Dino power

Way back in the mists of time and history, there was a period when cars were being saddled with new and confusing emissions equipment. Performance, if one could call it that, was abysmal. Want perspective? I had a 1976 Corvette with the "big" motor. 0-60 time was just over ten seconds. Beat that these days in any new Honda Civic. 

Then the almost unthinkable happened. In 1978 Car & Driver tested all the American "performance" cars to see which was the quickest (slowest?). The winner.........

No kidding, folks, this big ol' Dodge pick-up with those semi look-a-like exhaust pipes and a funny name, Lil' Red Truck, blew everything else into the proverbial weeds. For shame! Things had sunk so low that it had now come to this? A performance truck!

But as time passed, real car performance came back, but the idea of a hotted up pick-up stayed around and from time to time a new one was introduced........

This was the early '90's and the 454SS had an advertised 230 HP. Strong at the time. Ford also wanted in on the action and quick as lightning, they introduced the Lightning......

Each of these two had a limited life span, but the idea of a hot pick-up still stirred truck folks' souls. If a horsepower upgrade was interesting in a truck, then a big upgrade would be even more interesting, so Dodge jumped back into the fray and dropped a huge Viper V-10 into a good old boy's work truck.......

Good tire burning fun for a few years, but then again the idea was put aside by Dodge. Not so, Ford, as their Raptor started tearing up the roads and trails. Bragging rights as the toughest guy on the block with a cool 450 HP, less than the old Dodge SRT-10, but pretty dam good in light of it having no direct competitor......

Over the last few years Dodge was putting their Hellcat motor, that rockin' 707 HP power plant, into anything they could lay their hands on, even a Jeep. What was missing was a truck. All it took was time. Behold the 2021 Ram TRX (pronounced T-Rex, please)........

And to show those folks at Ford that FCA had a sense of humour, they included a couple of interesting engravings in this beast.......

Know your dinosaurs? If you do, you'll know that the raptor was fast, vicious, but small. The t-rex was HUGE, so leave it to those rascals on the other side of town to have an engine cover showing a t-rex eating a raptor. Want more humour? Then check out the size comparison depicted below the console cover. 

What fun, a hotted up pick-up truck war brewing for 2021. The weapon of choice? Your cheque book. This is going to get nasty.

Until next time......