Throughout the 2000s, the specialty pickup truck market was in flux. Early on the dominance of high horsepower street trucks like the Ford F-150 Lightning, supercharged F-150 Harley-Davidson and the Ram SRT-10 largely defined the performance pickup scene, and these models were soon joined by more style-focused mid-size efforts like the Toyota Tacoma X-Runner and the Chevrolet Colorado Xtreme.
The sudden appearance of the Ford F-150 Raptor at the end of the decade upset the applecart completely. Suddenly, everyone wanted to blast across dunes, not jet down the quarter mile, and one-by-one street truck programs were either canceled or not renewed as automakers pivoted towards the off-road segment. Today, rugged rigs have become status quo in the showrooms of nearly every pickup builder.
There was one hold-out, however, that showed us what an alternate future could have looked like had trucks stuck to asphalt shenanigans a little longer. The 2013 Ram Rumble Bee Concept provided a last gasp of hope for pickup fans more eager for burnouts than Baja blasts.
Respect Your Elders
The Ram Rumble Bee wasn’t intended as a revolution, but rather a tribute, as it arrived on the 10 year anniversary of the original Rumble Bee pickup that had been built by Dodge (prior to its Ram re-branding) in 2003 (for the 2004 model year).
The initial effort was itself a callback to the Dodge Super Bee muscle car that had ruled the streets in the 1960s, and as such it went heavy on the heritage in terms of colors (bright yellow), graphics (a Rumble Bee sticker on the rear quarter matched with a wrap-around black stripe), and visual menace (hood scoop and aero kit for the front and rear bumpers and side skirts).
Still, in terms of performance, the Rumble Bee was fairly mild. Outfitted with the same 345 hp, 5.7L V8 engine found across the Ram 1500 line-up, the short-box truck was somewhat quick but provided no extra goodies compared to a stock version of the pickup.
Step Into The Hive
This was a key difference between the two Rumble rides. For the 2013 concept, which appeared at the Woodward Dream Cruise, Ram went a little deeper to make sure that the new Rumble Bee could deliver on the promise of its fluorescent ‘Drone Yellow’ paint scheme.
By now the truck’s standard Hemi engine was producing a healthy 395 hp, but more important was the inclusion of 4.10:1 gearing in the rear differential to help improve acceleration.
An eight-speed automatic gearbox made excellent use of the newly-aggressive setup, and the truck’s engine was able to breathe better through the inclusion of a cold air intake and a custom exhaust.
The latter was outfitted with driver-controlled cutouts so that the Bee could truly Rumble at the touch of a button, and the truck featured a two-inch drop compared to the standard version of the Ram 1500 thanks to King Suspension shocks.
The Ram Rumble Bee Concept made a much stronger visual impression, sporting a hive-friendly combination of blacked-out trim, headlights, and 24-inch rims matched with its ultra-yellow paint and black striping. The Rumble Bee sticker was still present and accounted for on the back section of the pickup, while inside the truck yellow stitched yellow-and-black leather abounded. There was even a bee encased in honeycombed amber, Jurassic Park-style, set into the rotary knob for the automatic transmission.
A Brief Taste Of Honey
Sadly, the Ram Rumble Bee Concept remained exactly that, a show truck that dazzled prospective buyers but never materialized in showrooms. The pressure to produce a popular off-road model in place of a low-selling street truck was too strong, and Ram instead focused its attentions on the 2500 Power Wagon. Eventually, it too would join the high-speed off-road brigade with the Ram 1500 TRX.
Still, there was some fall-out from the Rumble Bee’s buzz. Ram had produced the Sport R/T muscle truck package for the 1500 since 2009, and it combined several elements of the show truck (including the V8 engine and, depending on model year, 4.10 or 3.92 gearing), minus the exhaust system and outlandish looks. Kept alive until well into the ‘teens, it was exclusively rear-wheel drive, like the Rumble Bee, and was limited to short-box, regular cab body styles. The 2015 edition of the Sport R/T truck was able to reach 60-mph in less than five and a half seconds, which was close to sport sedan quick at the time.
It could also be argued that the presence of the Sport R/T and the Rumble Bee also inspired Ford’s brief return to the street scene with the 2014-only F-150 Tremor. This EcoBoost-powered option was another short-box, regular cab speedster, providing 420 lb-ft of torque from its 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6, and although a 4×4 model was available, the rear-wheel drive edition was only a half-second slower than the Ram 1500 Sport R/T in a straight line.
Keyword: The 2013 Ram Rumble Bee Concept Made A Muscle Truck Promise That Was Never Delivered...Or Was It?