Dodge (Page 22)

The 2017 model year for the Dodge brand will have a massive spread of performance vehicles, ranging from the most affordable V8 muscle cars to the most powerful muscle cars ever to the most track capable road car in the world – giving the 2017 Dodge lineup more performance under one roof than any American brand has ever offered and making this year’s Dodge lineup the great American performance lineup in a single model year, ever.

The 2017 Dodge Challenger and 2017 Dodge Charger in SRT Hellcat trim will get the longest list of new features among all of the muscle car configurations, and for those prospective buyers holding off for the 2017 model year, you can expect to see your car sometime during the 4th quarter – with production of the 2017 model year Challenger and Charger slated to begin next month.

The Dodge Durango SRT shown above is a rendering posted by an artist on Allpar.com, but in speaking with a handful of FCA insiders, it is my understanding that the newest Dodge SUV will look a great deal like this – and it is going to be the high performance Durango that Mopar fans have been demanding for years.

The excitement over the 2017 Dodge Challenger T/A and the 2017 Dodge Charger Daytona caused everyone to look over the fact that FCA has promised one more special edition muscle car this fall – but what will it be?

One of my favorite moments in the history of cars is the muscle car wars in the mid 60's and early 70's. Detroit's assembly lines were pumping out high horsepower cars that were marketed towards the youth of America (Baby Boomers). The race was on to see who could be the fastest.

While lots of vehicles turned in impressive times at Car & Driver’s Lightning Lap 10, the Dodge Viper ACR turned in the quickest time among production cars in this year’s field.

Yesterday we reported that the Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat had turned the quickest lap among 4-door cars in their years Car & Driver Lightning Lap shootout and after digging deeper into the results of one of the most rigorous track tests in the industry, I found that the Tesla Model S P85D was also in the competition – and it didn’t do very well at all.

After all of the talk about the All-Wheel Drive Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat in the past two weeks, I polled the folks on the large Hellcat Group and asked if they would have gotten an AWD Hellcat when they purchased their cars, and the results were pretty evenly split between the “yes” and “no” camps.

We already learned what colors the Dodge Challenger and Dodge Charger will wear when the 2017 model year vehicles arrive, but today FCA offered up a few cool graphics showing all of the available colors on the silhouette of each Mopar muscle car.

After a bunch of outlets misread or simply disregarded the information on the upcoming Dodge Challenger all-wheel drive and American Drag Racing models, it was incorrectly reported that the Challenger street legal drag racing package would have all-wheel drive, but that is incorrect – as has been clarified by the folks at Automotive News.

FCA featured an all-wheel drive Dodge Challenger Concept called the GT AWD last year at the SEMA Show and according to the crew at Automotive News, that all-wheel drive muscle car will become a production reality starting later this year – although it is unclear which engine will be tucked under the hood.

In addition to offering up the bulk of the information on the 2017 Dodge Charger and 2017 Dodge Challenger in their high performance SRT Hellcat forms, FCA also posted a pair of videos showing the two 707 horsepower muscle cars tolling around the handling track at the Chelsea Proving Grounds – along with giving us the best look yet at the new 5Deep Hellcat wheels.

The sales numbers are in for August 2016 and even though muscle car sales slumped a bit last month, the Ford Mustang continued its remarkable 22 month streak of leading the monthly sales race – beating both the Chevrolet Camaro and the Dodge Challenger by sizeable amounts once again.

FCA has rolled out all of the vital information for the 2017 model year Dodge Challenger and Dodge Charger, with a new infotainment system across the entire model range and new features for Hellcat models including more Hellcat logos inside and out, new lightweight wheels and an SRT steering wheel logo that glows red at night.

After the dual mode exhaust system on the likes of the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and the Dodge Charger R/T Scat Pack has proven to be so popular, the high performance brand will make a loud, dual mode exhaust system standard on every 2017 Challenger and Charger with a Hemi V8.

Since discussing the introduction of the new 2017 Dodge Challenger T/A, I have received a handful of questions about which trimlines it will be replacing and since there has been no word on any of the existing trimlines from 2016 being killed off for 2017 – I wanted to do a piece detailing what the 2017 Challenger trimline lineup should look like when it goes on sale later this year.

Leading up to the Woodward Dream Cruise, Dodge introduced the new 2017 Challenger T/A with either the 5.7L Hemi or the 392 Hemi and while some will complain that these new trimlines are not elaborate enough – I think that this new Challenger T/A is a perfect package for the current muscle car market.

The new Dodge Viper ACR has set over a dozen track records around the world with its 645hp V10, but for those European Viper owners who want to set track records more efficiently, the German tuning experts at GeigerCars has a new package that increases the output of the wicked American supercar by 120 horsepower.

After doing a piece earlier this week about the new Camaro ZL1 being able to get to 60mph in first gear with the manual transmission, a handful of Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat owners contacted me to point out that their manual transmission muscle cars will do the same – and they can do it in about 4 seconds flat.

This past weekend, the 2nd Roadkill Nights by Dodge event was held at the M1 Concourse in Pontiac, Michigan, and while things didn’t go quite as smoothly as they did with the smaller crowd in 2015 – this year’s Detroit Roadkill event was a massive success and a ton of fun for everyone who attended.

This past weekend while attending the Woodward Dream Cruise, I stumbled across the “Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT Trackhawk with the Hellcat Hemi” that has been making its rounds through the automotive media and having seen it in person – and I still don’t think that it is a Hellcat model.

While we frequently bring you the news of the quickest Hellcat models from Dodge, today we bring you a look at what I believe to be the quickest Challenger Scat Pack in the world without any significant modifications – with just a good set of tires and a canned ECU tune helping this Hemi-powered muscle car to run well into the 11-second range.

The Dodge Charger Daytona is back for the 2017 model year and while it might not have the massive rear spoiler like the 1969 Daytona built for NASCAR – the ’17 Charger Daytona does pack big performance for a relatively small price.

The last time the Dodge Challenger T/A was available at your local dealership was back in 1970, but coming later this year as part of the 2017 model year, the new Challenger T/A draws its inspiration from the original while packing a whole lot more power with a choice of two different Hemi engines.

To showcase the hottest and coolest Dodge Challenger and Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat cars around the country, I have launched the TorqueNews Hellcat of the Month contest – with the first winner being Paul Powell and his stunning Plum Crazy 2016 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat.

We have talked a great deal about small scale versions of the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat recently, but for those Hellcat fans who prefer the 4-door variety – the Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat will be offered as part of the new Hitch & Tow Racing Edition from Greenlight Collectables.

The Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat has proven to be a hot commodity in the toy/collectables market with a handful of options from the smaller scale Hot Wheels, but a new 24th scale diecast Hellcat Challenger from Jada is reaching stores in four different colors – for around $20.

FCA, Honda American and Land Rover NA will all be recalling vehicles to address a wiring issue with the 9-speed ZF automatic transmission after the transmission supplier itself announced a recall of a component in some 505,000 vehicles.

There has been plenty of speculation about the next generation Dodge Charger getting a twin turbocharged 4-cylinder, but we rarely mention the Dodge Challenger in those discussions – which I believe will also get the boosted 4-cylinder mill in the event that such an engine is offered in the Charger.

The Ford Mustang and the Dodge Challenger finished 1-2 in the muscle car sales race in July, marking the third straight month where the Chevrolet Camaro has been forced to settle for third place – as sales of the next generation GM muscle car continue to slump.