Quick Ride: Ram 1500 Rumble Bee Concept

[William Maley]

There are days where I consider myself the luckiest person alive. A couple weeks ago, I had the chance to go for a ride in a very special truck. A fellow colleague of mine had the great fortune of getting his hands on the Ram 1500 Rumble Bee concept and was wondering if anyone wanted to check it out. Why not I thought to myself and sent a message to him saying I would like to see it. Before too long, I heard the rumble of a V8 entering my neighborhood and I knew the truck had arrived.

Now the Rumble Bee Concept debuted last year during the Woodward Dream Cruise. Starting life as a standard 2013 Ram 1500 R/T regular cab with the 5.7L HEMI V8, Ram dug through its toy box and installed a new exhaust system, intake, and 4.10 final drive setup. The truck also got matte yellow paint job with black striping, the Rumble Bee logo, twenty-four inch wheels, and much more.

Seeing the Rumble Bee Concept in person, it gives the impression that it wants to be seen. During my brief ride in the truck, I couldn't help but not people passing in the other lane or walking notice the bright yellow truck. It probably helped that the exhaust note could be heard throughout the county. The Rumble Bee has two settings for the exhaust, Loud and LOUDER!. In Loud, the Rumble Bee sounds like you fitted an aftermarket exhaust to bring out the magnificent noise of the V8. In LOUDER!, it sounds like you're driving around in a drag car. This is due to the switch closing the exhaust pipe and dropping exhaust below the driver.

Aside from the noise that could cause your local constabulary to have a nice chat with you, the Rumble Bee concept is very much like the standard Ram 1500. The dash layout is easy to use and the bucket seats are very comfortable. The UConnect system and AC system worked and were nice to have in this concept.

While I didn't get the chance to drive the Ram 1500 Rumble Bee concept, just getting the chance to see it in person and have a ride was a awesome. The Ram 1500 Rumble Bee concept is mean-looking looking that has a vicious bite to go with it.

Of course the question comes up of whether or not Ram will put this into production. My guess is maybe. Ram has been tinkering around with a high-performance model by doing a number of concepts, the Rumble Bee being one of them. Even though Dodge has been christened with being the performance brand, I'm sure they would be ok if Ram had something of their own. Maybe they could even have a Hellcat Ram.

Author's Note: I want to give a huge thanks to Chad Kirchner for bringing over the Ram 1500 Rumble Bee Concept and giving me a ride in it. You can check out Chad's first impressions on the Rumble Bee Concept by heading over to TFLTruck.com. - WM

William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster.

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[G. David Felt]

Very Cool, Did you get any pictures of the underside with this muffler system or the engine bay? Always cool to see how the OEM does things.

[William Maley]

Very Cool, Did you get any pictures of the underside with this muffler system or the engine bay? Always cool to see how the OEM does things.

 

I do have a shot of the engine bay, but I think its still on my camera. Let me go find it and I'll upload it here in a bit.

[A Horse With No Name]

Neat looking truck.  I love how aggressive Dodge trucks are.