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A routine trademark filing with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had Mopar fans refreshing message boards for weeks after Fiat Chrysler quietly renewed its claim on the word ‘Cuda,’ two years after doing the same for ‘Barracuda.’ Corporate lawyers rarely do anything without a reason. Read on to find out what the filing does, and does not, actually confirm.
Dodge tried to stop dealer markup on its 3,300-unit Demon with a serialized dash plaque bearing each buyer’s own name and priority pricing reserved for orders at the $84,995 MSRP. Dealers in South Carolina, Tennessee, and Louisiana found the workaround within weeks anyway, auctioning off the right to be that at-MSRP buyer on eBay for bids that reportedly approached $70,000. Read on to find out how Dodge’s own leadership responded once the loophole went public.
When Dodge introduced the all-wheel-drive Challenger GT for 2017, it left the Hemi off the order sheet entirely and got hammered for it. The real reason had less to do with engineering ambition than with certification costs, packaging, and an experiment Dodge had already run on the four-door Charger. Here is what the car actually offered, how its front-axle disconnect worked, and why the V6 suits the chassis better than most people assumed.
FCA filed a trademark on the Cuda name, and the easy reaction was to dismiss it as routine housekeeping. What made this one worth a second look was the filing classification covering badges and decals, plus the fact that the company had already trademarked Barracuda a couple of years earlier. Two filings in a row is a pattern, not paperwork. Here is what the name is worth, and what would have to happen for it to return.
In November 2016, a Ford F-450 reclaimed the Guinness World Record for Largest Flag Pulled by a Moving Vehicle, towing a 4,124-square-foot American flag around Homestead-Miami Speedway to beat a Chevrolet Silverado’s earlier record by nearly 1,000 square feet. The Super Duty’s 440-horsepower, 925-lb-ft Power Stroke diesel V-8 got credit for the pull, which stretched well past the minimum distance required to set the new mark. It’s proof that truck bragging rights aren’t only settled at the drag strip.
Dodge spent months teasing the 2018 Challenger SRT Demon before admitting what it had actually built: a factory drag car with 840 horsepower, one seat, and a set of DOT-legal drag radials. The NHRA reacted before the car ever reached a customer. Read on for what the Demon really was, why only about 3,300 were built, and what those cars are worth now.
Modern muscle cars have quietly turned into something closer to supercars, chasing sub-four-second sprints and skidpad numbers that would have embarrassed exotics a generation ago. Three very different philosophies, a 650-horsepower supercharged Camaro ZL1 1LE, a 707-horsepower Challenger Hellcat, and a flat-plane-crank Shelby GT350R that revs to 8,250 rpm, all land shockingly close on the stopwatch. Here is how they actually stack up, and why the pricing runs backwards.
Nearly every car built has air conditioning to keep the people inside comfortable. Dodge found a way to steal that system and point it at the engine instead. The SRT Power Chiller on the Challenger SRT Demon redirected the cabin’s refrigerant to cool the air charge before a run down the strip, a factory-production first that Dodge teased ahead of the 2017 New York Auto Show. Read on to find out how it worked and what it made possible.
Fiat Chrysler’s decision to renew its trademark on the Cuda name reignited a rumor that has refused to die for the better part of a decade: that Dodge might resurrect one of Mopar’s most storied nameplates. The renewal alone proves nothing, since automakers routinely protect names they have no plans to use. Read on to find out what the paperwork actually reveals, and why the speculation keeps coming back.