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Only in Japan: Dodge van one-make racing series is a thing

Japan seems willing to embrace a level of automotive insanity that many other places lack. Whether it's 1,200-horsepower Nissan GT-Rs blasting through tight, tree-lined mountain roads or advertisements with dances for the Toyota Prius Plug-in, the country definitely has a unique way of expressing a love for autos. The D-Van Grand Prix might be one of our favorite examples yet of crazy Japanese car culture, because the annual, one-make race at the Ebisu Circuit is exclusively for heavily customized Dodge vans. Like many great things, this wonderfully crazy idea came from a little rule breaking. D-Van Grand Prix organizer Takuro Abe was at a track event for a motorcycle racing school, and vans were used to haul the bikes around. During lunch someone came up with the idea for a race. Ignoring that the big machines weren't actually allowed on the circuit, the drivers headed out. The popularity has just grown since then. These days, the racing vans absolutely aren't the stock machines from the event's inspiration. In addition to stripped interiors and track rubber that you might expect, the list of mods for them is a mile long. For every possible advantage, the racers fit them with things like Brembo brakes, cross-drilled rotors, heavy-duty transmissions, and much more. Seeing vans lumbering around the track is very weird at first, but the racers take the competition very seriously. These folks even employ all sorts of little tricks to coax the most from the machines. This is a fascinating motorsports story, but be sure to turn on the subtitles to understand the interviews with the competitors.

Saleen SA-30 Mustang, Camaro and Challenger help celebrate the big 3-0

After 30 years of tuning performance cars and building racecars, Saleen is celebrating its racing heritage with a limited-production car line called SA-30. Based on the Ford Mustang, Chevrolet Camaro and Dodge Challenger, Saleen will only build 10 of each SA-30 model at a base price of $95,000.
For that money, buyers will get upgraded suspension, brakes and engines, and while the power figures have not been released for the SA-30 620 Camaro and SA-30570 Challenger models, the SA-30 302 Mustang will be the top performer with 625 horsepower. Each car will be painted up in a custom pearl white hue with black and yellow accents, and get white wheels shrouding yellow powder-coated brake calipers. Inside, the SA-30 offerings will all get a proper Saleen interior with black leather and white Alcantara on the seats, along with the expected smattering of SA-30 badges.
On all three SA-30 models, customers will have various options available to further customize their cars, including a rear-seat delete option that transforms each car's cabin into a race-inspired interior with a chassis-strengthening rear cross brace. Perhaps the coolest feature of all, though, is the Saleen Frost-Touch Glass that is an option on the SA-30 302 Mustang. Similar to the Mercedes Sky Control roof first introduced on the Mercedes SLK, the Saleen Frost-Touch Glass allows the Mustang's optional glass roof and rear window to be switched from transparent to opaque at the push of a button.

2025 SRT Hellcat concepts as previewed by high schoolers

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has some very talented designers in its ranks. Like any good company, though, the automaker is always on the lookout for early talent. Even if they're still in high school. One of those talent-seeking initiatives is the company's Drive for Design contest, an event open to tenth-, eleventh-, and twelfth-grade students that are hoping for a future in design. For this year's event, students from across the country were given a shot to design their vision for a 2025 model-year Dodge SRT Hellcat. The results are impressive, as you can see in the gallery above. First place went to Ben Treinen, from Archbishop Moeller High School in Cincinnati. Second place was the only award to go to a student outside the Rust Belt, with Macon, GA's Harrison Kunselman, a student at Mount de Sales Academy taking the silver. Third place was won by a metro Detroiter – Bloomfield Hills High School student Hwanseong Jang, while fourth went to Andrew Gombac of Loyola Academy in Wilmette, IL. According to FCA, all four winners will have their sketches on display at the 2016 Autorama at Cobo Center at the end of February. They'll also win some pretty nifty prizes. First place will get a new Apple MacBook Pro, while second, third, and fourth get the new Apple iPad Pro and Apple Pencil (arguably just as good of a prize for budding designers). All four finishers will also attend a three-week automotive design course at Detroit's prestigious College for Creative Studies, have dinner with FCA designers, and score three passes to Autorama. FCA will cover travel and lodging to Auburn Hills. Read on for the official blast from FCA. Related Video: FCA US Design Team Announces Winners of Drive for Design Contest January 19, 2016 , Auburn Hills, Mich. - The FCA US LLC Design team today announced four winners in this year's Drive for Design contest. The FCA US Drive for Design contest challenged U.S. high school students in grades 10-12 to design a Dodge SRT Hellcat for the year 2025. "The Drive for Design contest continues to be a great way for the FCA US Design team to connect with students that show an interest in art and design," said Mark Trostle – Head of Dodge and SRT Design, FCA US LLC.