The other day Zack and I were riding our bikes (yes we ride bicycles) down a busy road. We were minding our business, riding side-by-side on the large shoulder. And before I continue telling this story let me personally address that Ram owner who is still fuming: there was plenty of room for you to fit both your enormous truck and ego without slowing down. The honking was not necessary.
Anyhow we were riding bicycles. Get over it. It was a dreary day and I wasn’t particularly enjoying my ride when all of the sudden a truck like nothing I had ever seen rumbled by. I looked to my left at Zack. Zack looked over at me. Now keep in mind that the traffic on our left was doing about twice our speed. Often Zack and I see cool trucks whiz by but never get to capture a photo for you, the loyal PN reader. It breaks my heart a little bit each time. But this truck was just too special to lose. Once the initial confusion that this beast of a truck had inspired wore off (was it a pickup?), we sprinted hard and thankfully, right around bend in the road there was a red light. The truck was stopped and I hopped onto the sidewalk to get this shot:
At first, I thought it was just a Semi without a trailer hooked up to it, but my eyes focused on what looked almost certainly like a pickup bed. Both of us were incredibly confused. What was it? A semi or a pickup? The ultimate Maryland truck? A PLV of sorts? Who makes it? Why does that bed look suspiciously like a Dodge’s- erm Ram’s?
We rode up the sidewalk and turned right at the intersection in front of all the traffic including the truck. The truck also turned right, so we got to admire this thing as it went around us again. I caught the name of the front of the truck this time: Freightliner. Hmmm. More questions.
Well, as you may imagine, the truck consumed our conversation for the rest of the ride. Just what had we seen? Was it a completely custom, one-off job, or are there more than just one of these things on the road? When we got back, we did a little research and found the name of what we had just seen. No, it’s not a semi that some guy put a bed on in his backyard. It is called a “SportChassis”.
Their website offers a wealth of information once you scroll past their enormous banner ad for their newest dealer:
They’re made in California (where else?). Their tag line is apparently "the ultimate pickup line". And actually, they have quite a few models—including one that’s even bigger(!) and one that has a cap.
It seems that their market is the Ram buyers with a bit more to compensate for and a lot more to spend. This truck doesn’t say “mine is bigger”, it says “mine is the biggest”. Their website says of the P2XL model, "Size Matters: It's not about how fast your car is; it's about the size of your truck. Living up to a name can be hard, but the P2XL really is the Ultimate Pickup." These trucks have eight-point-something liter Cummins diesel engines with 1000 ft-lbs of torque. But they're pickup trucks and they're marketed as pickups. They defy rationality and utility all at once.
I think we’ve got a new winner in the Most Compensating category.
No comments:
Post a Comment