Posts Tagged: Dodge
Ford needed to beat Chrysler’s Hemi on NASCAR’s superspeedways, but the rulebook only required 500 street versions of the race engine, not that they share a body with the car actually racing. That loophole put a 429 big-block into a Mustang engine bay never designed to hold it, built through an unusual two-plant process most owners never expect. Read on to see how a homologation technicality created one of Ford’s rarest, most valuable Mustangs.
I’ve managed to ruin quite a few cars, each in its own unique, disastrous way. From overzealous engine mods that left me stranded, to paint jobs that looked more like abstract art gone wrong, my automotive adventures have been a series of unfortunate events. Take my Dodge, which went from roaring beast to a sputtering mess after a DIY turbo install. Or the time I tried to give my old Civic a lowrider look, only to end up with a suspension that had more bounce than a trampoline. Ah, the memories!
Raiti’s Rides asks a question modern Challenger buyers keep circling back to: is the naturally aspirated SRT 392, quietly overshadowed by the supercharged Hellcat, actually the smarter used muscle car purchase? With 485 horsepower from a 6.4-liter HEMI, a modern ZF eight-speed automatic, and a used-market price well below Hellcat territory, the SRT 392 makes a compelling case for buyers who do not need 707 horsepower to enjoy every drive. Owners in the comments seem to agree.
Chrysler built only 22 1971 Dodge Super Bees with the 426 Hemi, and only 9 of those got a 4-speed manual. Separately, just 9 known ’71 Super Bees left the factory with a power sunroof — a nearly-$500 option that mandated a full vinyl top. Whether any single car sits at the overlap of all three is a question the historical record can’t quite settle. Watch to see the numbers behind one of the rarest combinations in Mopar history.
Dodge built the A12-package 1969 Super Bee to deliver near-Hemi drag strip performance for a fraction of the Hemi’s cost — a triple-carbureted 440, a raw fiberglass hood, and, on this particular restored example, the Butterscotch color enthusiasts single out as the best A12 shade available. Fewer than two thousand were ever built. Watch to see why Mopar specialists still treat this package as a genuine engineering achievement.
This 1971 Dodge Challenger looks almost stock — no R/T badge, no scoop, nothing to give away what’s underneath. That’s exactly the point. Built to dodge 1971’s brutal muscle car insurance surcharges, it hides a 383 four-speed combination with a Hurst pistol-grip shifter under an unassuming exterior, and this vintage road test puts it through real acceleration and braking runs to prove the disguise. Watch to see why some of the smartest muscle car builds were the ones that never announced themselves.
Over a thousand cars showed up to a fountain-side park in Fountain Hills, Arizona, and somehow a Lamborghini Miura still wasn’t the car everyone in the comments wanted to talk about most. Vipers, a genuine Ferrari Testarossa, and a rare Aston Martin continuation car all made appearances, but it’s the sheer variety packed into one Arizona morning that keeps viewers coming back to this exact upload every year.
This episode of the long-running documentary series turns its attention to the 1969 Dodge Dart GTS, the compact A-body that Chrysler quietly loaded with 340 and 383 big-block power while keeping curb weight hundreds of pounds under its Charger and Coronet siblings. Overshadowed for decades by its Hemi Dart cousin and the flashier E-body Challenger, the GTS built a devoted following on handling alone. Watch to see why period road testers ranked it Chrysler’s best-driving muscle car of the era.
Dodge’s Super Bee ran a full four-year spread of engine options, from a stout 383 all the way up to the legendary 426 Hemi, but the rarest combination of them all was the mid-1969 A12 Six-Pack. Only 1,907 of those 440 Six-Pack cars were built, and the Hemi option was even scarcer at just 125 units. It’s a lineup that proves not every muscle car icon needed a household name to earn its reputation.
Every other muscle car nameplate has gone electric, gone away, or gone soft trying to chase sports car rivals twice its price. The Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat did none of those things, staying loud, huge, and supercharged right up until production ended for good. Borrowed from UK specialist importer Clive Sutton for this review, it sets out to answer a pointed question: with rivals increasingly drifting toward supercar territory, is this genuinely the last great muscle car? Watch to see the case this drive makes.
The Dodge Challenger, revving into the scene in 1970, was Chrysler’s late entry into the pony car race, sporting a design inspired by the Charger. Despite muscle car sales tanking by ’71, the Challenger made a valiant effort with options ranging from a humble six-cylinder to a monstrous 426 Hemi. As the years rolled on, it shifted from R/T to Rallye, losing its shaker hood but keeping its cool. With 165,437 units cruising off the line by ’74, the Challenger’s first-gen was a wild ride!
Dodge didn’t just one-up its own 707-horsepower Hellcat, it built a Challenger so quick that NHRA’s own rulebook technically has a problem with it. The Demon’s 840 horsepower, 9.65-second quarter mile, and Guinness-certified wheelstand all come from a Hemi V8 that shares its bones with the Hellcat but carries 25 real engineering changes underneath. This is what happens when a factory stops holding back.
Did Google just spill the beans on the 2017 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500? It seems like the cat might be out of the bag, as Ford enthusiasts have been spotting camouflaged prototypes zipping around for a while now. Most folks thought this beast would roar into 2018, but surprise—2017 might be the year! Is Google playing Santa with this muscle car secret, or are we all just jumping the gun? Either way, it looks like Ford’s gearing up to unleash something wild pretty soon!