How This Forgotten V8 Concept Truck Saved Dodge’s Truck Business In The ‘90s

As the 1990s dawned, Dodge was on a path to renewal. Quite frankly, it had to be. Parent company Chrysler was doing a good job of digging itself out of a hole (again), and the new decade held promise. It was at this point that a bold concept was born: a radical truck for the Jazz era (the iconic graphic, not the music genre).

Dodge had languished in the 1980s, selling miserable Omnis and Aspens to soon-to-be miserable owners. But as the decade changed, the company was hard at work on daring plans, the Viper not least among them [Ed note: And Grand Cherokee, and LH cars, and Neon, and on and on. -DT]. The company needed radical, exciting products to draw people in after years in the beige wilderness.

Enter the Dodge LRT. On the surface, it was a badass truck for the action sports generation, with big lights, big power, and big adrenaline. In reality, it was a preview of a coming wave—one that would change the balance between the Big Three forever.

Cheeky Throwbacks

The story of the LRT concept actually began decades earlier, in the height of the Malaise Era, with inspiration from the Lil’ Red Express. Often referred to as the first “street truck” to hit the market, the Lil’ Red Express landed in 1978 and took advantage of the fact that certain commercial vehicles didn’t need to comply with the onerous new catalytic converter regulations that were killing performance at the time. True to its name, the Lil’ Red Express combined bright red paint with a big V8 and massive exhaust stacks behind the cabin. In a time when just about every other car on dealers’ lots was choking on its own exhaust, Dodge’s hot rod pickup could sprint from zero to sixty in just 6.7 seconds.

The Lil’ Red Express was only on sale for a hot minute as the EPA rushed to close the loophole that made it special. But Dodge didn’t forget the impact that it had. The idea of a fast red truck was burned into the company’s collective memory, and that of its fans.

Just over a decade later, a spiritual successor was born. The 1990 North American International Auto Show saw the shocking Dodge LRT concept hit the show floor – but only for a moment. AutoWeek reported that it was soon pulled from display to avoid “giving away too many secrets to the competition.” Publicity stunt or not, the LRT caught eyes nonetheless.

The LRT (short for Little Red Truck) was based on the first-generation Dodge Dakota that had arrived in 1986. Where the Dakota looked like any other mid-80s truck, though, the LRT was very much of the nineties. The design had all the hallmarks of the Viper concept that had dropped a year before: smooth, flowing lines, rich red paint, and a crosshair grille that never missed. It even wore similar wheels. Dodge didn’t forget to nod at the past, either. The LRT rocked fat, fifties-style fenders reminiscent of the classic era of American pickup trucks. And yet, it did so in a way that avoided pandering or looking old hat—something few others achieved.

Dodge also showed it had an eye for the culture of the time with the LRT’s presentation. Official photos showed the LRT with an ATV in the back, which could be loaded and unloaded with a tilting bed and winch system. It also sported an aerodynamic split lightbar and a front bumper emblazoned with the word “DODGE”—a trend that would become popular decades in the future. Furthering its fun-loving credentials, the LRT even had a power top that could be retracted to bring more sun and air into the cabin.

Most crucially, the LRT backed up its good looks with muscle. It was fitted with a 5.2-liter V8, something that was then only available in the third-party Shelby Dakota [Ed Note: The 318 was a pretty ubiquitous Chrysler engine, but presumably this one was special. -DT]. There was no word on power output, but Dodge wanted to make it obvious—the truck had the bite to match its bark.

Sadly, the LRT wasn’t a serious contender for production. Like so many other ATV and hang-glider-toting concept cars, it left the car magazines and the rest of the news cycle shortly after its debut. Fans might have loved the idea of a powerful V8 Dakota with cutting-edge good looks, but Dodge had no real interest in building one. It seemed the steroidal LRT would soon be forgotten.

A Bold Play

Truth be told, Dodge had built the LRT for another purpose, one quickly seized upon by industry insiders.

In the early 1990s, Ford and Chevrolet dominated when it came to full-size trucks. Come 1992, Ford sold 472,475 F-series trucks, and Chevrolet sold 428,514 across the C and K series. It was big business, and other players were getting eager for a slice of the pie. Late that year, Toyota fired its broadside in the form of the T100, but Dodge kept its powder dry for just a moment longer.

Those in the automotive inner circle already had an idea of what was coming. The true purpose of the LRT had been to preview the styling direction of Dodge’s full-size contender. Indeed, in mid-1992, Autoweek was already making the call, noting “if the T300 does indeed look like the LRT concept truck, it will be a landmark in production pickup design.” Amidst the hype, the outlet also predicted that it would later gain a version of the mighty 8.0-liter V10 used in the Viper.

