its called marketing.

when it comes to name recognition dodge has a lot of history.
Hemi and v-10 viper have got to be #1 and #2.
so 4 years ago Dodge trucks are a distant #3, now people are at least taking about them so the marketing team did their job and did it well.
the truck dosent have to beat the lightning or be more affordable. It just has to get people taking about Dodge trucks. You know that there are 2500 viper owners out there that want the matching truck.

 

I think the SRT-10 is a great thing. Hopefully we will be entering another horsepower war like in the musclecar era. Who cares how you make the power? Supercharged, turbocharged, Nitrous, displacement. He with the fastest go-box wins, no matter how it got there.

Difference is the Lightning looks good getting there.

Hopefully, Ford will up the ante and use a good intercooled centrifugal or twin screw supercharger (aftermartket Lightnings making WELL OVER 500 hp with twin screw huffers. That doesn't account for the improvements Ford is making in the 5.4L powerplant.

Hopefully Chevy will make a real performance truck, then we can have a threeway battle.

Let the HP wars begin!

 

Even without testing, I think one can get a realistic idea of what one is going to run in terms of MPH. That would be the number I would care most about anyway. Most Vipers with that motor are dynoing around 430 RHP with similar drivetrains. It is reasonable to assume that the weight of the Ram will yield around a 105-106 trap speed. That's my guess, and I bet it will be pretty close. I'll bet it will be quite similar to what a nicely bolted-on gen 2 L will run with 400RHP; given the Rams weight increase.
4DRTHNDR,
Did you just say harder to mod? You realize your talking about a 500 cubic inch PUSHROD motor?

 

I look at all this stuff this way

Takes Dodge with v10 to out power a v8 powered ford.

 

onebaddakota:

In addition to the weight/power relationship, another factor to consider is aerodynamics. The Dodge's aero is like pushing a barn door through the air. Of course, while the current Ford F-150 Heritage (read Lightning) styling may be more aerodynamically efficient than the Ram, once the next generation L appears in the '06 model year (no '05 L) using the new styling, there may not be that much difference in wind resistance.

Mike

 

I fixed it for you

 

Yes, I did say that and I'm refering to the 505 CID model. I'm not familiar with the 500 CID one. First of all there is no/little tuner base for them. Look at all the tuners just on this board. Second, there's no way you could spend $1-2k in mods and pick up 75-100 HP without going to a bottle. There will be no simple filter, pulley, chip and exhaust change to resort to. The mods will come few and expensively...if these projected garage queens are even modded.

 

How many production vehicles have their been that have centrifugal superchargers?

 

my god batpig!

I dont know guys, thats a lot of moolaaa for one of these. For that amount of money, I would hope they dont leave the dodge boys hangin on the drag strip. It better rip some major *** there for that amount.

I agree, bring on the competition, it makes things better for all.

 

i Hope somthing with a V-10 engine,8.3 liter 500Horsepower could out run supercharged 5.4

 

Unless Dodge builds (and sells) a lot more than the 2,500 planned units, there will be very limited aftermarket participation and, therefore, limited mods. I think, with maybe a few exceptions, we'll see mostly stock SRT-10's at the track.

I think the primary reason for the SRT-10's existance from DMC's perspective is to have bragging rights and to create a halo vehicle for the corporation. It's their version of Ford's "Polishing the Oval" process that up to this point has been SVT's reason for existing. They can accomplish this by building a King Kong truck that garners tons of attention, even if it costs $50,000, because there should be no problem selling just 2,500 trucks -- at least the first year. Once the relatively small demand for such an expensive performance truck is satisfied, however, we may see the death of the SRT-10.

Mike

 

Where did you get this info?

6350 - 1720 = 4630! You think the SRT weighs 4630 empty???

Use your head man!

The gross combined is 15,000!

 

Just picked up the January issue of Truckin to read its road test comparison of the SRT-10 and the Lightning. (The article is not on their website, so you'll have to buy the mag.)

Not a true subjective test because it was run by Dodge and no instrumented testing was done. However, the Truckin editors were very impressed with the Dodge. They said the L handled a little sharper due to its lighter weight but otherwise, the Ram was the best performer with quicker acceleration, shorter stops and higher g turns. Apparently, it's a pretty well rounded package. A minor but cool feature is that the real spoiler can be repositioned behind the cab to allow for carrying loads.

While the Truckin article is not on their website, I noticed that the current issue of AutoWeek (Dec 2) does have an SRT-10 test and it can be found at: http://autoweek.com/search/search_di...09039&record=1

When you go to the above AutoWeek site, check out the Hurst shifter on the Dodge. It looks just the stock shifter rod to me. My ex-brother in law had a Ram disel with what looks like the same long and auckward dump-truck looking linkage. According to what I've read, it shifts good when you really push it but is balky around town.

Mike

 

The article is scanned Here.

I think it's bs without stats, I really don't know why Dodge is holding back the publishing of actual performance numbers...

And I have heard 3500 in the first year, which is a pretty respectable production number.

 

The truck looks and handles sweet, from the sound of it. However, I use my Lightning to tow every now and then. What's the point of a truck that can't tow?