Can this tried and true platform defeat one of the performance truck market’s greatest assets?
We all hear a lot these days about the passing of the second muscle car revolution and the upcoming muscle truck era, which will likely repeat the steps of trucks like the Syclone and 'Lil Red Express. With the sub-three second 0-60 mph achievement becoming standard for modern pickups and utility vehicles, it can be easy to forget just how fast the trucks have become. Some try to compare the contemporary examples against each other in a battle of new technology. However, others find it best to use modified cars to drive their point home about the increased performance we see today. This race did precisely that when it put a RAM TRX up against a Chevy Nova in a battle to be doted over.
That's right, this was such an intense competition that we had to bust out some old-timey words to get the point across. In the right lane, you'll see a pristinely modified and tuned-up Classic Chevy Nova whose driver appears at home on the track. This car was apparently built for the race track, which became immediately noticeable upon launch. According to the presenter, the Nova is "about a '70 or so," which could mean that it has anything from a 350 to a fully custom-built big block. It's hard to say what either of the racers is packing under the hood, but it's clear they both mean business.
All four corners of the TRX feature sticky drag tires, which should come in handy with the launching capabilities, while only two are on the Nova. It seems easy to say the RAM has no chance of winning, but if you look closely, you can see the exact moment when the Nova driver had a fit trying to keep up. Just 10.9-seconds after the green light flashed, the TRX had completed the quarter-mile with the Nova still .3 seconds behind. Of course, you could say that this difference could be chalked up to driver error, but these were both seasoned drivers in pretty good conditions, so it would appear that the TRX is marginally faster than even a full-blown race car. This ought to give even more weight to Dodge's tried and true motto: if you want something fast, just slap a Hellcat engine under the hood and call it a day.
