The HOT ROD Hemi Ram

Does anyone remember Dodge's "Mayor of Truckville" Ram pickup truck magazine, TV, and radio advertising campaign of the early 2000s?

- Steve Magnante

 It was the dawn of the 21st century; the "big rig" styled 1994-up Ram pickup trucks were giving Ford and GM a good fight, and I was a tech editor right here at HOT ROD magazine. My tenure at HRM ran from Tuesday, August 19, 1997, to Tuesday, January 20, 2004, and happily, during my direct involvement in 77 issues of HRM, I was there to witness the dawn of the Gen III Hemi dynasty. This is the story of the Hot Rod Hemi Ram project of 2001 and 2002.

To help prime the pump for the 2003 launch of the so-called 5.7 Liter Hemi Magnum V8 aboard 2500 and 3500 series Dodge Ram trucks (and 1500's in 2004), an idea was hatched for us guys at HRM to stuff a Mopar Performance Gen II 528 Hemi crate engine into a brand new Dodge pickup truck as a fun way of preparing HRM readers for the upcoming 5.7 Hemi Magnum powered Dodge Ram trucks that were still a year away from showrooms.

It was the early fall of 2001 when Dodge shipped a shiny black pre-production Ram 1500 short bed pickup to the Petersen Building's Wilshire Boulevard address. I noted its 4.7 liter Power Tech V8 (an AMC design, not a Hemi) and how there were inventory barcode stickers applied to the framerails that were oddly upside down. Unfortunately, I neglected to record the VIN-it was probably a pilot-build 2002 "time warp" machine.