Racing a Ram TRX Against the NYC Subway: Part One
Illustration: Dan Fox
When Jalopnik writers are sitting around together thinking up dumb ideas for articles, it usually doesn’t end in anything great. But every once in a while, we strike dumb-idea gold. That’s what we have here. We wanted to see what’s faster across Manhattan: a 702-hp supercharged pickup truck, or public transportation.
This is part one of our amazing race.
Click here to check out part two.
To find out, I got to drive the exquisite Ram 1500 TRX, while my coworker Steve DaSilva dove underground on the stinky, stinky subway. Is this a blatant ripoff of an old Top Gear bit? Absolutely. Do we care? Absolutely not. You’re lying to yourself if you think you wouldn’t redo Top Gear segments at work if you had the chance.
We started at the bottom of Manhattan in a place that also happens to be quiet enough to shoot video: the Battery Playscape. Our destination was a randomly chosen coffee shop on the Upper East Side. It was somewhere between 80th and 85th Street. I do not know which one. The adrenaline was too strong. No, we won’t mention the name of the shop. The coffee was fine. I got a cold brew and a croissant. Not bad. I’d probably go back.
Regardless, whoever made it to the coffee shop second had to walk back to the office, about 30 blocks away. That was the idea, at least. Did we actually follow through on that part of the deal? That’s none of your business.
Our epic race was scheduled to start at 10:00 AM on the dot, so we set off at exactly 10:32.
This is Part One of the race. Make sure to watch Part Two in order to find out who wins — team good guy (me, in the truck) or team bad guy (Steve, on the subway).
