There weren’t too many exciting sports cars built in the late Seventies thanks to increasingly stringent emissions requirements, but a few niche performance vehicles did get built despite the horsepower-strangling legislation. One of those vehicles was the Little Red Truck built by Dodge from 1978 to 1979. Easily recognized by its signature exhaust stacks protruding prominently from each side of the bed as well as a slew of stickers, the Little Red Truck featured a 360ci V8 and could run the 1/4 mile in 14.7 seconds. The L’il Red Express was actually the fastest American vehicle built in 1978. And now tuner Mr. Norm has built a modern version of the icon.
Norm Kraus, better known as Mr. Norm, has put together his own aftermarket package that will turn a 2009 Dodge Ram into a L’il Red Express tribute. Granted, the new version doesn’t necessarily have the visual impact of the original, but some concessions were made to keep the the basic package relatively affordable. To convert the bed into a stepside and mount the exhaust on the outside, for instance, would have cost seriously big bucks.
