Ram TRX Takes On Wild 650 HP Dune Buggy in Entertaining Drag Race
Unconventional drag race makes the Ram TRX look like the underdog, but on the track, it quickly flips the script.
It isn’t terribly surprising that quite a few folks have been drag racing the new Ram TRX. After all, it is powered by a supercharged 6.2-liter Hemi V8 producing 702 horsepower and 650 pound-feet of torque, and it comes equipped with launch control. So who cares if it’s a giant, off-road-focused, knobby tire-equipped pickup? The Hoonigans certainly don’t, and they recently pitted it against an equally non-traditional drag racer in their latest This vs. That episode.
In this case, the “that” is something truly different – a vintage Volkswagen dune buggy. But this isn’t the kind of buggy you typically see, one fitted with some sort of meager air-cooled VW mill. No, this one is powered by an LS3 fitted with a Crowler cam, AFR heads, Magnuson supercharger, and a Holley throttle body. The GM engine is a relatively mild build (save for the huffer) but still manages to crank out 582 horsepower at the tires on pump gas and nine pounds of boost.
That’s obviously a lot for a vehicle that weighs a mere 3,200 pounds, and the VW buggy has a serious off-road suspension setup with big ol’ King racing coilovers. While it was built to dominate desert races and not the drag strip, the buggy has roughly 50 less horsepower than the TRX and weighs half as much, so it’s easy to have an early favorite here, even if paper numbers don’t always translate to the real world.
To try and even things up, the drivers agree to a 500-foot race to kick things off to help the Ram TRX get off the line and down the track before the buggy can hook up. However, it doesn’t exactly go like that, as the buggy dead hooks and gets out to an early lead. However, the VW proves difficult to keep going in a straight line, and that’s enough to allow the TRX to take the win.
Since it was such a close race, the drivers agree to do another heads-up 500-foot stint the second go-round as well. The buggy gets an even better jump this time, and that proves to be the difference as it edges out the Ram TRX. However, in the tiebreaking third race, the buggy driver gets caught sleeping at the line and the TRX takes home an easy win.
The two very different vehicles in this wild showdown are surprisingly evenly matched, but the TRX ultimately emerges victorious. Proving once again that Ram’s beastly pickup may be a good off-roader, but it’s also a pretty darn awesome drag racer, too.
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