In a country obsessed with pickups and horsepower, one vehicular sub-genre has been disappointingly quiet for the last few decades: street trucks. Vehicles that have the hauling and towing powers of a pickup, but are set up for pavement performance rather than off-roading. The new 650-horsepower Ram 1500 Lowered, from the Fox Factory Lineup sold through Mopar Direct Connection, looks like a pretty sweet way to scratch that itch.
There was a time when Ford owned the factory street truck segment with the F-150 SVT Lightning, which was a sweet single-cab tire smoker that had two generations in the ’80s and ’90s. Now, the Blue Oval has something called the F-150 Lobo, which is being marketed as a street truck but is nowhere near as extreme as the older models I just mentioned. It runs a V8, but has no power adders. And its stance and aero treatments are nowhere near as aggressive as what Fox and Mopar have done here with this Ram.
Mopar Direct Connection is essentially an in-house aftermarket brand for Dodge cars and Ram trucks. Fox is a high-tier suspension company that’s been doing OE and race-vehicle shocks for decades. More recently, Fox has started branching out and making factory-endorsed special trim levels of pickup trucks through its Fox Factory Vehicles line. These can be sold through dealerships with factory warranties, but aren’t quite official automaker-done models.
It’s a great way to create unique sub-models that wouldn’t have enough mass appeal for an OEM to do directly. Like this super cool, supercharged, low-riding Ram with gold accents and aero treatments.
The Fox Factory Ram 1500 Lowered (I wonder why they didn’t bother coming up with a jazzier name?) claims 650 horsepower thanks to a 5.7-liter Hemi V8 running a twin-screw Whipple supercharger. Axle ratio is 3.92, which should yield strong acceleration as long as the tires don’t just smoke themselves silly when you step on the gas. I haven’t seen any official 0 to 60 or 1/4-mile times posted yet, but I’m sure it feels fast, which is all that really matters. There’s also a unique cat-back dual exhaust system.
Its truck capabilities are still solid, too: Max towing is 11,320 pounds, and max payload is 1,910 pounds. There are those who say street trucks are the worst of both worlds, since they’re not as dynamically impressive as sports cars but can’t go off-road. However, I think that perspective is misguided. A street truck is basically a muscle car that can also carry stuff or tow another toy, like a boat or go-kart. Yeah, maybe this thing couldn’t hang with a Miata through a long slalom, but I’m sure it would be a lot of fun in furious highway merges. And a truck bed comes in handy all the time if you like to do DIY projects at all, car-related or not. All this to say, there’s legit practical appeal to this vehicular genre.
The Fox Mopar Ram truck runs a Ridetech coilover system, which includes tubular control arms for steering response and traction bars to reduce wheel hop on hard acceleration. The ride height is lowered 3 inches in front and 5.5 inches in the rear—that doesn’t mean it’s squatted, the truck would have been taller in the back from the factory, so those adjustments just level it out. It’s a little funny that Fox, primarily a suspension company, would outsource the suspension on one of its builds. But Ridetech is a serious player in this space and already has a Ram kit in its catalog, so it makes sense to leverage that.
Though street trucks are traditionally two-wheel drive, this Ram can be specced as rear-drive or with Ram’s electronic 4×4 transfer case.
Tires are, naturally, huge: 305/40R22 (about 12 inches wide with a 4.8-inch sidewall).
Cosmetically, besides the reduced ride height, the truck features gold stripes and aero pieces in the front and back. Color options are black, silver, white, two greys, and two blues. Inside, there are some “Mopar Connection” inserts and nice trim stitching. I have to admit, I absolutely love the way this thing looks. It’s fun and aggressive without being a rolling caricature—and you’ll get fewer eye-rolls from non-car people than you would in something like a TRX that towers over traffic.
The Fox Factory Ram starting price is just a hair under $90,000. Adding leather and four-wheel drive, the only two options, brings it up to about $95,000. Exact availability is TBA, but theoretically, the whole point of working through Mopar Direct Connection is that you’ll be able to order one of these and get it serviced at your local Ram store.
The Fox Factory Ram is built off a 2026 Ram 1500 Big Horn with the Level 2 equipment group (a long list of amenities). Still, you’re definitely paying a premium for the packaging and exclusivity here. It would be cheaper to order some Ridetech suspension and a supercharger for a more base-trim truck. But there’s definitely something to be said for the coolness and collectibility of a factory-endorsed aftermarket package like this.
Dodge has already cranked out so many “farewell tour” last-editions on some of its vehicles that it’s hard to spot a true future classic these days, but I have a feeling these Fox Factory Rams will be pretty rare and only get cooler as they age.
Here’s a little contextual sizzle reel about Mopar Direct Connection:
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Automotive journalist since 2013, Andrew primarily coordinates features, sponsored content, and multi-departmental initiatives at The Drive.
