Last week the upcoming 2021 Ram 1500 Rebel TRX was caught while testing on the streets of Metro Detroit. Now our friends at Motor1.com have received some interesting information from an anonymous source. While we can’t confirm all of the information that the source has leaked to the Motor1.com team, we can say that some of it is very interesting.
According to Motor1.com, the source claimed to have read their article of the spy shots of the recent prototype rolling around Metro Detroit and reached out to tell them they had spent some time behind the wheel of one of these prototypes. The source claims that a Detroit-based company who manufacturers prototypes and provides engineering services has built 40 of prototypes of the supercharged HEMI offroader. There is one company who we know has a great working relationship with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), who provides those services and has experience building supercharged off-road trucks.
The source claims that this company built 39 of them with the HELLCAT motor, while 1 of the truck is running around with a Demon (or SRT HELLCAT Redeye) engine under the hood. Now, we have seen prototypes from the Rebel TR program running around the state of Arizona with a regular Ram 1500 body on them. However, our sources have confirmed that the TR program has been shelved. These TRX prototypes though, are very different, the stance of the trucks is much taller and wider than the TR prototypes we saw running around last year.
The source also said that the engine features a “Viper-style” ram-air induction system. According to our sources, the truck will indeed have a large hood intake styled like the 5th generation Vipers center intake to help cool the massive 6.2-liter supercharged HEMI V8. The other interesting thing we heard in the Motor1 notes, is that there would be a 10-speed automatic transmission in the package. From what 5thGenRams.com has heard, it sounds like a ZF-source 8-speed automatic would be the transmission of choice for the Ram engineers. FCA and ZF have had a great partnership, and ZF sourced 8-speed automatic transmission, already back all supercharged HEMI options, including the all-wheel-drive Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk.
You can continue reading more details in Motor1.com’s article. But it seems like the source can back up a few things our sources have been saying, while a few other details don’t seem to line up. This information should be taken as pure speculation, but it is interesting nonetheless.
