Pickup trucks are things that aren’t really supposed to outrun cars like the Porsche 911 or the Corvette in a straight line.  But, for a short period of time after the dawn of the 21st century, Dodge apparently thought otherwise, and set out to prove their theory.

The Ram was, at the time, the recipient of the new HEMI V8 and a brand-new frame and body, which increased sales and Dodge’s reputation.  The boys at SRT, meanwhile, decided to offer their opinion, and did so through the SRT10, launched in 2004.  The SRT10 took the muscle car’s creed of “big engine in a smaller car” and applied it to a pickup–only this time, the engine happened to be the biggest that DaimlerChrysler made at the time.

The then-new Viper V10, with its 8.3L and 510hp out of the box, was deemed appropriate to create the quickest pickup money could buy at that point. Dodge then added the six-speed manual from the Viper and a heavy-duty Dana rear axle, and called it finished.  The finished product was simply terrifying–0-60 in 4.9 seconds, a top speed of 153MPH (This truck held the speed record for pickups from 2004-2006, at 154.587MPH, but is still the fastest full-size truck in the world), and skidpad results generating over 0.8g.  Dodge worked wonders with their given resources.  In essence, this truck was capable of moving someone’s apartment on Saturday, and then scaring everyone at the racetrack on Sunday.  Of course, it did have its faults such as horrible fuel economy (9/15MPG for the six-speed), but that wasn’t the point.

In all, this was designed for speed and little else.  In the end, Dodge stopped production in 2006, after less than 10,000 left the production line.  A Quad Cab variant hit the streets for 2005, and an automatic transmission was available as well.  At this point, the SRT10 Ram isn’t all that hard to find if you look hard enough–prices are also pretty reasonable, and a good one can be had for less than 30K, with 23-24K being a pretty good price for one.

-Al