This Ram 1500 Rumble Bee packs a bottled, blown Hemi and a manual transmission.
Most full-size trucks built to run the quarter mile feature an automatic transmission, but this Ram 1500 Rumble Bee isn’t most trucks. This beast runs mid-10s with a supercharged, nitrous-injected Hemi and a Tremec manual transmission, leading to great footage in-car and trackside.
A Monster, Manual Ram Rumble Bee
These videos come to us from the Hemi North YouTube channel and they feature a Ram 1500 Rumble Bee storming down the drag strip in the mid-10-second range. In standard form, the Hemi-powered Rumble Bee was a great performance truck, but owner Andrew Makkinga wanted this half-ton truck to be far more than great.
To make this Dodge truck a monster, the 5.7-liter Hemi was replaced with a fully-built Hemi measuring 438 cubic inches, fitted with a ProCharger F1C supercharger and a 150-shot of nitrous oxide. Sending all of that power to the ground is a Tremec T56 manual transmission, making this Ram a rarity in a sea of self-shifting race trucks, while a set of big, sticky drag tires make traction possible.
Attacking the Quarter Mile
In the videos here, Makkinga’s Rumble Bee is making a run down the quarter mile against a built Chevy Vega in a bracket race. The Ram has a dial of 10.60 while the Chevy dials 9.25, giving the Hemi-powered pickup a head start of more than a second.
After a great, high rpm launch, the blown Ram roars down the track and Makkinga gets there first, running a 10.38 at 136 miles per hour. Unfortunately, he lost the race by means of the breakout, but that doesn’t matter.
What matters is that this Rumble Bee ran a 10.38 and since then, he has run a new best time of 10.15 at 149 miles per hour with a new twin turbo setup.
In addition to the trackside video of the 10.38 run, we also have an in-car showing the owner banging through the gears of his 10-second Dodge Ram 1500.
"Before I was old enough to walk, my dad was taking me to various types of racing events, from local drag racing to the Daytona 500," says Patrick Rall, a lifetime automotive expert, diehard Dodge fan, and respected auto journalist for over 10 years. "He owned a repair shop and had a variety of performance cars when I was young, but by the time I was 16, he was ready to build me my first drag car – a 1983 Dodge Mirada that ran low 12s. I spent 10 years traveling around the country, racing with my dad by my side. While we live in different areas of the country, my dad still drag races at 80 years old in the car that he built when I was 16 while I race other vehicles, including my 2017 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and my 1972 Dodge Demon 340.
"Although I went to college for accounting, my time in my dad’s shop growing up allowed me the knowledge to spend time working as a mechanic before getting my accounting degree, at which point I worked in the office of a dealership group. While I was working in the accounting world, I continued racing and taking pictures of cars at the track. Over time, I began showing off those pictures online and that led to my writing.
"Ten years ago, I left the accounting world to become a full-time automotive writer and I am living proof that if you love what you do, you will never “work” a day in your life," adds Rall, who has clocked in time as an auto mechanic, longtime drag racer and now automotive journalist who contributes to nearly a dozen popular auto websites dedicated to fellow enthusiasts.
"I love covering the automotive industry and everything involved with the job. I was fortunate to turn my love of the automotive world into a hobby that led to an exciting career, with my past of working as a mechanic and as an accountant in the automotive world provides me with a unique perspective of the industry.
"My experience drag racing for more than 20 years coupled with a newfound interest in road racing over the past decade allows me to push performance cars to their limit, while my role as a horse stable manager gives me vast experience towing and hauling with all of the newest trucks on the market today.
