Where are the factory hot rod trucks?

These were the things I had on my wall as a kid: In the glory days of SVT Ford built the F-150 SVT Lightning. Then Dodge put a Viper engine in a pickup and called it the SRT-10. Chevy was almost in the mix with the Silverado SS. Something about a pickup that could blow the doors off a sports car had big appeal for 12 year old BlueInGreen.

Fast forward 10+ years and the factory performance arms race is back. Ford is building the hot ST hatches, the Focus RS, and Shelby Mustangs. Dodge made the Hellcat. Chevy is selling track-ready Camaros. Will they let go of all inhibition and let those special teams have a go with the trucks? I guess there's the SVT Raptor but an off-roadster is something else. I'm picturing a short-bed Ram with a Hellcat engine or a lowered 2wd F150 with all the Ecoboost magic they can muster under the hood

Are the days of the factory street-rod truck gone?

Ford decided to go in the off-road direction with their "special" truck with the Raptor. Other than the fact that high-performance trucks are kind of silly to begin with, I'm not sure. CAFE, maybe?

All they need to do is put the big motors in the short bed single cab trucks and put a couple of stickers on them. Will they be dangerous? Of course they will, that's the idea. Sell me something I can hurt myself in and I'll be happy about it.

Ford could throw the GT350's 5.2 flat plane and a IRS from the Expedition into a short bed, standard cab (a car guy can dream, can't he?). Bonus points for vinyl floor and work truck trim, but they would take a card out of Porsche's deck and charge you more for the stripper version.

Dodge already has that linkey rear suspension and a 707hp engine. There's not even any real engineering involved. Just bolt it together and sell it to us.

We'll get there, right now the focus is on 4x4s, at some point the 2WD or AWD trucks will come back.

Doesn't Ford still sell the Tremor? 2WD or 4WD, single cab, short bed, 3.5L Ecoboost.

Oh, NM. Looks like they only sold it for a year. That's a bummer.

If Ford offered the 3.5 EB in a single cab / short bed 2wd F-150, it would be almost there. They only offer it if you get a single cab / long bed or extended cab / short bed (don't have to get the full crew cab). Auto trans only though. Looks like the lightest combo is the single cab / long bed at 4420 lbs. Not too bad with 375 hp and 470 ft. lb.

They could easily get it into racetruck territory. Take the turned up 3.5 EB from the Raptor (450 hp, 510 ft. lb) and throw it in the single cab / short bed. Trim a little weight to get the weight down (maybe use the 6sp auto from the lower-spec engines instead of the heavy 10sp). For comparison, with the NA 3.5 and a 6sp auto, the single cab / short bed weighs 4051 lbs. Not bad at all for a fullsize pickup.

There's also rumors of a twin turbo 5.0 for the Raptor. That in one of the small F150s would put it beyond Viper-truck levels of deathtrap, I think.

This is totally something I can see Dodge trying again. They have all the bits, just assemble and sell.

The only problem is nothing will come standard cab anymore. Whatever they make will be Crew Cab trucks.

The tremor was cool. I wonder why it was killed?
And yes, Dodge seems like the logical company to try this lunacy. They were testing the Hellcat powered Jeep, so they should be in possession of the transfer case and differentials to make it work. Short box, single cab, AWD, 707hp. How is that not the best possible truck ever? Give it stacks, paint them all red and name it the Lil' Red Express.

Chevy messed with the idea of a short bed 2wd that apparently needed carbon ceramic brakes.

Much like the 707 hp Ram, Chevy has a 640hp V8 that would pretty much bolt in place of their truck engine too.

I'll bet the next Hellcat will be a truck. Dodge is just dribbling them out, one per year.

Personally, the Raptor is more my kind of drug. A truck trying to do sports car stuff is impressive but a little bit sad. A truck doing truck stuff in amazing ways is more fun.

It's nearly impossible to get them to hook up, my dakota rt was silly and every full size truck with any power I've owned was the same way. You can order what you are looking for if you find a dealer interested. Reg cab, short box, big engine. Enjoy.

My wife had one of those for a work truck, actually A couple of generations of F150 ago. Biggest engine, regular cab, short bed, RWD. Kinda sucked for most truck things, actually, especially with the hard tonneau. But it was pretty sporty.

Many of the hot trucks weren't that hot. SS454 was 245 hp. The Silverado SS just got the 6.0L by default instead of an option. The only real "hot" truck was the supercharged F150.

I was never impressed with them simply because they weren't impressive. Big mismatch. Take an already gas-sucking behemoth, make it ride more like a rock in an unsuccessful attempt to give it better handling, take away most of its towing and hauling capacity, and charge more for it.

singleslammer wrote: This is totally something I can see Dodge trying again. They have all the bits, just assemble and sell.

I've heard a rumor of such things

Bring back the typhoon / syclone

Cooper_Tired wrote:

singleslammer wrote: This is totally something I can see Dodge trying again. They have all the bits, just assemble and sell.

I've heard a rumor of such things

Dodge needs to do this again. I loved my SRT01 RC Pickup. 500hp manual RC pickup whats not to love.

Lest it be forgotten, let me just mention "Dodge Little Red Express Truck".

In reply to Danny Shields:

Dodge be wise to bring that back

fasted58 wrote: In reply to Danny Shields: Dodge be wise to bring that back

only if it gets the stepside bed and stacks

You could order a Dodge pickup with a Street Hemi back in the day. I wonder if anyone did?

I have a mild square body Dodge obsession but have no love for the stacks on the Little Red Express. Something must be wrong with me. Also I don't think any step side was worked right since the 8th gen F-series. It definitely won't work on any of the current trucks.

chandlerGTi wrote: It's nearly impossible to get them to hook up, my dakota rt was silly and every full size truck with any power I've owned was the same way. You can order what you are looking for if you find a dealer interested. Reg cab, short box, big engine. Enjoy.

But that's the thing, you can't. None of the truck manufacturers will sell their lightest truck with the big motor. And by big motor I mean the biggest truck motor, which isn't the 'big' motor from any of them. Nobody will even let me build my own factory muscle truck.