But we’re not talking about the Lightning today, and we’re definitely not rehashing the Tremor. Ford’s SVT lightning may be the quintessential sport truck among enthusiasts of that vehicle segment, but it wasn’t the fastest or the most powerful production pickup truck ever made in its day.
That distinction (certified by Guinness World Records) was given to the Dodge SRT-10 sport truck, offered from 2004-2006. That SRT stands for Street and Racing Technology, by the way.
The one we’re looking at today is a bit different from the hard core SRT-10 that set the record. That truck was a regular cab pickup with a 6 speed manual. Today’s truck is Dodge’s quad cab version of the SRT-10, which is 350 lbs heavier, has a 20” longer wheel base, and was available only with a 4 speed automatic transmission. This set up is kind of a compromise between straight up sport truck and functional pickup truck. The quad cab also came with a trailer hitch and can tow up to 7,500 lbs. But, before you go thinking that compromise means this is some weak little watered down truck, keep in mind, this quad cab version is still able to pull off scorching burn outs.
Under its hood, the SRT-10 packs a power plant borrowed from the Dodge Viper, an 8.3L (505 cu in) V-10 that produces 500 HP and 525 lb-ft of torque. In 2005, the base price for an SRT-10 Quad cab was $50,000. That doesn’t sound too bad if you consider it in terms of Horsepower to dollars. $100 per horse, as it turns out.
…And that’s not even mentioning the special stuff done to the interior and exterior of the truck. Inside, you’ll find white-faced gauges, bolstered, racing style seats, brushed aluminum accent trim and special embroidery work on the upholstery. Outside, the SRT-10 comes with a hood scoop in front, and in back, dual exhaust tips, a big spoiler spanning from one side of the bed to the other, and an aluminum tonneau cover that was standard on the quad cab and optional on the regular cab SRT-10.
The down side of all that power and performance is that if you own an SRT-10, you’ll probably have to fill the fuel tank often and at great expense. The SRT-10 is rated at 9 MPG in the city and 12 for highway driving. Drive one of these things the way they were meant to be driven though, and you’ll probably see much lower figures for those MPGs. To be fair, we’ll work with the 9/12 MPG calculations. With the SRT-10’s 26 gallon tank, that’s only 312 miles maximum between fill ups, which factored at today’s national average price per gallon of $3.68 will cost $95.68 to take from empty to full. If you read the last post discussing expensive headlight bulbs, you may recall that for just about that same amount of money, you could buy a single HID Xenon bulb for a Lincoln MKZ, so take that for whatever you think it‘s worth. In other words, at its most efficient, driving this truck will cost you a little over 30 cents per mile before you start to factor in oil changes and other maintenance costs -not to mention the cost of buying the truck to begin with. Still, I’d say it’s worth it to have at your command the kind of power that can break a Guinness world record.
Of course, today’s SRT-10 is not new, and as such doesn’t carry a new price tag. It’s a 2005 model, and though it is now 9 years old, when I spotted it some months ago, it was priced at $20,577. It looks to be in good shape, and if I recall correctly, the mileage wasn’t very high (I’d be surprised if it was, given how much of an investment it would take to buy the fuel needed to pile a lot of miles on one of these). So, it’s older but it still looks pretty good. Its styling doesn’t look dated compared to a 2014 model Ram truck (which is now just a Ram truck rather than a Dodge Ram truck), and it can be had at less than half the price of what a brand new one cost back in 2005.
The Verdict: I’d shudder at the prospect of filling its tank on a regular basis, but I’d love to get behind the wheel of an SRT-10 for a while.
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