Two months ago, Ram revealed the Rumble Bee, a lineup of shortened, widened half-ton street trucks with attitude. The SRT variant promises to be the fastest production pickup truck ever, while the base model seemed surprisingly base. The Rumble Bee seemed to cover a wide spread, and now that pricing’s been released, we know just how wide.
At the same time, it’s worth noting that Ram isn’t the only outfit in town offering some sort of street truck lineup. While GM effectively seems to be sitting this one out for now, Ford has a rag-tag bunch of factory-order and parts-counter options that pique a certain level of interest. So let’s see where things fall on paper for Stellantis’ hive of street trucks.
Starting with the $62,790 base Rumble Bee, this 5.7-liter V8-powered model’s closest competitor is the Ford F-150 Lobo. This rival from Dearborn features a full crew cab instead of a quad cab, Ford’s five-liter Coyote V8 hitched to a 10-speed automatic and four-wheel drive, a body kit, 22-inch wheels, and not much else. Mind you, said F-150 does match the 5.7-liter Rumble Bee’s torque output, pip it by five horsepower, weigh more than 300 pounds less than the Ram, and at least for its 2026 model year, come in $2,235 cheaper than the base Rumble Bee. Heavy stuff on paper, but there’s more to this matchup than that.
See, when it comes to extra performance bits, the F-150 Lobo features a two-inch drop for its rear suspension, 22-inch wheels wrapped in hard-wearing 700-treadwear Bridgestone Alenza tires, and that’s about it. Meanwhile, the base Rumble Bee gets substantial suspension and chassis revisions over a standard Ram 1500. We’re talking a 6.8-inch wider track done the right way, larger anti-roll bars and uniquely tuned Bilstein dampers, all bolted to a stiffer-than-standard frame. Add in paddle shifters which seem far more intuitive than the manumatic switches on the F-150’s column shifter, and the 5.7-liter Ram Rumble Bee does seem to justify its premium over the F-150 Lobo on hardware alone. Of course, I’ll need to actually drive one to be sure, but things are looking promising.
If you want more power, the jump to a Rumble Bee 392 is big. We’re talking an extra $10,000 for an additional 75 horsepower and 45 lb.-ft. of torque over the 5.7-liter model. Granted, Ram does claim this $72,790 mid-range model drops the zero-to-60 mph time from 6.1 seconds to 5.2 seconds, but that’s a huge amount of money for not an enormous boost in horsepower. Mind you, the bigger engine does come with extra stuff. What sort of stuff? For one, yellow-stitched upholstery on the steering wheel, door cards, and console. The driver’s seat is 10-way power adjustable, the infotainment screen measures 12 inches rather than 8.4 inches, and the sound system’s an Alpine unit.
If you want the 6.4-liter V8 with more handling bits, be prepared to fork out an additional—you guessed it—$10,000. The Rumble Bee 392 with the Track Package stickers for $82,790 including freight, and that’s some big money. Granted, it does get you wider wheels and tires, a body kit with a deep air dam and tall rear spoiler, air suspension with semi-active dampers, larger brakes with six-piston front calipers, a launch control button, and a track drive mode, but $82,790 is a lot when Ford has something very different on its secret menu.
The F-150 FP700S isn’t a truck you’ll find on a normal configurator. It features none of the heavy chassis tweaks of the Ram 1500 Rumble Bee 392, nor does it feature a larger V8 than the five-liter unit that comes on the F-150 Lobo. However, it augments that V8 with a three-liter Whipple supercharger to produce 700 horsepower and 590 lb.-ft. of torque. All with a Ford-backed powertrain warranty. Beyond the blower, it throws in 22-inch wheels, lowered suspension, and a bunch of cosmetic bits. The price? Take your five-liter F-150 of choice, spend $17,995 at your local Ford parts counter for the package, then add whatever installation costs.
Depending on which trim you choose, your supercharged Ford street truck could cost thousands less than a Ram Rumble Bee 392 with the Track Package, and while it doesn’t have virtually all of the Ram’s handling goodies, 700 horsepower is hard to argue with if you’re a flatlander. You can even just order the 50-state-legal supercharger kit on its own for $10,250 plus installation, and it fits on any five-liter F-150 with a single alternator and comes with a three-year/36,000-mile warranty when installed by a Ford dealer or any ASE-certified technician. If acceleration is your goal on a budget, this could prove a tempting alternative.
