I own an 07 dodge ram which is my daily driver. Couldnt ask for a better highway cruiser. My other car is a Mazda Miata which I drive around town for fun and to save gas. I also race it with the SCCA. To give you an idea of its perfomance, a stock miata is going to be faster on most race tracks than a stock camaro. The miata is the most raced car in america, believe it or not. So its no 911 GT3 or Corvette, but its a competent sports car. As fast as a stock hemi in a straight line but in every other way superior.

I saw something interesting tonight. I was behind a guy in a Nissan Titan who was "cut off" by a guy in a mid 90s riceboy integra. This was leading into a twisty section of country road. I suppose the guy in the integra did not want to be behind the guy in the slow truck, so I can understand his wanting to get in front of the truck. So the integra takes a pretty good pace through the twistys, the titan is doing his best to keep up (body rolling, a little bit of tire chirp), and im behind both of them wishing they would go faster.

The integra turns off, and the truck guy is going pretty fast at this point and the road opens up to two lanes. He swerves in front of me to keep me from passing and he speeds up then slows down to use another car in the slow lane to block me from passing. There is a traffic circle ahead. I know how pathetic trucks handle so I wait for him to go through the circle (he takes both lanes, and I am easily able to pass him exiting the circle).

So he hauls after me and is on my bumper flashing his lights (were going 45 at this point) like _I_ did something wrong. He was the guy wringing his truck through the twistys at 60mph (posted 35) and swerving to keep me from passing. Oh well, the guy is a tard. I accept this. Must have been a real bad day being reminded twice in about 5 minutes that a truck cannot keep up with a car.

At a stop light ahead there are a couple other cars. He's in the turn lanenext tome and as he's passing to turn through the intersection, he whips a handful of change at my car. What a coward.

The moral of this story for all you truck drivers is this. The RAM IS A FULL SIZE PICKUP TRUCK AND IT IS SLOWER THAN MOST PERFORMANCE CARS IN WAYS YOU CANNOT IMAGINE UNLESS YOU ALSO OWN A SPORTS CAR. If you see a ricer cut you off, let him go! You are not going to be able to enact any quick turning, braking, or acceleration in a truck. You cant block him from passing. And if you are trying, the performance envelope of the truck is SO LOW that I guarantee you are driving 10x more dangerously than whoever else you see.

I love the RAM, like I said, its a great barge, but it is NOT a sports car. If you get torqued up when someone passes you or cuts you off, you need to trade the RAM in forsomething else.

 

Nice story.That guy with the Titan sounded like a very stupid ****.But what do you figure? Acura,Nissan?Japs love to race on the street lol.Seems they got Fast in the Furious syndrome lol.ANd if some *** threw change at my truck, the last thing he sees will be the nose of my ram going up the *** off his titan.

 

nah, if i had that miata and he threw change at me, id follow him home since he wouldnt be able to outrace me.

 

I would have had to cross through two lanes of traffic and go through a read light. Not a good idea at a major intersection next to a mall.

 

At the track maybe...it really dependson the year of the f-body and how many straights there are. LT1/LS1 f-bodies handle better then most people give them credit for. And at the strip you have no chance...

Also what year miata do you have? I know the 99's only run a high 15 low 16 1/4...even slower for the early/mid nineties miatas. IMO if your miata is stock you'll get walked hardby a RCSB hemi ram...probably even by a quad cab 2wd'er.

 

Its a 2000. High 15s 1/4. 0-60 7.6s. Numbers dont tell the whole story. The miata is equal to a hemi in straight line accel, but because of the manual transmission and short gear rations, you are always in the powerband. The automatic transmission in the hemi adds delay and it doesnt always pull as strong as it could depending on what speed you are going. Its a much better daily driver and it pulls strong on the freeway, but its not a sports car. And again, we're comparing it to a slow sports car. Any BMW, porsche, vette, will pull on it easily.

Regarding being faster than a Camaro, I'm just going by how the SCCA has them classed. Obviously will get spanked in a 1/4mi.

 

1/4 times are 1/4 times...those arewith the stick and short gears. If we were talking hp/tq numbers then yesI can see you saying it's quicker than whatthe hp and tq shows. Don't get me wrong though, I know rams aren't fast...but when properly equipped they can be good for low 15's stock.

I don't notice any shift delay when going WOT in my ram...part thottle shifting does delay a lot though. As far as it not feeling as strong depending on your speed, those are dead spots. You can avoid them by seeing and remembering which speeds they're at...that way you can get the tranny to kick down into the lowest gear available.

 

Dont get me wrong, I like the way the ram pulls, but say you're on the highway crusing behind a car at 60mph that you want to get around. Lets say there is a turnoff ahead and youre not sure if the car is going to turn off. . so you have to wait until you know what he's doing, double stab the throttle to get it to shift down, and then a second later the truck starts to take off. With a stick, you can shift ahead of time, you could be in 3rd gear at 5K waiting for him to make a move and accelerate instantly.

I think the ram pulls from 60-90 stronger than the miata, but because of the delay its effectively not as fast. Getting from point A to point B is always faster in the car.

 

racing a truck is gay

 

i've got to say i kinda find this post useless.... i will admit if i bought a ram thinking it was a sports car i would be highly upset both because it's way high off the ground and it weighs way too much for a car. if i bought my truck thinking it were a car i must have been hammered off my ***... the reason we buy trucks is because we love them we have a passion and a need. adding power is something that will always be done to any vehicle because people like more performance out of any vehicle, if your an enthusiast.

on another note....it's a miata...do you have a hair tie to match your paint?