Write Your Congressman: On the Endangered Supercharged V8
Ram built the loudest truck of the era the same week a silent compact was crowned. Drive Observer asks readers to address the matter to Washington.
A great American sound is being phased out without ceremony, and no one in power has thought to mark the date. This week Ram opened orders on the 2027 Ram 1500 TRX SRT, by the company's own account the most powerful production gas-powered off-road truck ever made: 777 horsepower and 680 lb-ft from a 6.2-liter supercharged HEMI V8, zero to sixty in 3.5 seconds, a top speed of 118 mph. The same week, a quality study handed its highest honors to a compact sedan that makes no sound at all. We do not begrudge the sedan. We mourn the silence.
The supercharged V8 is now an endangered species. It is bred in shrinking numbers, hunted by committee, and defended by no one who holds office. This will not stand while Drive Observer still goes to press.
Your representative was elected to serve you. Remind your representative that a 777-horsepower combustion truck you can order today, at an MSRP of $99,995 (destination $2,795 is separate, as honesty requires), is a thing this era may never build again. When it is gone, no subcommittee will be able to summon it back.
Write today. Be brief, be firm, and be specific. Tell them the supercharged V8 is a matter of national character. Demand that the record show you stood for the loud thing while standing for loud things was unfashionable.
Address your letter to your member of Congress. Open with the words: "I am a driver, and I am writing in defense of the supercharged V8." Close with: "History is listening, and for now it can still hear the engine."
Then mail it. Postage is cheap. The sound is not.