CHELSEA, Michigan — Corporate branding fails are legend. Coca Cola’s New Coke debacle. Bud Light’s Dylan Mulvaney detour. Cracker Barrel’s generic logo remake.

Ram and Dodge ditching V-8s.

The Stellantis brands’ epic, head-scratching decision has been the poster child of a bizarre few years in which automakers, reeling from billions in Nanny State fines, scrambled product offerings regardless of customer taste. After the implosion of their V8-focused muscle brands, Stellantis is working to right the ship.

Just as Cracker Barrel restored its traditional logo, Ram has stamped every V-8 model’s fender with the "Symbol of Protest" badge featuring a ram's head on an aggressive V-8 Hemi engine. If the six-cylinder lineup felt like surrender to The Man, the protest symbol is a rebel’s yell against the Establishment. Take that, nannies!

RAWWWWR! I buried the throttle of the 2026 Ram 1500 V-8 out of Stellantis’s Chelsea Proving Grounds on to Chelsea-Manchester Road, the rear tires squealing with delight as I sailed through the pickup’s natural habitat: farms, small businesses, rural homes.

The majority of Ram 1500 truck sales are V8-powered, and, according to Sales Chief Brant Coombs, 40% of those buyers won’t consider anything else. Detroit automakers have been under assault from their own government for making the engines Americans love, with Stellantis alone suffering $773 million in fines since 2016. Ram had been on a roll until those fines hit, surpassing Chevrolet as the #2 best-selling truckmaker in early 2019.

Battered from federal haymakers, Ram’s new European owners deep-sixed the eight for the ‘25 model year, and sales sunk as buyers delayed new purchases of the brand’s six-cylinder-only lineup. You could’ve seen it coming a mile away.

Heads rolled at Stellantis, and, when the smoke cleared, company legend Tim Kuniskis — mastermind of Dodge-Ram’s strategy a decade ago — had been installed as chief of North American product. That dovetailed with new management in Washington, D.C. that was favorable to consumer choice. In December 2024 — note the post-election timing — Kuniskis & Co. convened a corporate pep rally to bring back the V-8.

“We heard loud and clear from consumers: there is no replacement for the iconic Hemi V-8. At the end of each month, we count sales to customers, not to statisticians or ideologues,” roared Kuniskis. “We raise our flag and let the Hemi ring free again!”

To paraphrase John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd, the Bruise Brothers are getting the band back together.

“It was reminiscent of a few years ago when we were kicking butts and naming names,” smiled engineer Marty Jagoda, vice president of special projects. “We put together F-15, a top secret team to get the people and the parts to bring the Hemi back. Hemi is not just an engine, it is the engine.”

The first reunion concert was Aug. 26 at Chelsea as Ram invited auto media to hear — and test — the resuscitated 5.7-liter hemi V-8. Like a Heavy Metal ‘lectric guitar, the V-8 was everywhere on the Chelsea stage.

RAWWWWR! went a Ram V-8 down a Chelsea straightaway.

RAWWWWR! Went V-8s off-road.

RAWWWWR! Went V-8s around an autocross course. Yes, an autocross course — so eager was the Ram team to show off its signature sound. For this racer, few things are more fun than auto-crossing a pickup.

But the real test was on-road, and the eight felt right at home inside one of the market’s most refined trucks. Stellantis is rightly proud of its twin-turbo, inline six-cylinder Hurricane engine that sits under the domed hood of the rampaging RHO (pronounced Rhino) performance truck that I destroyed Holly Oaks with last year. Can the return of the V8-powered TRX (pronounced T-Rex) be far behind?

With model names like Warlock, Rebel, Lone Star and Big Horn, the raucous V-8 is signature Ram. Assured that the federal government won’t bury Stellantis in fines for making eight-holers, Ram has dialed up the assembly line to offer the Hemi in most trims.

Nanny shaming makes everyone glum, and the Ram’s team energy at Chelsea was palpable now that they no longer have a finger wagging in their face.

“We brought back this engine because our customers demanded it,” said Ram 1500 Product Chief Amy Augustine. “They were asking: Where is the V-8? After taking it out of the lineup we could really feel the customers getting upset and not understanding why we took it out.”

To make sure everyone hears it, the loud performance exhaust comes standard when you order the V-8 along with a massive 33-gallon fuel tank and best-in-the-industry 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain warranty. If your toffee-nosed neighbors sniff, tell ‘em about eTorque, the 48-volt, belt-drive generator that replaces the alternator for smoother, fuel-efficient startups and an increase of 130 pound-feet of torque to help tow up to 11,320 pounds.

The V-8 package is a $2,895 addition over the standard V-6 eTorque on Tradesman, Express, Warlock and Big Horn/Lone Star trims ($1,200 over the inline six-cylinder on Laramie and Rebel models).

RAWWWWR! My $63,380 Big Horn tester is in the sweet spot of the Ram lineup. It’s easy on the eyes, and easy on the behind as well with its coil-spring rear suspension. Bed flutter that you get with most leaf-spring pickups? Not that I noticed.

With tall-sidewall rubber mounted on 20-inch wheels, I rode Big Horn as comfortably on dirt trails as on blacktop.

The interior is as classy as it is massive. Leather steering wheel, eight-way power seats, superb steering wheel ergonomics with everything at your fingertips: cruise control, drive modes, volume/station control. A 12-inch infotainment screen anchors the console run by the award-winning Uconnect 5 software. No wonder trucks have replaced large sedans as the new luxury vehicles.

The rear seats of the Ram have more space than many living rooms, and the 5’7” bed options a must-have tonneau cover so you can throw cargo back there without fear of it getting soggy in a summer thunderstorm.

For $1,000, my tester gained bed utility goodies like a box light, tie-downs, sprayed bedliner and deployable bed step. I don’t know why every truck maker doesn’t adopt GM’s solution of corner bumper steps, but, in the fight-to-the-death Detroit Three truck grudge match, every brand has signature features.

For Ram, that includes Hemi. The band is back together. You’ll know it by the Symbol of Protest. Long live the V-8.

2026 Ram 1500 V-8

Vehicle type: Rear- and four-wheel drive, four-door, five-passenger pickup

Price: $46,115, including $2,095 destination charge (est. $63,380 Big Horn Crew Cab as tested)

Powerplant: 5.7-liter Hemi V-8

Power: 395 horsepower, 410 pound-feet of torque

Transmission: Eight-speed automatic

Performance: 0-60 mph (NA); maximum towing, 11,320 pounds; payload, 1,650 pounds

Weight: 5,712 pounds (as tested)

Fuel economy: EPA est. 17 mpg city/23 mpg highway/19 mpg combined

Report card

Highs: V-8 soundtrack is back; premium ride

Lows: Nightmare to park in an urban garage; no TRX yet

Overall: 4 stars

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