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2021 Dodge Durango SRT Hellcat is here to be the king of all SUVs

This was inevitable, right? The 2021 Dodge Durango SRT Hellcat has arrived, and Dodge hasn’t held anything back. FCA has essentially taken its lovely Hellcat engine and dumped it into the largest SUV it sells. Cheers to that. Power from the 6.2-liter supercharged V8 is rated at 710 horses and 645 pound-feet of torque in this application. It has 3 extra ponies beyond the traditional 707-horsepower version, and thatÂ’s probably just so Dodge can call it the most powerful SUV in the world, eking by the Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk that has 707. The Durango Hellcat will crack off a 3.5-second 0-60 mph time and hit a top speed of 180 mph, assuming youÂ’re brave enough to take it there. The 0-60-mph time is 0.9 second quicker than a non-supercharged Durango SRT. Dodge pitted the two against each other on a 2.1-mile road course, and the Hellcat completed the lap 1.5 seconds quicker than the base SRT. All the shifting continues to be handled by an eight-speed automatic transmission. Of course, Dodge is also giving the Durango SRT Hellcat more braking and more suspension to handle the extra power. The upgraded suspension is tuned to be more comfortable in Auto mode and offer better handling in Track mode with less roll, less understeer and better rebound control. This is thanks to newly tuned shocks and stiffer top damper mounts. The brakes are upgraded to massive Brembo six-piston calipers in front and four-piston calipers in the rear. They clamp onto vented rotors at all four corners (15.75 inches in front and 13.8 inches in rear). Tires are 295-square, which is the same size as the regular SRT. You can choose between all-season or summer Pirelli tires. 2021 Dodge Durango SRT Hellcat View 17 Photos SRT says it tailored the Hellcat engine to the Durango to make sure it could handle sustained track use. It has a unique cooling circuit for the charge air coolers thatÂ’s designed to keep air going to the engine cooler than 140 degrees. The lower front fascia hides a “cold-air scoop” where the Durango pulls air in from. ItÂ’s all spit out through a new exhaust system thatÂ’s definitely going to be loud as hell. Dodge says it features a 260 mm X-pipe, which is the largest in the SRT lineup. From a styling standpoint, the Hellcat stands out from its brethren without looking too ostentatious.

China-FCA merger could be a win-win for everyone but politicians

NEW YORK — Fiat Chrysler boss Sergio Marchionne has said the car industry needs to come together, cut costs and stop incinerating capital. So far, his words have mostly fallen on deaf ears among competitors in Europe and North America. But it appears Marchionne has finally found a receptive audience — in China. FCA shares soared Monday after trade publication Automotive News reported the $18 billion Italian-American conglomerate controlled by the Agnelli family rebuffed a takeover from an unidentified carmaker from the Chinese mainland. As ugly as the politics of such a combination may appear at first blush, a transaction could stack up industrially, and perhaps even financially. A Sino-U.S.-European merger would create the first truly global auto group. That could push consolidation to the next level elsewhere. Moreover, China is the world's top market for the SUVs that Jeep effectively invented, so it might benefit FCA financially. A combo would certainly help upgrade the domestic manufacturer; Chinese carmakers have gotten better at making cars, but struggle to build global brands, and they need to develop export markets. Though frivolous overseas shopping excursions by Chinese enterprises are being reined in by Beijing, acquisitions that support the modernization and transformation of strategic industries still receive support, and the government considers the automotive industry to be strategic. A purchase of FCA by Guangzhou Automobile, Great Wall or Dongfeng Motors would probably get the same stamp of approval ChemChina was given for its $43 billion takeover of Syngenta. What's standing in the way? Apart from price (Automotive News said FCA's board deemed the offer insufficient) there's the not-insignificant matter of politics. Even as FCA shares soared, President Donald Trump interrupted his vacation to instruct the U.S. Trade Representative to look into whether to investigate China's trade policies on intellectual property. Seeing storied Detroit brands like Jeep, Chrysler, Ram and Dodge handed off to a Chinese company would provoke howls among Trump's economic-nationalist supporters. It might not play well in Italy, either, to see Alfa Romeo and Maserati answering to Wuhan instead of Turin — though Automotive News said they might be spun off separately. Yet, as Morgan Stanley observes, "cars don't ship across oceans easily," and political considerations increasingly demand local manufacture of valuable products.

Fiat Chrysler picks Google, Samsung for global connected car system

DETROIT — Fiat Chrysler said on Tuesday it will use technology from Alphabet Inc's Google and Samsung to connect all its vehicles by 2022, providing music and video and facilitating future car-sharing and self-driving capabilities. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (FCA) will use Google's Android operating system globally instead of a mixture of software that varies by region, a spokesman said. The automaker will also use a cloud-based digital platform from Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's Harman unit. Unlike its rivals General Motors and Ford, FCA has spent virtually nothing on developing self-driving vehicle technology. This saves the company large amounts of money, but makes it reliant on outside parties to provide technology and systems. FCA said it will launch the new capabilities in the second half of 2019. The company said the system will aid owners "by predicting maintenance needs, locating fuel and charging stations, receiving traffic prompts and restaurant offers and providing live customer-care assistance at the push of the button." Chrysler Dodge Fiat Jeep RAM Technology Emerging Technologies connected car