If you're used to driving...
If you're used to driving big, torque-tuned pickups, you'd probably never guess just how quick a full-sizer can be. From zero to 60 mph, these two 2.5-ton beasts run like Pat Buchanan at an Eminem concert.
The Players
Potent V-8s and athletic suspensions transform two pickups, the Chevrolet Silverado SS ($39,995) and the Dodge Ram 1500 SLT Hemi ($27,820), into sport-sedan intimidators.
The Game
To determine our favorite of these two sport pickups, we mash down hard on their throttle pedals. A lot. Yes, we get paid to do this.
It's never been difficult to find horses around pickup trucks. The two seem made for each other, like Michael Moore and heckling. Lately, though, finding horses around pickups has become downright effortless: All you have to do is lift the hood.
Take a whiff: There's a new scent wafting through the air. That's because, for a fast-growing breed of sport pickups, the payload isn't horse manure--it's horsepower. No doubt inspired by all the whoopin' and hollerin' they're attracting in NASCAR's bed-bashing Craftsman Truck Race Series, all three major American pickup makers--Ford, Chevy, and Dodge--are now producing adrenalized street versions of their most popular models. Are these trucks true to the rubber-smoking spirit of their Craftsman-decaled counterparts? To find out, we gathered two of them, the Dodge Ram 1500 SLT Hemi and the Chevrolet Silverado SS, for a head-to-head comparo. (Okay, hold your letters. Rather than invite a lame duck to the party, we intentionally left Ford's entry, the supercharged Harley-Davidson F-150, out of this competition; it's about to be retired in its current form, as is the '03 Lightning. Look for the Harley to reappear in '04 as a new Super Duty model--see sidebar.)
If you think gym-pumped pickups are a passing fad, think again. A relative newcomer to the full-size-pickup fray, Toyota, will soon enter a race truck of its own in the Craftsman Series (see photo box). More pickup muscle is headed to our streets, too. Within a few months, Dodge will release its 500-horsepower, Viper-engined Ram SRT-10, a pickup quite possibly fast enough to transform a bale of hay into a diamond. Sometime in the '05 model year, Ford is expected to launch a counterstrike with its similarly outrageous Lightning SVT.
A rear-drive, V-8-powered...
A rear-drive, V-8-powered drag race between a Chevy and a Dodge usually meant a Camaro and a Challenger lining up at the lights, but now the concept is reserved for trucks. So far, the SS is offered only in extended-cab form, while the sportified Ram comes in either standard-cab or crew-cab sizes.
The volume players, however, will remain entries like the Ram Hemi and the Silverado SS. So join us as we take to road and racetrack for a thorough shakedown of these two pickup-shaped hot rods.
Our Take
Chevrolet Silverado SSWhat's Hot
• Big-bore acceleration
• Spectacular brakes
• Square-jawed profile
What's Not
• Parts-bin cabin
• Unpolished suspension
• Exorbitant sticker
Don't Miss
• Binders that can outbrake a BMW 540i
Bottom Line
• Plenty of go, but too much dough
What's Hot
• Prodigious Hemi power
• Impeccable tailoring
• Graceful moves
What's Not
• Lengthy stops
• No back seat (Regular cab)
• Wheels too damn shiny?
Don't Miss
• Effortless, adolescent smoky burnouts
Bottom Line
• The very definition of "bang for the truck"