It would come to a head in late 1993, with the reveal of the new T300 Dodge Ram. It wore the “big rig” crosshair grille and picked up many of the styling pointers from the LRT, even if it didn’t quite go all the way with the action-sports aesthetic. Most importantly, it looked thoroughly modern compared to the outgoing Ram, which had been in production since 1980. It was a big play for Dodge, which had been struggling to break the six-figure mark with its full-size pickups in recent years. Early targets were to shift 160,000 units—a fraction of what Ford and Chevy were selling, but double what Dodge had been achieving with the older model.

Thankfully, the T300 delivered. As reported by the Chicago Tribune, dealers were blown away with the response to the new truck. “I’m only able to keep trucks in stock for three days,” dealer Pat Fitzgibbon told the outlet. “People are following the delivery trucks to the door … I wanted to drive one but couldn’t because I had to sell it to a customer.”

It was just the shot in the arm Dodge needed. “We sold a total of 80,000 Ram pickups for all of 1993, yet, as of last week, we had 110,000 orders for the ’94 Ram,” said Bart McLellan, then-Chrysler Product Manager. “We have capacity to build 250,000 a year at our Dodge City plant … if we had the capacity, we could sell 300,000 the first year.” Ultimately, the new Ram would go on to sell 232,092 units in 1994, and blast up to 410,000 in 1995.

The LRT was the preview, but the T300 was the headliner that brought the house down. Ridiculous stories were a dime a dozen. “A guy had just put a down payment on a 1994 Ford F-Series XLT and was driving it home when he passed our store, saw a red-and-silver Ram T300 in the window, pulled in and bought the Dodge,” one dealer told the Chicago Tribune, on condition of anonymity. Why? “Because the Ford dealer was really classy and returned the guy’s deposit on the XLT when we called and told him that we just sold him a Dodge and [he] wanted to return the Ford,” explained the dealer.

It wasn’t just style that the new truck traded on, it was modern features, too. The T300 featured airbags, anti-lock brakes, and a much-upgraded interior. It wasn’t exactly hard to make a step change over the old truck, given it was 13 years old. And yes, in time, Autoweek’s call came true. Soon after the initial launch, Dodge announced the second-gen Ram would get an 8.0-liter V10, good for 300 hp and 450 pound-feet of torque. It wasn’t a direct relative of the Viper unit, though, instead being largely an independent development specifically for the truck. Later on in the third gen, though, Dodge delivered a Viper-sourced V10 to market with the Ram SRT-10, good for 500 hp and 525 pound-feet of torque.

The strategy from Dodge’s design team had paid off. They had wanted to abandon the “flat and sedan-like” look that had prevailed in the 1980s in favor of a fresh look inspired by the biggest of big rigs with a nod to Kenworth and pumped-up fenders just like the LRT’s. The market responded in turn, and took Dodge from an also-ran to a major player in the full-sized truck market. At the same time Toyota executives were ruing their misstep with the T100, buyers across the country were forging a new love affair with the all-new Ram.

Indeed, it was a surprise to no one when the T300 took out Motor Trend’s 1994 Truck of the Year award. Appearing as the star truck in Twister certainly didn’t hurt either, though by 1996, its credentials were already firmly established.

The legacy of the LRT lives on to this day. The Dodge Ram went from strength to strength in the 1990s and eventually split off into its own division in 2009. Multiple decades have passed, but the LRT’s influence can still be felt. Dodge has continued to run hard with the big rig look, and trucks in general have become ever bigger, taller, and more slab-fronted in the years since. The fenders might not be as prominent as they once were, but you can still see a hint of that 1950s trope if you look at the hoodline just right.

As far as concepts go, the LRT was an entirely successful one. It was never supposed to exist as a production model—Dodge knew the real game wasn’t in selling pretty jet-ski haulers to cashed-up yuppies. It was just a useful tool to grab attention and test market what really mattered—the new big truck that would put Dodge on the big stage. Ultimately, it did just that.

[Ed Note: I actually own an original concept drawing by Joe Papai, one of the second-gen Ram design teammembers. I obtained this via a reader, who managed to snag it from a swap meet in which some of the late Joe Papai’s belongings were being sold. Have a look: 

I really should preserve this somehow. -DT]

Image credits: Dodge

Topshot: Dodge; Dart Container Co.