are still working on it, but they pushed them back to get the Hemi’s out now.
Apparently, there’s also some programing issues (unsurprising), and they’d rather “get it right” when they come out.
I feel like it’s going to be a repeat of the GM 4.5 liter V8 diesel from 2008. ‘Working on it.’ ‘Working on it.’ ‘Working on it.’ Oops, it’s cancelled. I hope I’m wrong, but, financially, for this quarter (which is the only quarter that matters to US Corporations), the V8 is more important. And then, when that’s done, revising the V8 will be more important. With the utter and complete lack of any government incentives or push, I just don’t see them making it happen. I hope I’m wrong, but, Stellantis doesn’t have a lot of options here, and every hour spent getting the Ramcharger ready is an hour that wasn’t spent preparing something with a much higher likely return.
I mean, GM might do it sometimes, but CDJR has been the front runner on that for a while now.
Ugh, I hope the Ramcharger isn’t dead. That’s exactly the kind of truck I’d like to get in the future if I don’t downsize.
GM is supposedly pretty far along in developing a ‘PHEV’ Silverado for 2027. Really hoping it skews more EREV than PHEV, but, that remains to be seen. Lots of unknowns – Silverado or Silverado EV platform being the biggest one. And, why Ford hasn’t put an engine in the frunk of the Lightning is just beyond me. It’s already built on an F-150 platform, surely they could engineer the N/A 3.0 V6 back in there in a few months time.
I might be interested in a GM PHEV truck. I’d definitely be interested in a EREV though.
Definitely. My ideal would be the EV platform with about 80kWh of battery and the 2.7 (without its turbo) as a range extender. For the real world, I honestly would not be surprised to see them use the 5.3 as the range extender – especially in a generator application, I doubt the V8 has much of a downside over the turbo 4, and the marketing ramifications would be huge for the target demographic. But, we’ll see. I kinda don’t expect GM to go through the hassle of making a PHEV off of the standard truck, when they don’t really have anything to pull off of, but, it is GM. They love doing things the hard way.
I’m just interested in a small or medium sized truck with usable back seats
That’s been my main reason for not going with a mid-size. The seats always seem to be practically useless.
I would think a group of interns could stuff the 2.3L I4 Ecoboost in the frunk with a generator without much fuss. That should be more than adequate.
Cue the “but they said this was a limited addition when I bought mine” lawsuits.
Already happened:
https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a63921493/dodge-durango-hellcat-owners-class-action-lawsuit/
Happened with the Demon as well as the Durango.
Happened with Tesla for pre-autopilot Model S, hell it even happened back in the 70s when Cadillac said they were going to stop making convertibles.
The tesla example is weird because it’s an issue of a model update versus a “limited addition”. It’s actually not so different from the Cadillac comparison in that they thought they would have to stop because of regulations but the EPA is about to go away so now they can put big engines back in everything.
I thought you were making a joke. IMO anyone who buys something for its rarity had better have something ironclad in hand. Don’t fall for marketing, especially the kind with multi-billion dollar companies behind it, plus the need to amortize tooling and R&D over as many models as possible.
Is there an “everyone is wrong” option?
These aren’t homologation special Ferraris, so yeah, they aren’t going to be rare and trying to buy them as an investment is a bad idea.
But also Dodge saying shit is going to be a limited run and then building more is shitty. Ignoring long term values – people were paying big markups for some of these “limited edition” cars. If I paid a cent over sticker I’d be joining the lawsuits.
“We’re gonna limit this to how ever many we can sell”