America's Most Powerful

Cadillac DeVille ConcoursFor '96, the DeVille Concours enjoys the same 300-horsepower version of the 4.6-liter DOHC Northstar V-8 found in the Seville Touring Sedan and Eldorado Touring Coupe. Also this year, the 275-pony version of the Northstar is found under the hood of the standard DeVille. Variance between the two engines is attributable to camshaft profiles and timing. To reach its elevated power peak, the new engine requires another 400 rpm, to 6000. The torque peak falls by five, to a still-astounding 295 pound-feet, but needs another 400 revs to get there. This ain't Grandma's Caddy (though it may still look like it); it's a leather-lined sucker punch to the formidable import performance sedan competition-traditional Ameri-lux married to a screaming Indy car. Concours exterior sheetmetal is unchanged for '96, but it gets some thoughtful interior enhancements, as well as refined editions of Cadillac's variable-assist power steering and automatically adjustable shock absorber systems.

Dodge Ram V-10If more and bigger is better, the Dodge Ram's OHV V-10 is the pinnacle of force. Save for the related Viper V-10, nothing challenges its 8.0-liter (488-cubic-inch) displacement. The dyno-abusing 300 horsepower and 450 pound-feet of torque top the light-truck segment, with the Viper the only car to best the Ram's torque peak. Its cast-iron V-10 shares much of the same architecture-bore centers and diameter, stroke length, valve train configuration-with the Viper's V-10, but the only common pieces are connecting rods, and the Vipers' are specially shot-peened. For '96, the Ram V-10 gets sequential multiport fuel injection, which delivers a more precise ration of gas to each cylinder, one at a time, the instant its intake valve opens. Nothing short of an 18-wheeler matches this truck's low-end grunt or its ability to move a neighborhood.