2025 Ram 1500 Laramie 4x4 Crew Cab on 2040-cars

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Ram wants 'your wickedest and most outrageous designs' for a truck — now

Car coloring book pages have been a handy distraction during quarantine, but Fiat Chrysler has a better idea: Make your own coloring book page and perhaps win accolades in the FCA Design Sketch Battle. The automaker runs an annual Drive for Design competition for U.S. high school students in grades 10-12, and has just opened a contest-within-a-contest that's open to anyone in the world. The brief is to sketch "your wickedest and most outrageous designs for a Ram truck." For all those times you've had an idea about a pickup and thought, "This is what [insert OEM] needs to make! If I could only get to the boss!," now is your chance to get to the boss. Post your sketch — or sketches — into the comments section of the contest on FCA's Facebook page, or upload the drawing(s) to Twitter and call out the automaker with @FiatChrysler_NA. Each drawing needs to have "FCADriveforDesign.com" written on it somewhere, and each social media post needs to be garnished with the hashtag #DriveforDesign.  The contest judges are Mark Gilles, Fiat Chrysler head of design, and Mark Trostle, head of design for Ram and Mopar. They've attempted to juice the creative brain with a punch to the prefrontal cortex called the RAMpage. Playing off the name of a car-based pickup from the go-go 1980s that lasted two years — about how long 2020 feels already — the RAMpage is a Ram 1500 hood and upper fascia, a Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Widebody lower front and body, a pickup bed, and it's accented with obligatory yellow splitter guards that have matured into a properly racy splitter. You can take the RAMpage as a cue that your drawing doesn't need to threaten the living with massive bulk and post-apocalyptic looks. Ricky Ryan Goimarac, one of the entries so far, made his own version of the RAMpage that looks pretty sexy. And with the Chevrolet Colorado ZR2, ZR2 Bison, and Ford Ranger Raptor still not quite there for some people, why wouldn't a mid-size Dakota TRX be a good idea right now? Here's the crucial part: All entries need to be submitted today, April 9th, no later than 5 p.m. Eastern. So yeah, there's not much time, but ... quarantine. Tomorrow, April 10, Gilles and Trostle will post their favorites to Instagram. For all those design-focused high-schoolers, entries for the official Drive for Design contest are due by May 1, 2020. Related Video:    

Ram shows off Ignition Orange and Black Sport with standard Hemi engine

If a buyer is even considering a pickup, Ram wants to make sure that it has a variant of the venerable 1500 ready. From the outdoorsy Rebel to the plush Laramie Limited, there seems to be something for even the smallest niche, but apparently that isn't the case. The truck maker adds two more versions later this year with the brash Ignition Orange Sport and subdued Black Sport, and they're limited to 1,000 units each. The Ignition Orange gets eye-grabbing paint over most of the truck, including the trim, except for a few black accents like the hood stripes. The same color gets carried inside for the seat inserts, stitching and logos, too. Alternatively, the Black Sport makes everything dark, including the exterior and 20-inch wheels. Even the interior is clad in black leather with some chrome accents providing some relief. Beyond the special trim, both trucks are based on the Ram 1500 Sport Crew Cab and add $1,595 to the price of one. They come with a 395-horsepower V8, eight-speed automatic and 3.92 gearing. Inside, there's an 8.4-inch Uconnect system with navigation and rearview camera. There's also a choice of rear- or all-wheel drive. Feel free to read more, below. Ram 1500 Offers Two New Buzz Models in Sport Trim Ram 1500 Ignition Orange Sport features unique interior colors, body-colored accents and limited edition bright orange paint, appreciated up close and at 10,000 feet Ram 1500 Black Sport takes design cues from popular Black Express package, offering customers a customized appearance including black 20" wheels and a sport hood New Ram 1500 Sport buzz models are limited production of 1,000 trucks each March 12, 2015 , Auburn Hills, Mich. - The Ram Truck brand announced today that it will add two new Ram 1500 buzz models in Sport trim - the Ram 1500 Ignition Orange Sport and the Ram 1500 Black Sport. "With a standard HEMI® V-8, the Sport model offers unique features for the customer who likes aggressive styling and great performance but still needs a truck," said Bob Hegbloom – President and CEO, Ram Truck Brand. "Adding limited edition Ignition Orange and Black Sport models will give our buyers a custom appearance on an already eye-catching truck with all the capability our customers expect." The limited-edition trucks are available in Crew Cab 4x2 and 4x4.

Ram mulling superlux pickup above Laramie Longhorn

Looking at the fullsize pickup landscape, automakers are bringing more and more luxury to the mix. Ford has its King Ranch, GMC has the Denali and now Chevrolet is adding a High Country model, but it sounds like Ram might be looking to make a step up from its already posh Laramie Longhorn trim (shown above). Speaking with new Ram boss Reid Bigland, Automobile is reporting that Chrysler could be looking to reach even higher to add even more premium accoutrements to its truck line.
It's hard to imagine how much higher Ram could get with its luxury especially considering the 2013 Ram 3500 HD Laramie Longhorn used for our recent First Drive carried an as-tested price of $70,285 - even lighter-duty 1500 models start at $45k in LL trim. We wonder if this means we might finally get to see a production version of the Ram Long Hauler that we saw testing earlier in the year. Either way, high-dollar pickups add up to massive profit margins for automakers, so as long as there are customers willing to pay the price, we'll doubtlessly continue to see more premium features inside future trucks.