Imported 1,000-HP Hennessey RAM TRX Limited to 55 MPH Over Tax Loophole
Talk about zero to 60 in… never.
Seeing a vehicle sold outside of its home market is always a treat. In the United States, we fetishize JDM cars like it's nobody's business—Nissan Skylines, Toyota Chasers, early Mitsubishi Evolutions. The same goes for U.S.-built vehicles in other countries, such as muscle cars, performance trucks, and including the 2022 Hennessey RAM TRX Mammoth.
Recently, one of these trucks popped up on a Finnish auto classified site. The 1,000-horsepower super-truck had made its way to Finland for the cool price of $272,000—about twice the cost if one was ordering directly from Hennessey, and nearly four times the cost of a base TRX.
But just because you're paying for the whole truck doesn't mean that you'll get to use all of it. In fact, it's quite the opposite. A workaround to have the truck imported without paying hefty taxes meant the installation of a speed limiter to cap the high-horsepower performance truck at a top speed of just 55 mph.
"But Rob," I hear you asking. "Why in the world would somebody neuter a truck with a quadruple-digit power output to just 55 mph?"
The reasoning, my friends, comes down to a simple tax loophole.
Because the TRX is basically the anti-Prius, it produces a decent bit of pollutants when driven hard. In fact, it produces 506 g/km of CO2 emissions, which would make it subject to a 44.8 percent Finnish import tax should it be registered as a five-seater passenger vehicle. But it also has a gross weight of 3,539 kg, just a few kilos over the threshold of what can be considered a commercial vehicle in Finland. In the TRX's case, it's classed as an "N2," which permits owners to import and register the TRX without paying that 44.8 percent tax if they so choose. There's a catch, though.
Because Finland is a member of the European Union, it must adhere to a particular directive that requires speed limiting devices to be installed if the N2 vehicle is used on the road. As such, the 1,000-horsepower Hennessey TRX Mammoth is officially limited to just 90 km/h, or 55 mph (which is slightly less than the 93 km/h quoted in the ad).
From the factory, the TRX has a top speed of 118 mph before any Hennessey upgrades. And while the tuner doesn't actually reveal the Mammoth's top speed, at least we know it will take under the advertised 3.2 seconds to go from zero to The New Finnish Limit. Shame it won't be able to do that 11.4-second quarter mile with a limiter installed, either.
Finland has been home to some weird tax loopholes before, including one that permitted '80s American muscle cars to be imported and chopped into pickup trucks and vans in order to circumvent certain costs. Both situations are admittedly hilarious, but there's something special about paying $272,000 for a 1,000-horsepower pickup and not even being able to break 60 mph.
Anyway, if you happen to be a wealthy Finn and this is the type of vehicle you're losing sleep over not owning, I do come bearing a bit of good news: you can buy this truck. The ad says that the vehicle will be available in April, and an individual from the dealership's Facebook page told me that they are "enjoying" it in Florida until it is exported next month... probably without that speed limiter, too, if I had to guess.
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