Finally, we get to the flagship, the Rumble Bee SRT. With the 777-horsepower 6.2-liter supercharged V8 from the TRX, this thing promises to be the fastest production pickup truck of all time with a top speed of 170 MPH. Ram claims zero-to-60 mph in 3.4 seconds and the quarter-mile in 11.6 at 116 MPH, making this one ballistic pickup truck. It gets all the toys, too. A Harman/Kardon sound system, a 14.5-inch infotainment screen, leather and suede and carbon fiber galore. At $97,790 including freight, it’s not cheap, but it is $5,000 less expensive than a similarly potent but off-road-focused TRX.
The Ram 1500 Rumble Bee is exciting, but it also has the potential to get hugely pricey. Unusually though, the cheapest ones will arrive in showrooms first. The 5.7-liter V8 model will be on sale by the end of the year, while the rest won’t show up until some time in the first half of 2026. Still, depending on which trim you choose and what you’re benchmarking it against, the Rumble Bee can be a good deal on paper. Of course, trucks aren’t driven on paper, so I’m looking forward to getting behind the wheel in the future.
Top graphic image: Ram
The higher you go in the price range, the less truck things you’ll be able to do with it. But you’ll win that stoplight drag no problem.
And your stoplight drag wins will become famous with the local PD due to Flock cameras.
The Rumble Bee is cool (I love the two tone paint), but I would have to go with the F150 Lobo. It looks even cooler.
I really like the truck I currently own, but I would trade it in if I could get a regular cab Lobo. The four door is far more practical, but the proportions of a crew cab, short bed truck look off to me, particularly with the lowered suspension. I know the four door is far more practical, but I don’t need the rear seat and I am more than willing to sacrifice practicality for style.
You can build out a Ford FP700S on a regular cab, short-bed truck. You can’t get a Rumble Bee of any stripe with two doors. For a street truck, that feels like a huge miss on Ram’s part, but the market will probably prove me wrong again. Still, I would much rather have a black or dark blue F-150 with a hidden atom bomb under the hood than the much louder-looking Rumble Bee in just about any spec. I like a street truck that retains a bit of understatedness with its looks, a concession to its more humble origins.
But if I’m going to get a wildly-impractical death-trap of a pickup truck, why not go all the way and get it with two doors?
The styling package appears to target a market that still thinks barbed wire tattoos are in-style.
And those fender flares, which clearly looked tacked-on, appear to be one of the first things a new buyer will remove.
I’m glad they are doing this, but the extended cab makes it look proportionally wrong and not as practical for families. Although I do like extended cabs for other situations.
If they wanna move units, this should have been crew cab short bed.
Because spouses exist, and people have eyes.
Can you get it in all yellow without the side graphics or two tone?
That would be a sweet looking truck.
I generally agree but front bumper is just a bit too much for me. Or maybe it’s just not as well executed. Something about it is screaming aftermarket Need for Speed Underground to me, the other half is thinking it could be fixed with some design tweaks while being just as… sportlich.
Not only that, but unfinished. It looks like someone is buying a body kit one piece at a time, so they started at the front and will eventually (never) work their way back.
“. The Rumble Bee 392 with the Track Package stickers for $82,790″
A track package for a pickup truck is stupid.
And if I was ever in the market for a pickup truck, I would not want any version of the Rumble Bee.
I’d want the upcoming DODGE Ram 1500 REV
https://www.ramtrucks.com/electric/1500-rev.html
*any* 5.0L with a single alternator?
Methinks my uhaul-spec ’14 is due for a massive sleeper update.
I appreciate the concept of a street truck…but between the Dana White ads (cringe), the extended cab only setup, and the complete and utter creativity and originality void at Stellantis I just have no interest in this product at all. Also, the base price of the 5.7 exceeds that of a Ranger Raptor, which serves the same purpose but is on par with the 6.4 performance wise.
It’s also way cooler and, dare I say, a fair bit less cringy, although that’s subjective. It begs the question…is a V8 really THAT important to you? That twin turbo V6 is plenty rowdy as is. But then again, no car purchase is completely reasonable, and outside of boutique sports cars truck purchases are probably the most devoid of logic and reason…so what I’m saying probably doesn’t matter to anyone who actually buys these things.
V8 go brrrr, MY RAM IS BEST RAM, etc.
V8 is important to RAM customers, who haven’t evolved since the stone age
Love Bumblebee paint jobs, but that front fascia on the Ram is not doing it for me. I also prefer the diagonal stripes on the older editions.
“while the rest won’t show up until some time in the first half of 2026.”
Been travelling in the TARDIS again, Doctor?