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Chrysler patents smarter minivan folding seats

It's frightening to think of how quickly the mice would have overtaken us if we hadn't stayed one step ahead of them with better mousetraps. We'll never have to worry about that in our relentlessly re-engineered world, though. Case in point: Chrysler has been granted a patent by the US Patent and Trademark Office for an improved design of the already wondrous Stow 'n' Go seating found in the automaker's Town and Country and Dodge Grand Caravan minivans.
Introduced in 2005, the Stow 'n' Go was improved in 2008, and based on the drawings of this third-generation improvement, the new design appears to allow stowage of the second row of seats without having to move the front-row seats forward as much. It look like it also involves fewer operations and moving parts, with a portion of the seatback being incorporated into the flat floor when the seats are stowed, as opposed to having a completely separate cover.
It's possible that the innovation may appear on the next-generation minivans expected in 2015, but Chrysler isn't commenting on the patent.

2019 Dodge Challenger, Charger salute troops with Stars and Stripes Edition

For the New York Auto Show, Dodge is showing off a new style package for the 2019 Dodge Challenger and Charger that goes by the name Stars and Stripes. As you may have guessed, the new package is military-themed as a salute to American troops. And since Dodge claims the Challenger and Charger have more active military buyers than any other car in their respective segments, this seems like a good move. What makes the Stars and Stripes models unique starts with a black and silver center stripe along with black wheels, badging, and American flag fender decals. Cars with four-piston Brembo brake calipers get the calipers painted in bronze. This matches the interior, which is finished in black cloth with bronze stitching everywhere from the steering wheel to the door panels. The finishing touches are bronze embroidered stars on the seats. The whole package is available on Scat Pack and R/T versions of the Challenger and Charger, plus the Challenger GT and the Charger GT RWD. It also adds $1,995 to the base price of each car. Besides the Stars and Stripes package, Dodge has expanded availability of two other packages. The first is the Painted Satin Black Appearance Package, which was initially exclusive to the Demon and Challenger Hellcat, but will now be available on the Charger Hellcat. It adds a hand-painted hood, roof, trunk and spoiler to the car and runs $3,450. The other package is the Brass Monkey Package. It's now available on Challenger and Charger Scat Pack, R/T and Challenger GT and Charger GT RWD models. It adds bronze-painted 20-inch wheels, satin black badging, fuel door lid and spoiler, and it costs $795.

Viper ACR privateers' Nurburgring runs detailed in new documentary

Discontinued in the summer of 2017, the Dodge Viper is out of production, relegated to the hearts and garages of those who love it. But as a last hurrah, a crowdfunded privateer team took two Viper ACRs to the famous Nurburgring racetrack to both celebrate the Viper's existence and to try and lap the long Nordschleife track in under 7 minutes. Going after the fastest recorded production car lap, they gunned for the Lamborghini Huracan Performante's 6:52 time, but hot August temperatures caused tire problems and the Viper remained on the wrong side of 7 minutes despite the best efforts of ex-Porsche cup driver Lance David Arnold and SRT driver Dominik Farnbacher. In essence, the team ran factory-spec Viper ACR Extremes on factory tires; showroom fresh, the cars were delivered straight from Texas. But despite not getting under the 7-minute mark, they still became the first non-automaker-affiliated team to set an official Nurburgring lap time — and the 7:01.3 they laid down on their best run made the Viper ACR the fastest RWD, fastest manual and fastest American-built car on the track. Now, a full documentary of the record attempt has been released to the public, detailing all the pain and exhilaration that goes into running this kind of cars on their absolute limit on one of the most demanding racetracks in the world. It's 24 minutes of pure excellence. You can also re-view the record lap here in its entirety: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Dodge Videos dodge viper acr