2004 Dodge Ram SRT-10: Fast car history lesson

Australia’s love of the big, brash ute, or pickup, is starting to border on obsessive. But America beat us to the punch, and in the realm of ‘brash’ there are few pickups more at home than the Dodge Ram SRT-10.

One of Dodge’s original press releases for the SRT-10 even opened with a dictionary definition for ‘excess’. And with an 8.3-litre V10 borrowed from a Dodge Viper, and outputs of 372kW and 712Nm, the Ram SRT-10 was excessive in the best way possible. That wasn’t the only Viper DNA intertwined with the SRT-10, as Dodge says the philosophy of “keep it simple and make it fast” was the driving idea behind the SRT-10. And fast it was.

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At the time, Dodge called it “the fastest and most powerful production pickup ever”. With a claimed top speed of 241km/h, and an officially tested top speed of 248.7km/h, the SRT-10 claimed the Guinness World Record for ‘fastest production pickup truck’. That was until the HSV VZ Maloo came along.

However, in true American style, the size and weight dimensions of the SRT-10 were just as sizeable as the power figures. It weighed an estimated (by Dodge) 5100 pounds, or a little over 2.3 tonnes. Add to that its 5.16 metre length with a 3.0 metre wheelbase, and 3.2-square-metres of real estate on its face.

Of course, an even bigger version had to eventually come along, with Dodge revealing the Quad Cab in 2005. The Quad was a whopping 5.77 metres long, and Dodge estimated its weight at about 2470kg.

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With all that heft, the Quad Cab’s four-speed automatic gearbox has no hope of getting it anywhere near a Guinness World Record, unlike its six-speed, two-door sibling.

As both versions were built on a ladder-frame chassis with a live rear axle, neither would ever take the crown for driving dynamics, but the two-door’s record-breaking top speed has guaranteed it a place in the fast car history books.

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2004 DODGE RAM SRT-10 SPECS
Engine: 8275cc V10, OHV, 20v
Power: 372kW @ 5600rpm
Torque: 712Nm @ 4200rpm
0-100km/h: 5.2sec (est)
Price (new): USD$45,795 (AUD$64K)