1967 Dodge Coronet X2 on 2040-cars

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Watch the Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat verify its 204-mph top speed

The industry is producing some ridiculously fast four-doors these days, from the Porsche Panamera and Maserati Quattroporte to the Mercedes E63 AMG and BMW M5. But the fastest of them all doesn't cost six figures. It doesn't even come from Europe. It's made right here in North America, by a US automaker. And it starts at under $64k. We're talking about the Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat, the Pentastar muscle sedan with the 6.2-liter supercharged V8 and its 707 horsepower. Dodge claims it's the "quickest, fastest, most powerful [production] sedan ever," and they're not just blowing smoke... or smoking tires. During the final stages of development, engineers from Auburn Hills took a bone-stock, Hellcat-powered Charger out to a seven-mile oval for a top speed run and they filmed the occasion for posterity. The result? 206.9 miles per hour with the wind, 202.2 against it, for a two-way average top speed of 204.55 mph. Chew on that, imports.

GTC deliveries take Rauh collection up to 79 Vipers [w/video]

How many Vipers is enough? One of the ten-cylinder supercars might be too much machine for most drivers to handle, but not for Wayne and D'Ann Rauh. The Texas couple already own 77 of Dodge's flagship model. And now they've taken delivery of two more. At the Conner Avenue Assembly Plant in Detroit on Friday, the Rauhs received the keys to a pair of Dodge Viper GTCs, customized through the automaker's "1 of 1" customization program. The program allows owners to spec their Viper just the way they want it, with 50 million unique combinations. For their 78th and 79th additions, the Rauhs ordered one decked out in brown with black stripes for Wayne, the other in purple with white for D'Ann, to whom the majority of the collection belongs. Of course, both come equipped with an 8.4-liter V10 driving 645 horsepower and 600 pound-feet of torque to the rear wheels through a six-speed manual transmission. The couple will add the pair to their collection in Arp, TX, a town on the outskirts of Tyler, located between Dallas and Shreveport. The Rauh's garage already includes the last of the previous-generation Vipers decked out in two-tone gold finish. eGarage profiled the couple two years ago when their collection numbered "only" 65, and we have no doubt that number will only continue to grow as long as Dodge keeps building the legendary super-snake. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Texas Dodge Viper Enthusiasts Receive Keys to Two New Customized '1 of 1' Dodge Viper GTC Models, Now Owners of 79 Vipers Total July 24, 2015 , Detroit - Dodge Viper owners Wayne and D'Ann Rauh elevate Viper Nation enthusiasm to a whole new level. On Friday, July 24, the couple visited the Conner Avenue Assembly Plant in Detroit to receive keys to not one, but two new customized "1 of 1" Dodge Viper GTC models, making them proud owners of a total of 79 Dodge Vipers. Through the new Viper "1 of 1" customization program, owners can create their very own one-of-a-kind Snake. No two customers can order the same configuration, including color, in the same model year. With the introduction of matte-finish exterior paint, the 2016 Viper is now offered in more than 50 million unique build configurations, made up from the more than 16,000 unique paint color options and more than 48,000 unique stripe combinations.

Auto Mergers and Acquisitions: Suicide or salvation?

We love the Moses figure. A savior riding in from stage right with the ideas, the smarts, and the scrappiness to put things right. Alan Mullaly. Carroll Shelby. Lee Iacocca. Andrew Carnegie. Steve Jobs. Elon Musk. Bart Simpson. Sergio Marchionne does not likely view himself with Moses-like optics, but the CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles recently gave a remarkable, perhaps prophetic interview with Automotive News about his interest and the inevitability of merging with a potential automotive partner like General Motors. Marchionne has been overtly public about his notion that GM must merge with FCA. For a bit of context, GM sold 9.9 million vehicles in 2014, posting $2.8 billion in net income, while FCA sold 4.75 million units and earned $2.4 billion in net income, painting a very rosy FCA earnings-to-sales picture. But that's not the entire picture. Most people in the auto industry still remember the trainwreck that was the DaimlerChrysler "merger" written in what turned out to be sand in 1998. It proved to be a master class in how not to fuse two companies, two cultures, two continents, and two management teams. Oh, it worked for the two individuals at both helms pre-merger. They got silly rich. And the industry itself was in a misty romance at the time with mergers and acquisitions. BMW bought Rolls-Royce. Volkswagen Group bought Bentley, Bugatti, and Lamborghini, putting all three brands into their rightful place in both products and positioning. No marriages there, so no false pretense. Finally, Nissan and Renault got married in 1999. A successful marriage requires several rare elements in this atmosphere of gas fumes and power lust. But a successful marriage requires several rare elements in this atmosphere of gas fumes and power lust, the principle part being honesty. Daimler and Chrysler lied to each other. The heads of each unit, the product planners, and finance all presented their then-current and long-range forecasts to each other with less-than-forthright accuracy. Daimler was the far greater equal and no one from the Chrysler side enjoyed that. The cultures were entirely different, too, and little was done to bridge that gap. Which brings me back to the present overtures by Marchionne to GM. "There are varying degrees of hugs," Marchionne stated in the Automotive News piece. "I can hug you nicely, I can hug you tightly, I can hug you like a bear, I can really hug you." Seriously?