Evocative name, big numbers, massive presence.
Not road-tested, just admired.
This one’s not even a ‘scoop’ or a ‘coming soon to your nearest dealer’.
This is the first Ram 1500 TRX Hellcat in New Zealand. It is currently the only Hellcat in New Zealand, and it is one of the very few right-hand-drive TRX Hellcats in the world.
Yes, it’s impressive and no, you can’t buy one. Not right now anyway.
Will it even fit in the garage? No, it may be necessary to build a new one.
There is one word to describe the look and spec of this full-size pickup: muscular. The numbers are impressive. Ram’s new TRX off-road pickup is powered by a supercharged 6.2-litre Hemi V-8 that produces 523kW (702 bhp) at 6,100rpm and 881Nm (649lb-ft) of torque at 4,800 rpm.
Out-of-the-box it has launch control, clever Bilstein active suspension and a 0-100 acceleration time of 4.5 seconds. Consider that a 14 second quarter mile is regarded as pretty good by owners of the last-of-the-line Holden Commodore SS or the rare Maloo ute. This is a 2.7 tonne truck that knocks off an old-school quarter mile in 12.8 seconds.
It stands 70mm taller than the stock Ram 1500, itself no low-rider. It is 200mm wider than the stock Ram 1500. It out-Raptors the Ford F150 Raptor with more power and torque and that staggering quarter mile time. It has 325mm (13 inches) of suspension travel and 295mm of ground clearance and it will surge through water up to 800mm deep.
Its disc rotors are bigger than some cars’ wheels: 15 inches of hard US steel reside under the front end on each side. It has no rear-drive-only mode, nor does it need one. The rear diff has an electronic locker.
These things sold out overnight on launch in the USA, and never mind any silly pandemic or supply-side fuel crisis or impending world war.
So how does a Hellcat turn up in a paddock in Manukau, its metallic obsidian paint gleaming out from under a fine coating of clay dust? It’s down to Joel Giddy, ultra-competitive racer and owner of a decent-sized civil engineering company.
“It’s just got an enormous amount of grunt, and there’s so much room inside for the family.”
The TRX is already the stuff of legend, shock and awe overseas, as a quick Google search will confirm. Hundreds of videos with thousands of views show the pickup being hurled around dirt roads, fording rivers and generally doing a lot of off-road work that Joel is probably going to avoid given the rarity of the big black beast. Given that the trucks went on sale in the USA last year starting at USD$72,000 (double it to get the NZ dollar figure), adding the conversion to right-hand-drive and simply getting the thing here, that’s understandable.
Joel has waited almost a year to take delivery of his new ride. The existence of this pickup was whispered to NZ4WD a month ago, and it has flown under the radar in best Hellcat style.
Not any more. Joel used the TRX Hellcat to tow his son Reeve’s off-road racing Kiwitruck out to Manukau from home base north of Auckland. It ended up parked (discreetly, at the farthest end of the paddock) in a row of other Ram pickups used to tow massive tandem-wheeled box trailers full of interesting off-road racing toys. The other (older) Rams looked a bit ‘soft’ alongside the menace of the Hellcat. In a sport where a club event attracts almost 40 teams, in a car park that was festooned with 4WD and SUV tow vehicles, the full-size pickup reigns, and the Ram is king.
Inside, the TRX is the Ram of Rams.
Vertically mounted in the middle of the dashboard on every TRX is a 12.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system. The unit boasts Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, built-in navigation, and SiriusXM satellite radio. The display can be divided into separate menus so that multiple applications can be open at once, and it also features physical knobs and buttons on the screen’s surrounding bezel for more intuitive controls. The truck can also be outfitted with a mighty 900-watt, 19-speaker Harman Kardon sound system. Joel’s is thus equipped.
If and when the TRX becomes an official model offered new in New Zealand, it will be on the back of work done in Australia, where left-hand-drive models have already been under evaluation by Walkinshaw Automotive Group – the former parent company of Holden Special Vehicles – in Melbourne.
Media there say engineering work on the factory-approved right-hand-drive conversion programme has commenced; a tooling investment of more than AUD$1million
While Ram Trucks Australia is yet to formally confirm the debut of the TRX supercharged V8, dealers there have been told to initially expect a limited run of 200 to 250 vehicles priced between AUD$180,000 and $200,000. On that basis, and given the success of the Ram range here, along with the success of the Australian right hand drive conversion industry, surely it’s only a matter of time until Ram pushes the green light on TRX Hellcats for New Zealand. Surely.
In the meantime, Joel Giddy is enjoying his impressive new ride, and plotting his first long trip away – probably towing his equally impressive new Pro4 Thundertruck to an off-road race. He’s just had the beast ceramic coated to protect the body finish from road grime, Manukau clay dust and bugs.
Having got the thing on the road prior to 1 April, Joel has also avoided the ‘ute tax’ though anyone with a hankering for the most powerful Ram of all time is hardly going to let a few thousand dollars stand between him and the fastest Ram ever.
