The Pick of the Day is a 2004 Dodge Ram SRT-10 listed by a private seller on ClassicCars.com.
The American performance truck has changed in two major ways over the past few decades. The fundamental concept of it is not was it used to be. In the 1990s and 2000s, a factory hot-rod truck had a single cab, a short bed, rear-wheel drive, and big power under the hood. Just think back to the Chevrolet 454 SS and the Ford F-150 SVT Lightning, especially the supercharged second-generation model. Now Ram and Ford make their performance pickups to fly at white-knuckle speeds over sand dunes. The blue oval’s current Lightning has neck-snapping acceleration…thanks to all-electric power. And over time, supertrucks have reached increasingly higher levels of power. Now that the Ram 1500 TRX is no more, the 720-horsepower Ford Raptor R is the apex predator. Despite how capable and potent these new pickups are, they can’t match the insanity of the 2004-2006 Dodge Ram SRT-10.
Coming out the same model year Ford discontinued the supercharged F-150 SVT Lightning, the Ram SRT-10 kept the same layout (albeit without flared bedsides), but pushed the core idea to extremes. The Chrysler Group’s Performance Vehicle Operations (PVO) unit didn’t bother with a V8 at all – it went straight to the Viper‘s engine line for a massive 8.3-liter V10. That monster’s 500 horsepower and 525 lb-ft of torque made the Lightning’s strike seem a little dimmer.
As if that wasn’t nuts enough, the power-mongers at Dodge did something Ford never did and still hasn’t done with the Lightning or the Raptor. Instead of beefing up an existing automatic or bringing in a new one to handle the V10’s power, they just used (a modified version of) the Viper’s TREMEC T56 six-speed manual gearbox and attached a truck-sized Hurst shift lever to it.
PVO was just as bold with the bodywork shrink-wrapped around that oversized power plant. They didn’t go for the sleeper look. They wanted people to know they were about to get smoked by a Ram SRT-10 so they gave it a hood scoop, “Viper-style” 22-inch forged aluminum wheels, and even a rear spoiler than spanned the distance between the sides of the bed.
The truck you see here was made in the first year of the Ram SRT-10’s short era of lunacy. Luckily, its current owner has resisted the urge to rack up the miles on it so the odometer only shows 1,763 miles. Perhaps somewhere along the way the seller indulged in its power because the truck has new Pirelli Scorpions on it. Or maybe the previous rubber just needed to be changed. We can’t blame the seller if they lit up this beast’s rear tires, though. Most people can only dream of doing that in a V10-powered truck with a six-speed stick. But if you buy this 2004 Dodge Ram SRT-10 for $76,995 (OBO), you can do that whenever you want.
Check out the listing for this Pick of the Day on ClassicCars.com.
