2009 Dodge Ram - There's Somethin Bout A Truck

 And there's somethin bout you and me and the birds and the bees

And lord have mercy, it's a beautiful thing
Ain't nothin bout it luck, there's somethin bout a truck

 

                                                          -Kip Moore, Somethin' Bout A Truck 

 

Growing up twenty five minutes or so east of Times Square in the 1970's and '80s, no one I knew who wasn't a tradesman of some sort drove a "truck" like this 2009 Dodge Ram. Those few that did endured a fair amount of ridicule something to the affect of, "what are you, sum kinda hillbilly"? Might be old age settling in enabling me to be even more open minded or its my now more than ten years living in the Midwest, but I have fallen long and hard for simple work trucks like this. While I still have a hard time fathoming why anyone would drive a pickup as a daily driver who didn't need it's abundant utility, I love the balanced proportion of the design of these regular cab, short bed pickups.

 

 

Extended cab trucks with longer beds might offer more utility than our subject here can muster but then again, their proportion and balance of design goes out the tailgate. If I was to spring for a truck it would be something like this. Why buy a jack hammer when all I need is a hammer?

 

 

Of the Big Three's pickups,  I find the Chevrolet Silverado to be the most handsome although the Ford F series has been outselling it for years. Dodge is a distant third despite this fetchng "big rig" front end that they've been producing in some form or another since 1994. Prior to this design, Dodge truck design was clearly influenced by whatever Chevrolet or Ford was doing. Toyota and Nissan have been offering very good full size pickups for years now too and as fine appliances as they are, they don't sell nearly as well as the trucks from the Big Three.

 

 

A ram charging hood ornament first appeared on a Dodge car in 1933, the first Dodge Ram pickup debuted in 1981. Prior to that, Dodge pickups had been designated "B" series from 1948 to 1953, "C" series from 1954 to 1960 and "D" series from 1961 to 1980. The lack of engine badging on our subject here tells me this thing may very well be a 3.7 liter, SOHC V-6 powered two wheel driver. A slow poke engine and two wheel drive? Yikes. Not exactly the type of thing you want to be driving come winter here in north east Ohio.

 

 

The rust spots, the finish coming off the wheels, the littered interior (which I did not photograph) and this very expensive to replace headlight lens tells me everything I need to know about this truck; it's a no frills work-a-day hauler that's ridden hard and put a way wet. Still, I want it. Crummy V-6 and all.

 

 

As much as I like these trucks, I can't imagine ever owning one and being able to "pull it off"; my younger son said that I'm not cool enough to drive a truck. Thanks, son. Nothing quite as humiliating as driving something that some people would scoff at you for driving but I really would enjoy it's utility as much as I'd enjoy it's near perfect balance and proportion. Would be weird from a guy from Long Island to suddenly drive a truck but whatever. Insert cheesy trumpet "wah-wah" when I say that there really is, "Somethin' 'Bout A Truck".

 

 

1977 Pontiac Can Am - The All American

The 1977 Pontiac Can Am, not be confused with the Grand Am or, Trans Am was a one year only model that was introduced mid year and was built off a platform that was slated for replacement the very next model year. What was the point you're asking? I've been asking that for almost forty years. Still, I'm glad they did this car; I've always thought them out of this world gorgeous. Let's take a closer look. 

The 1977 Pontiac Can Am was an option package on the LeMans Sport Coupe. Powered by one of two engines that were available in Trans Am's that year, either a Pontiac 400 or Oldsmobile 403 (California only), complete with shaker hood no less, Can Am's also featured more bits and pieces from the more upscale Grand Prix' interior than your typical LeMans was available with. There was also a killer stripe package and a duck tail spoiler that brought the whole look together. Personally, I could live without the shaker, I find them silly and distracting but oh! That duck tail rear spoiler.

If you're wondering, the way you can tell which engine a Can Am had, aside from opening up the hood, is by what decal is on the shaker. Same goes for 1977-1979 Trans Am's. "6.6 LITRE", like our subject has, denotes the Oldsmobile 403 while "T/A 6.6" means the car has the Pontiac 400.

So, why did Pontiac build a limited run of very unique automobiles at the end of a vehicle platform's production run? Who knows. Perhaps it was to appease Jim Wanger. Who? Read on. Can Am's began their very short lives in 1975 as a bicentennial themed automobile called, "All American". Pontiac executives rejected the idea seeing that the market was flooded with bicentennial themed cars and the similar looking Grand Am of 1973-1975  was not exactly a high volume automobile either. So, the prototype for the All American sat behind Pontiac engineering headquarters for upwards of a year until Jim Wanger, Pontiac's legendary, former P. R. whiz, working as a consultant for Pontiac by then, saw the car and came up with an idea for a GTO like automobile that could inject some much needed pizzaz into Pontiac's lineup. Take note of that handsome spoiler.



 

Wanger called his concept "The Judge", after his 1969 GTO but it was a tough putt. Muscle cars were verboten in the late '70's and Pontiac executives rejected it. Keeping the 1969 Judge's black and orange striping, they did approve this car that was named after the Can American sports car racing series that was run between 1966 and 1987. Is this car a sports car? No. Was the Pontiac Trans Am ever a "Trans Am" car". Umm, no...the Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 was, though. Gosh how I love General Motors.

 

Seeing that all of the conversion work would be done at Wanger's own shop, "Motorworks", we can hypothesize that GM probably acquienced and green lighted a maximum of 5,000 Can Am's. What did they have to lose? At Wanger's shop,  the LeMans' received it's Can Am stripes, shaker, special hood and it's infamous spoiler. Legend has that after only 1,377 Can Am's were built, the tooling broke that made the spoiler. With the cost to repair it at the time prohibitive and the model year running out, time also ran out on the Can Am. Shame too. Really nice car.