Today was the day!
At least on this release, No V8.
I think Ram just sold a few TRXs.
Listen to the exhaust note at 1:44
Not to sound like a conspiracy theorist here, but here's my theory.
I think Ford's having a problem with the V8 raptor holding power to the ground.
How in god's name are you supposed to keep 700+ hp on the ground with a pickup truck?
And not a street truck, a lifted truck. On all terrain tires.
Ram's solutions:
- Fulltime 4x4
- Huge tires, absolutely huge and wide, on all 4 corners. That heavy tire is "harder" to for the engine to turn, and likely helping to keep the tires from spinning past their traction. (If you were to replace them with thinner, less wide, lighter tires - I think the lower rotational mass would make tire spin go up
dramatically)
- I'm assuming "torque management" (the computer limiting some HP at launch and allowing more to be used as the truck gets rolling) is part of it. It is for Ford's powerstroke diesel, I believe most of the makers are using it once wheelspin becomes a concern.
- And lastly, I think the TRX's heavy weight plays a role. I believe it does.
There's more weight keeping the truck to the ground, it's 6500lbs right?
So I think the Raptor's got a neat advantage. Being lighter, it would not need to have the same horsepower to be faster to 60.
Having the same horsepower with a ton less weight, should make it FASTER to 60 right?
Sure should.
If the factory tires can hold it to the ground.
What's the hangup? The tires spinning. It weighs like 1000lbs less right? Something like that?
Now add more horsepower.
So I think they're trying to tune the V8's torque management software to avoid putting down too much at launch, with more phasing in as the truck gets moving. Which, despite the advantage on horsepower AND weight, all said and done I think they're going to be closer to 60mph than they should be on paper. They've got to try to beat that number.
This will work until Ram offers the TRX's higher horsepower edition, I think we'll get one - apparently a few tweeks will get more power out of the TRX.
And despite the weight, I'll probably put more of the power to the ground
because of it.
...........but I agree, the big sleeper for ram would be a TRX with a NA 6.4L V8 and a good exhaust system on it.