Back in the day, the idea of a heated up pick-up truck was nuts in the extreme. We had muscle cars galore with more power than any sane person needed, so why would anyone want a TRUCK with one of those muscular motors capable of pumping pure adrenaline through our young, unthinking minds?
How things have changed. We now think of pick-ups as everyday drivers, so why shouldn't they pack the same kind of tire shredding power that the muscle machines did in days gone by? But who was the first to go crazy? Believe it or not, and if you are reading my blog you better believe it, the first one that I can think of came out in the late '70's. This was when most cars were anemic. Heck, I had a '76 Corvette with the top line L82 motor that wouldn't crack 0-60 in under 10 seconds! Think about it. Today's meek and mild Honda Civic would bury it. Then those good ol' boys at Dodge decided they'd had enough and dropped a big cube engine in a normally tame and boring pick-up........
The Lil Red Express Truck looked like something a country boy might do to his ride to grab a little attention. This thing rocked and was for a short time the fastest and quickest (there is a difference) ride one could buy in North America. Many years later they once again jumped on the wicked pick-up trend and slipped a Viper motor into a Ram.......
Now who would ever think that this was a good idea? Gobs of rubber melting horsepower in a truck with a very light back end. Wonderful and with the expected result.......
But before Dodge took a crazy pill, but after the Lil Red Express Truck, Chev was the first to bring back the glory days of street bound muscle, but in a truck format........
Throw on a set of chrome mags and a kind of subtle 454SS decal on the side and let the world know that your Chevy can rock with the best of those muscle sedans from the past.
Ford, not being one to pass up on what looked like it might be a popular, if not a good idea, whipped up the Lightning (the silver one at the top), which eventually morphed into the Raptor. So now everyone has seen the light. Also the fun that this could bring to their pick-up fans.
But is this enough? Obviously Hennessey, that Texas based tuner of Vipers and other stuff, decided to take a page out of the Benz (remember the G 6x6?) book and whip up an even crazier truck, appropriately called Golaith........
Big power (705 hp) and another set of wheels make this one nasty pick-up. Price? Oh, I wish you hadn't asked. Buy yourself a very nice Rolls or some sort of exotic supercar for Golaith money. Yes, friendo, this over the top ride is listed at $375,000 USD! Whew, that is nose bleed territory and I don't mean from sniffing white powder.
So folks, now that we've seen how this all started, we get to ask ourselves, where will it all end and how much crazier can it get? Someone with a much more vivid imagination than me is no doubt working on a Golaith Plus as I write this. I can hardly wait.
Until next time.......
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