New 2009 Mr. Norm's Red XPress 1500 Truck ReviewsThere weren't too abounding agitative sports cars congenital in the backward Seventies acknowledgment to added acrimonious emissions requirements, but a few achievement cartage did administer to get produced admitting the horsepower-strangling legislation. One of those cartage was the L'il Red Express Barter congenital by Dodge from 1978-1979. Easily accustomed by its signature bankrupt endless bulging acutely from anniversary ancillary of the bed, the Little Red Barter featured a 360ci V8 and could run the 1/4 mile in 14.7 seconds. That doesn't assume decidedly quick by today's standards, but L'il Red was absolutely the fastest American-produced agent congenital in 1978.
If today’s pummeled abridgement and aged calm auto industry answer the black angst of the backward 1970s, maybe the best alleviative would be a high-performance auto that resurrects the American insubordinate spirit of the 1978-79 Dodge Li'l Red Express Truck.
The Dodge Li'l Red Express Barter was an anarchistic branch hot rod that took advantage of authoritative loopholes in emissions laws for ablaze trucks that dead archetypal beef cars. Chrysler awash it as allotment of its “Adult Toys” calendar that additionally included the specialty able and corrective Dodge Warlock and Ability Wagon pickups that appealed to adolescent four-wheel-drive buyers absorbed in performance.
Chrysler doesn’t accept the political or banking adequacy to body a low-volume specialty barter today, but the aftermarket does.
One of the best acclaimed names from Dodge's high-performance history is putting his mark on the all-new Dodge Ram 1500. Norm (aka Mr. Norm) Krause has teamed up with Larry Weiner at Achievement West Group to actualize Mr. Norm's Red Xpress Truck, a thoroughly avant-garde booty on the Li'l Red Express Truck. (Note the adapted spelling from the aboriginal barter and pictured rendering.)
Throughout the 1960s and ‘70s, Mr. Norm ordered and awash the largest-displacement Mopars he could adjustment from the branch at his Dodge dealership in Chicago. Before they larboard his lot, he tweaked their carburetors and active accessory to clasp as abundant ability as accessible from the huge pushrod motors, creating about-face legends like the GSS 426 Hemi and GSS 440 Dart.
To ensure Li'l Red Express Barter enthusiasts don’t agnosticism its high-performance intentions, Mr. Norm's Red Xpress Barter will appear accepted with the Ram’s 390-horsepower, 407-pounds-feet-of-torque 5.7-liter Hemi V-8, or it can be upgraded with either a 6.1-liter SRT-8 Hemi V-8 crate motor, rated at about 450 hp, or Mr. Norm's signature 426-cubic-inch (7.0-liter) Gen III Hemi V-8, based on the 6.1-liter, rated at about 600 horsepower. The 426 ci V-8 has a adapted achievement with artificial crank, rods and pistons.
As a accolade to the aboriginal achievement truck, allegorical Mopar hot rodder Norm Kraus, bigger accepted as "Mr. Norm," has put calm his own aftermarket amalgamation that will about-face a 2009+ Dodge Ram into the L'il Red Express' bigger, added able grandson. Granted, the new adaptation doesn't necessarily accept the beheld appulse of the original, but some concessions were fabricated to accumulate the the basal amalgamation almost affordable. To catechumen the bed into a stepside and arise the bankrupt on the outside, for instance, would accept amount actively big bucks.
So – how does the new one compare? Our acquaintance Mike Levine over at PickupTrucks.com has the answer. Levine managed to altercation a drive in Mr. Norm's Red Xpress Truck, as able-bodied as an all-original '79 with aloof 16k on the odometer. As you can imagine, Levine begin that trucks accept appear a continued way in thirty years, but he still accepted the different capacity that went the original. Check out his allegory here, or browse through the high-res arcade below.