Manual gearboxes used to be everywhere. Whether you were driving a cheap and functional pick-up truck or a high-tech supercar, the stick-shift was a standard feature a few decades ago. Auto gearboxes tended to be for luxury models or for those who wanted an easy life, but that all changed in the '90s. The shift to autos en masse could be blamed on one car: the Ferrari F355 F1.This dinky supercar was the first road car to ever feature an F1-style gearbox with paddle shifters, or flappy paddles, as Jeremy Clarkson preferred to call them. After this revelation from Maranello, suddenly everything from powerful pickup trucks to hypercars to cheap rental cars at the airport seemed to have some sort of auto with buttons or paddles next to the steering wheel. But there is one pickup that can lay claim to being the most powerful with a manual gearbox — and it is still completely unique. Dodge Has A Long History Of Pickup Trucks Bring A Trailer Think Dodge, and it's likely you will think of its long line of muscle cars. The Charger, the Challenger, and even the Viper, all embody the American sports car spirit of two doors (OK, four for later Chargers) and big power. But Dodge has a rich history of pickup trucks. More than 100 years ago, the Dodge Brothers were building commercial vehicles based on cars, including a 35-horsepower panel van.Dodge continued to make trucks, through four-wheel-drive military vehicles dubbed the WC/WD, and the monster Power Wagon. But it is the Ram, which launched in 1981 in its first generation, that really put Dodge on the map as a maker of reliable everyday trucks. Dodge Wanted To Create The World's First Super Truck Bring a TrailerIn the '90s, Dodge had undergone something of a reinvention. Bob Lutz had something to do with this, the president of Chrysler deciding that the brand should have a modern version of the '60s AC Cobra, the fastest car of the '60s. The Dodge Viper was a simple yet effective sports car packing an 8.0-liter all-aluminum OHV V10 and a six-speed BorgWarner T56 manual gearbox. The engine was part developed by Lamborghini and packed 400 horsepower and 465 pound-feet of torque.With the Viper bringing back the wild glory days of Dodge's muscle car era, someone must have wondered if the car could be used to sprinkle some fairy dust on the truck department. Why not make a supercar version of a hard-working Ram truck, with a manual gearbox, and see what happens? The Dodge Ram SRT-10 Is The Most Powerful Pickup Ever With A Manual Via: Mecum AuctionsAt this point, you would expect someone in the engineering or marketing department to start laughing and say, "just kidding, we aren't really going to put a Viper engine in a light-duty Ram pickup." But they didn't. The project was flagged through. Heck, Ford had the supercharged Lightning muscle truck, and Chevy had the Silverado SS, so why not go one better?In 2004, the Viper engine had grown in size and power, and so it was that a 500-horsepower 8.3-liter V10 was dropped into the engine bay of a Ram. Interestingly, the V10 of the original Viper had been very loosely based on a V10 intended for trucks, so it had gone full circle in a weird way. The SRT-10 also received a six-speed manual gearbox for extra sporting chops. Here's Why The Ram SRT-10 Has A Manual Gearbox Via: Mecum AuctionsQuite simply, that was the easiest and best option at the time. The 6-speed Tremec T-56 manual was lifted straight out of the Viper and everything just slotted in. This was a time when many powerful cars, aside from a few AMGs, still had stick shift. Cars like the Ferrari F50 and McLaren F1 still had manual gearboxes, and the transition to clever twin-clutch autos was only just taking off.The Bugatti Veyron of 2005 was the world's first twin-clutch gearbox with seven speeds. Whereas having a manual gearbox is seen as exotic and unique in fast cars these days, in 2005 it was the norm. The SRT-10 also received a huge rear spoiler, hood scoop, 22-inch wheels, aggressive body moldings, and a big badge that said: Viper Powered. The Dodge Ram SRT-10 Can Give Sports Cars Nightmares Via: Mecum Auctions 2004 Dodge Ram SRT-10 Specs Source: Dodge/ independent testsIt feels these days that sticking a supercar spec engine with more power than a Bugatti Veyron W16 (we're looking at you Hennessey VelociRaptoR 1000) is fairly normal. But not in 2004. The Ram SRT-10 was about as wild as it gets. Even fitted with suspension improvements and 15.0-in vented discs at the front, it was never going to outrun a Lotus Elise on a back road, but it certainly isn't slow.The sprint to 60 mph in the SRT-10 is taken care of in 4.9 seconds, with 100 mph arriving in 11.9 seconds. The quarter mile is taken care of in 13.6 seconds at 105 mph and the top speed is 153 mph. To put this into context, these figures (aside from the top speed) are a whisker off what you would expect from a Porsche 911 Carrera of the era, but you won't be picking some 2X4 and boxes of nails in one of those. A 2002 Acura NSX has the same sprint to 60 mph and 100 mph as the Ram SRT-10, too. The Ram SRT-10 Is Cheaper Than You Think Mecum Let's face it, the SRT-10 is awesome, whatever way you look at it. You don't have to be into trucks to want one of these Viper-powered pickups. This V10 Ram is unique, fast, and just so of its time. It's got more cowboy bling than a mid-2000s Nelly concert. Luckily, the Ram SRT-10 sold pretty well, and as a result is not wildly rare or expensive to buy in 2026. The three-model-year production run resulted in 9,527 Ram SRT-10s across the two body styles (there was a Quad Cab for 2005-’06), with the Regular cab models making up almost half at 5,533 units, says Hagerty. Here's How Much You Will Need To Get The Keys To A Ram SRT-10 Bring A TrailerThe regular cab 2004 to 2006 Dodge Ram SRT-10 will cost you $29,400 in good condition, according to Hagerty. But there is a cheaper way to get one of these badass trucks. The quad cab versions come in a lot cheaper, with all model years likely to set you back $25,600. That's not a huge amount of money for such an iconic truck. When you consider that a 2005 Dodge Viper SRT-10 will cost almost double that, at $43,400, the Ram makes even more sense. You get the powertrain as a Viper, just in a more usable (and practical) package. After the Ram SRT-10 disappeared, big power trucks tended to switch to auto boxes, too. This makes the SRT-10 the last of the line — what a way for the manual supertruck to go out.Sources: Hagerty.com