The insane power levels that are available from diesel engines in trucks these days really make our mouths water. You can buy a pickup truck now that makes equivalent power to a medium-duty straight truck and that rules. The diesel truck wars have been seriously raging for more than ten years among the Big Three. As cool as the Duramax is in the GM offerings, it is hard to argue against the awesome historical record of the Cummins I6 in the Ram trucks. They rule for towing, hauling, and as this link will show you, stick shift training.
Ezra Dyer is a name you may be familiar with if you read magazines like Automobile, or frequent the Wheels blog over at the New York Times. We dig Ezra’s stuff because it is funny and he always seems to have an interesting take on things. He’s also a local guy to our east coast office, so we have the whole homer thing happening too.
Anyway, Dyer managed to get his paws on a new 2010 Ram 3500 equipped with the 350hp 650 lb/ft Cummins engine and a stick box. He shows the benefits of big torque by doing some impromptu testing and then turning the wheel over to a girl who has never driven a stick shift before.
If you’ve ever tried to teach anyone to drive a stick in a four banger, you’ll chuck eggs at the screen when you see how easy it is to learn on a truck making more than 600 lb/ft of torque. It’s pretty fun to watch. See the link below.
Source — The NY Times Wheels Blog — Learning to drive a manual? Try the Ram 3500
