Flashy RAM 1500 Has Luxurious Italian Roots

Italian-built ’Style Struck, Mopar-based Aznom Palladium thinks it’s a Rolls Royce. 

Ever imagined how the spawn of a Star Wars pod and an ox wagon would look? Well, we can’t show you such a hypothetical beast, but this is what just happened in Italy. Obscure carmaker Aznom has crafted a go-anywhere Rolls Royce rival out of a Ram 1500 Laramie Longhorn. And it plans to sell ten of them.

Luxurious Beast

To start, Aznom is Monza in reverse, where the carmaker is based in Italy. Founder Marcello Meregalli is both carmaker and wine merchant. And he has a fetish for ultra-limousines like Donald’s Beast. “I’ve always been passionate about large automobiles,” our Marcello said, in a recent press statement. “When Cadillac unveiled the new presidential limousine — a luxury sedan with the proportions of a classic sedan built out of mega-SUV — I was intrigued.”

So inspired, Meregalli set about his dream of a go-anywhere limo. Plausibly to traverse far-flung vineyards in search of his next vintage stash.

We’re not sure to laugh or to cry, to be honest, but it seems Aznom appointed three, maybe four designers to pen the mighty Palladium. One drew the front, another the back, and two more, the sides.

So, Who Did What?

Pity Marcello forgot to introduce his stylists to each other. Same goes for the cabin — who did what?

Palladium was in reality penned by Italian Studio Camal and with that — er — in place, it appears Aznom came across an army surplus special on Ram 1500 Longhorn trucks in Northern Italy. And acquired ten. The hatchets came out. Then arc welders and buckets of body putty… And voila! Behold Palladium! The hyper-limousine!

Palladium’s facade phantom appears to have been crafted by a pile of LED highlighters. You can’t hide a leopard’s spots though and that Ram profile shines through.

Frisky Toward the Rear

The front three-quarters are bland by comparison, but Palladium gets frisky towards the rear with erotic Coke bottle haunches below a postbox rear quarter window.

The boxy roofline likewise changes its mind as it progresses. Starting square, it becomes ever sleeker before curtailing in blend of Vantage and Veloster. A giant boot emerges like a giant drawer, complete with luggage to match the Foglizzo interior leather, and an autographed Francisco Maglia umbrella.

The cabin is dominated by something of a quilted Foglizzo water love bed-like bench, with a couple of seatbelts. And ’31 Auburn levels of rear legroom. There are enough hidden storage nooks and crannies stash all those votes someone in Washington is looking for right now, and a mine’s worth of aluminum trim, too.

Michele Lupini

Once a handy engine and chassis tuner, and a combative racer and rally driver, Michele took up the pen to express his passion for cars, racing and motoring over 30 years ago. He published South Africa’s go-to enthusiast motor magazines Cars in Action and Bakkie — some say against all odds — for a quarter century. In that time, Michele had a hand in nurturing many of South Africa's motoring media leaders. Today Michele keeps himself busy with his a range of international motoring media duties alongside his own theauto.page. And a little racing on the side.