By Cam Tait \/ Wednesday, 20 December 2023 \/ Loading comments<\/p>\n
There are countless reasons why we never gelled with the American pickup truck on this side of the pond. They\u2019re massive, for one thing, with all but the dinkiest of trucks (a Ford Ranger is considered a \u2018compact\u2019 over there) requiring wide load support vans to guide you along our skinny roads. Despite being the size of a small freighter, they\u2019re better suited to hauling than carrying, and they all seem to have a drinking problem. For most people, US pickups are simply too big, too thirsty and too vulgar to take seriously.<\/p>\n
Good thing we\u2019re not like everyone else, then, because we can\u2019t help but feel a twinge of want when presented with a bungalow-sized pickup equipped with a big V8 up front. And, in case you haven’t been paying attention, American truck makers have started making pickups with hypercar levels of horsepower and even some that are specially engineered for track use. Both completely pointless, but you\u2019d want to have a go in one, right? Thankfully, there are importers out there who are willing to go through the rigmarole of bringing some to the UK. Just a shame they\u2019re all left-hand drive.<\/p>\n
Well, all but one. This is Dodge Ram TRX and if you take a peek inside you\u2019ll spot the steering wheel is on the side God intended. Turns out one of the previous owners had the driving controls switched over to the other side to make life with an American pickup truck that little bit easier in the UK. This can\u2019t have been an easy (or cheap) process, but we’re guessing the dash, pedals and other gubbins bespoke to right-hand drive models were plucked from an Australian-spec TRX and bolted onto this US-spec truck.<\/p>\n
Wouldn\u2019t it have been easier to just import an Aussie version, you ask? Well, this isn\u2019t any old TRX – it\u2019s a Hennessy Mammoth. Specifically, it\u2019s the 900 model, which packs a 6.2-litre supercharged Hellcat V8, which, thanks to some fettling by the Texan tuner, produces a monstrous 912hp and 873lb ft of torque. Enough to haul a whole forest\u2019s worth of logs, and fire the near-2.9-tonne pickup from 0-60mph in 3.7 seconds. So fast is the Mammoth that, when benchmarked against the standard Hellcat-engined TRX over a quarter mile, it pulled out several car lengths. Admittedly, the test was run by Hennessey, but watch the accompanying video and you\u2019ll notice a huge amount of rear squat. They really weren\u2019t hanging about.<\/p>\n
Anyway, this car looks a bit different from the one in the Hennessey video, and that\u2019s because it seems to have had every option under the sun thrown at it – including the tuner\u2019s off-road kit which includes those aggressive bumpers with integrated LEDs. Those 20-inch wheels are also Hennessey\u2019s own design and come wrapped in heavy-duty, 35-inch off-road tyres. Not that this 3,000-mile example looks like it\u2019s ever seen a puddle, but good to know it\u2019s up to the job of, I dunno, herding sheep in a muddy field.<\/p>\n
With that in mind, Mammoth would make a marvellous workhorse. It\u2019s smaller than a John Deere tractor and although you won\u2019t make any friends on the road, at least it won\u2019t be because you\u2019re trundling along at 15mph. It is tractor money, though, with the seller wanting \u00a3190,000 for it. Yes, it\u2019d be a lot cheaper to buy in the US, but unless you live there you aren\u2019t getting a Hennessey Mammoth – especially one with the steering wheel on the correct side. It may not be as practical as a Ford Transit, but it\u2019s certainly more usable than anything else at this money. <\/p>\n