Blog Posts
March 11, 2022
by Michael Butler Trucks / 5 Comments
That's slower than a Toyota Prius.
Super trucks are all the rage at the moment. People can't get enough of machines like the Ford F-150 Raptor and the new kid on the block, the Ram 1500 TRX. This 702-horsepower mega-truck delivers insane performance and huge bragging rights in the US, but what about the rest of the world? In Scandinavian countries such as Finland and Sweden, American muscle is the name of the game, and driving a big V8-powered car around earns you big street cred, especially if it's a gigantic Hennessey Mammoth, the 1,012 hp tuned version of the 1500 TRX.
One of these trucks recently appeared in a Finnish auto classified site called nettiauto.com with an asking price of $272,000 - twice the cost of getting one Stateside. But if the price itself wasn't hard enough to swallow, there's another penalty even bigger: a limited top speed of 55 mph.
The Standard Ram 1500 TRX is no slow-poke; capable of 0-60 mph in only 4.5 seconds, a 12.9-second quarter-mile at 108 mph, and a top speed of 118 mph. The Hennessey Mammoth is even more capable, hitting 60 in just 3.2 seconds and smashing the 1/4-mile in 11.4. So why is its top speed capped at less than half of what the base truck is capable of?
As it turns out, there's a very good reason why the seller has done so, and it reeks of bureaucracy. In order to avoid a ton of taxes, this regal beast has had it have its horns filed down. Due to the stringent emissions taxes and regulations in Finland, this Ram, which produces over 500 g/km of CO2 emissions, would have to pay Finnish import regulators a massive tax of 44.8 percent, but there's a brilliant loophole.
Its weight of 7,802 lbs is a few pounds over the threshold for what Finns consider commercial vehicles. The TRX is classified as an N2 vehicle over there, which means it's excluded from the hefty emissions-related import tax. Unfortunately due to its new classification, the Mammoth has to abide by certain European Union bylaws that state that N2 classified vehicles have to be officially limited to 90 km/h, or 55 mph.
According to the ad, the car will be available in Finland by April as it is currently still located in Florida. If you're an eager Finnish buyer, we'd recommend flying over and enjoying the truck before it gets neutered.
Perhaps the owner will be able to disable the limiter when using it off-road since Finland is famous for phenomenal rally stages and ice drifting.
