Italians Convert Ram 1500 Into 710-HP Luxury Sedan, and It Looks as Bad as You’d Expect

Perhaps you’re satisfied with your basic, run-of-the-mill Ram 1500 Laramie Longhorn. You’ve got a zillion bells and whistles, including a spacious quad cab with the kind of decorative accent stitching you have on that pair of cowboy boots you bought for wedding photos…and wedding photos only. But Caren from the Bluebonnet PTA has the same exact truck, and ugh. Couldn’t she have gotten like, an F-150 King Ranch like the other basics? 

Fear not, insufferable suburban parents! There is a truly nuclear solution to this problem, courtesy of the wacky Italian coachbuilders at Aznom! The Aznom Palladium is a sedan so swanky—think Rolls-Royce mixed with 90s dance club—that they call it a “hyper-limousine.” Yet it has that air of ruggedness that you desire, too, as it’s based on a Ram 1500 pickup. 

Where the pickup bed once sat is now additional space for an expansive rear seat, a fastback-style roofline and an enclosed trunk, which slides out like a giant drawer. 

There are plenty of nods to other hyper-luxury cars that have come before the Aznom, such as the vaguely Rolls-Royce Ghost-esque illuminated grille verticals, Bentley-ish curved fender flares at the rear and the also very Rolls-ish inclusion of crystal drinkware in the back seat. The long, wide opera window on the C-pillar is reminiscent of a brougham-era Lincoln Continental’s. The removable handmade gold and (what else?) palladium clock on top of the rear passenger area of the center console is also housed a bit like Porsche’s Sport Chrono dashboard nub. 

The interior is precisely as extra as you’d expect, with numerous hidden storage compartments, aluminum details and an absurd amount of rear leg room. The rear seat has no center console, but rather, it looks like a quilted leather loveseat for two with seat belts, complete with matching pillows. A counter-like extension of the front center console includes a mini-fridge with space for champagne. Two Microsoft Surface Pro X tablets and an Audison sound system are also in the rear of the car. 

You can tell the dashboard was straight out of a Ram pickup with the large vertically-oriented infotainment screen sitting front and center, but the materials covering it are nicer. The Palladium includes front and rear climate control systems that are completely separate from each other as well. A control panel touchscreen on the driver’s door can control the fridge settings, the entire vehicle’s air conditioning settings, interior lights, trunk, windows and doors, and it can open and close all of the interior compartments. 

It is also massive. At roughly 6.6 feet tall and 19.9 feet long, your vain attempt to assert your dominance over the elementary school drop-off lane in true Russian oligarch style will not go unnoticed. It’s a sedan, but…not. Let us not confuse this with some puny Corolla. The Palladium was designed to exude its “mechanical strength,” per Aznom’s release. 

Most of the body is steel, although some consideration was put into its center of gravity given that the hood and roof are made of carbon fiber. A steel cage was added to the rear part of the frame to improve the Palladium’s torsional stiffness. 

Yet you’ll have more than enough power to haul all of that ridiculous opulence around, with a 5.7-liter biturbo engine tuned by Monza Garage that pumps out 710 horsepower and 701 pound-feet of torque. If that’s not enough, there’s an optional eTorque hybrid system you can add. The engine is also capable of operating in a four-cylinder-only Fuel Saver mode. 

Because it’s based on a Ram, there’s still four-wheel-drive. There aren’t low-range gears anymore, but it does come with an eight-speed automatic transmission and an electronic locking differential. It rides on custom 22-inch aluminum wheels shod with 285/45ZR22 Yokohama Advan Sport tires. Six-piston Brembo GT disc brakes are up front, with four-piston disc brakes in the rear.

The Palladium also comes with some additional accessories, including a set of luggage that matches the Foglizzo interior leather and an umbrella made and signed by Francisco Maglia. 

This isn’t the first time Aznom has decided that the Ram 1500 is a nice starting point for an unusually tall sedan of strange proportions. The company unveiled the Atulux in 2018, which featured a similarly large backseat, yacht-like flooring and even a pop-up Nespresso machine. 

But why Ram pickups? I’ll let Aznom head Marcello Meregalli explain himself:

In truth, I’ve always been passionate about large automobiles like the huge American sedans manufactured from the thirties to the beginning of the seventies, or the incredible Rolls-Royces and Bentleys of those periods. I’ve always been fascinated by big vehicles. I liked the super large hoods and the imposing stance of those cars. I thought about creating something similar for a long time and I even considered a “resto-mod” operation on a vintage Rolls-Royce. Then in 2008, Cadillac unveiled the new presidential limousine for President Barack Obama. This was not a “stretched” vehicle, but it had been built with different proportions. Starting from a mega-SUV, Cadillac had built a luxury sedan [that was] big and imposing, but with the proportions of a classic sedan.

It’s all us, baby. America! Aznom’s creations are really just miniature presidential limousines, sans all the bulletproofing and such. 

That being said, part of this sedan-spiration was practical, too. Meregalli’s other company deals with wine, which means that he’s traveled to a lot of remote vineyards over the years where not getting stuck on bad roads or in inclement weather is a priority. 

Aznom expects to build only ten Palladiums, each of which will be fully customizable by the buyer, much like a luxury yacht.