Here's a question: why would anyone want a pickup truck that accelerates from 0 to 60 in 5.2 seconds? Don't most people prefer a flatbed that's comfortable or practical or reliable or fuel-efficient or… something other than monstrously quick? What's the point of a Porsche-killing pickup?
Bragging rights. Drivers of the Dodge Ram SRT-10 bask in the knowledge that they're behind the wheel of the world's fastest pickup truck. And by God, they want everyone to know it. And by God, they will. Anyone who stands eyeball-to-eyeball with an SRT-10 will be in no doubt that The Dodge Boys' uber-pickup is in a league of its own.
Truth be told, an SRT-10 under full acceleration is brutal– and it's not just the neck-snapping G-forces. Over any surface rougher than a baby's backside, the SRT-10 jumps, hops, squirms, and bucks. If you power the pickup around a bend with so much as a manhole cover obscuring your chosen line, you better be ready for some quick course correction. An irregular series of mid-corner bumps at anything above a jogging pace is a deeply unsettling experience– for all concerned.
No surprise there: the SRT-10 is a truck, with payload-friendly rear leaf suspension. The Dodge Boys have done everything in their power to try to overcome this limitation. They lowered the chassis, popped in the mother of all truck axles (a Dana M60), devised new front and rear strut assemblies, installed a heavier rear sway bar, and so on. The result tracks well on smooth surfaces and rolls not a lot, but it still takes nerves of steel to corner this brute at speed. I supposed the fact that it corners at all is a major accomplishment, given the amount of horsepower involved.
The SRT-10 was never going to be both the fastest and the best handling truck. It was built for American buyers with a damn-the-mpg (it gets nine), straight-line mentality. Truck guys who love the fact that NASCAR driver Brendan Gaughan set the new pickup truck speed record (154.587mph). And guess what? He didn't even fold in the 10's side mirrors. For some people, that's all the reason they need to buy one.