Ram Charger

IF A NATURALLY ASPIRATED PETROL V8 DOESN’T DELIVER THE TORQUE YOU’RE LOOKING FOR, THEN A SUPERCHARGER KIT WILL PROVIDE THE BOOST YOU SEEK.

- Matt Raudonikis

THE ARRIVAL of the Ram 1500 with its 5.7-litre Hemi V8 engine has been seen by some as the new alternative for V8 ute buyers who might have once looked to Ford and Holden for their vehicles of choice. With no locally made utes available anymore and none of the popular 4x4 midsize utes offering a petrol engine option, let alone a V8, these full size American pick-ups are really your best option.

With prices for the Ram 1500 Express V8 DS starting from $79,950 driveaway from Ram Trucks Australia, you can get into one for around the same price an old 2WD Holden or Ford ute from HSV or FPV would have cost. Ram variants including the more modern 1500 DT are available from importers other than Ram Trucks Australia.

The standard Ram 1500 Laramie V8 was a great jigger when we tested it in standard trim last year but, like most petrol engines, the Hemi V8 lacks the torque and grunt of a big diesel powerplant. You need to step up to the Ram 2500 to get the awesome Cummins inline-six-powered models, or the Ram 1500 EcoDiesel V6 that has just been launched here. However, you won’t land either of them on the friendly side of $100K.

Melbourne tuning house and supercharger specialist Harrop Performance nabbed a base-spec Ram Express 1500 V8 and applied its talents to rectifying any lack of bottom-end mumbo. How did it do that? It simply bolted a big, fat supercharger to that V8 engine.

While hot-rodders have been bolting blowers to the top of V8s for generations, there’s a lot more to it when you want to engineer and produce a product to OE (original equipment) standards, as Harrop does. Harrop has been successfully developing supercharger kits for Ford and Holden V8 cars for years and even has packages for 4x4s, such as the Y62 Patrol with its VK56 5.6-litre V8 and the Toyota Tundra with its 5.7-litre V8. FCA’s modern Hemi V8, as found in the Ram or Jeep Grand Cherokee, was the logical next step.