First Drive Review
We’re not sure who thought up the whole muscle-truck idea, but it’s not a terribly sensible one. By most measures, pickups are rather ill-suited for speedy travel, with innately lousy aerodynamics, high centers of gravity, nose-heavy weight distributions, and working-class suspensions. Adding buckets of power doesn’t turn them into sports cars, just marvelously brawny statements of one’s masculinity (or perhaps compensation for lack thereof).
That, of course, didn’t stop Ford from dishing out a few thousand 360- and 380-hp supercharged SVT F-150 Lightnings from 1999 until 2002. Nor did it deter Dodge from cramming a 500-hp Viper V-10 into its 2004–06 Ram SRT10. Brazen as they were, they were also far more expensive and less practical than standard pickups, with tap-dancing solid-axle rears that gave them high-drama handling, especially in inclement weather. Still, as with anything (or anyone) so obnoxious, there is a certain appeal, so we sorta miss those screwy behemoths now that they’re gone.
We’ve Been Tundra-Struck
We were intrigued when Toyota offered us some seat time in a short-bed, standard-cab Tundra that had been given a thorough in-house mechanical makeover using widely available and warranty-compliant TRD parts. The top-billed mod was a Roots-type supercharger taking the truck’s already stout 381-hp, 5.7-liter V-8 into the power stratosphere with 504 pressurized ponies and 550 lb-ft of torque. How do you say “Lightning” in Japanese? Calling it the “TundraStruck” would perhaps be more fitting.
The truck started out as an unassuming red Tundra SR5 press vehicle. From there, TRD added not only the supercharger ($5875) but also a dual-exhaust system ($1065) and a “big-brake kit” with 16-inch cross-drilled front rotors and six-piston calipers ($2795). The rest of the transformation came courtesy of performance-tuned front and rear shocks, revised front coil and rear leaf springs, and a new rear anti-roll bar ($1464), plus forged and polished 22-inch TRD wheels wrapped in massive 285/35 performance rubber ($4699). In total, the truck wound up lowered by 2.0 inches up front and 2.5 inches in the back, imparting some much-needed bad-assitude to the Tundra.
“Like Driving a Ballistic Building”
Now, we at Car and Driver are generally given to the notion that there are no such things as too many ponies or too much twist. Of course, one must have the traction to harness them. Trying to launch an unladen, rear-drive pickup with the power of a thousand suns was, to put it mildly, difficult. The truck’s traction-control light was on more often than it was off no matter where we were—the freeway, Sunset Boulevard, our living room. “It’s like you’re always on snow,” said C/D technical editor Aaron Robinson.
But we sure had fun trying. Dusty conditions at an impromptu testing location precluded us from getting trustworthy test numbers, but we feel pretty confident saying this truck would accomplish 0 to 60 in about 4.7 seconds and conquer a quarter-mile in 13.5 seconds. As with the Lightning and the SRT10, the sensation of such a big thing charging forward so dramatically is eerie. Robinson described it best: “It’s like driving a ballistic building.”
Accurately controlling the truck was sometimes as difficult as putting its power down. The gas pedal offered little resistance, which meant that bumps in the road inadvertently turned into highly dramatic unintended-acceleration events. Although it had good on-center feel, the unmodified steering system communicated nothing once the wheel was turned. The ride, on the other hand, wasn’t nearly as awful as we had expected, considering the paper-thin tires, stiffer dampers, and lower ride height. Indeed, the TRD suspension upgrades offered better body control during power transitions over the stock truck.
An Idea as Stupid as It’s Always Been
Still, what became abundantly clear is that goosing up a pickup truck to supercar output levels remains an exercise in wretched excess, not to mention a recipe for even more dismal fuel economy. And we think the TRD supercharger might work better under the hood of Toyota’s equally massive Sequoia SUV, a vehicle with more weight on the back end and thus, we surmise, better able to make use of the extra helping of go power. Of course, that thing would be stupid—and stupid fun—too.
