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Tesla Model S P85D shows 707-hp Dodge Challenger Hellcat how to drag race

Street Car Drags hosted a bang-up event at the Palm Beach International Raceway last weekend, with a list of massive horsepower ICE cars going up against one another and a trio of Tesla Model S P85Ds. One of those duels pitted the 691-horsepower Tesla against a 707-horsepower Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat, and the result was an old-school beatdown and a world record for electric cars. The Model S P85D ran the quarter in 11.6 seconds at 114.6 miles per hour, the new mark for BEVs at the drag strip. Proving its pace, it ran three more times in 11.69, 11.72 and 11.76 seconds. It got from the start line to 60 miles per hour in 3.1 seconds. The Hellcat, well, it wasn't a race, really. It was the Hellcat's driver's first time at a drag strip and his first time trying to launch it, so after an excellent burnout ahead of the lights, he rolled to the line, almost jumped the start, balked at the real start and spun his tires for the first 100 feet down the strip. The theory is that he overheated his street tires during that burnout, and the resulting greasy rubber did what greasy rubber does. By the time he got to the other end 17.46 seconds later the Tesla driver had showered and was enjoying a funnel cake. When things go right, though, Dodge estimates the Hellcat will do 11.2-second runs on street tires and it has been clocked at 10.85 seconds at 126.18 mph on street-legal drag radials. There's video of the not-quite-a-race above, and Drag Times says there'll be a rematch between the two in a couple of weeks. News Source: Street Car Drags via YouTube Green Motorsports Dodge Tesla Coupe Electric Luxury Performance Videos Sedan drag racing dodge challenger srt hellcat

Watch this Dodge Viper get clawed to death

There's a scene in the James Bond movie, Casino Royale, where Daniel Craig's Agent 007 is captured by villain Le Chiffre, played by Mads Mikkelsen. Le Chiffre tortures Bond in a scene that is rather difficult to watch (especially for blokes) and impossible to describe on these digital pages (Google at your own risk). This video is the automotive equivalent of the Casino Royale torture scene.
It shows a Dodge Viper - a late, first-generation GTS judging by the center-exit exhausts - getting assaulted by a giant piece of heavy equipment. The large claw shows no mercy on the V10-powered sports car, rending its muscular curves into pieces and then running it over, just for good measure. It's a painful video to watch (and hear!), made worse because we don't know what the Viper did to deserve such a fate. About a third of the way through the video, the cameraman indicates that the man with the claw is a new operator from Chrysler, and it appears there may be some fire damage, but beyond that, we don't have much to go on.
Scroll down for the video but be warned, it isn't for the faint of heart.

For his last act, Marchionne will outline an EV/hybrid roadmap this week

MILAN/LONDON — Fiat Chrysler (FCA) boss Sergio Marchionne is expected to outline new plans for electric and hybrid cars in a strategy presentation on Friday, aiming to ensure the world's seventh-largest carmaker remains in the race in the absence of a merger. The 65-year-old will present FCA's strategy to 2022, his final contribution to the company he turned around and multiplied in value through 14 years of canny dealmaking. After failing to secure a tie-up he said was necessary to manage the costs of producing cleaner vehicles, Marchionne needs to show the group can keep churning out profits on its own, even as emissions rules tighten, SUV competition intensifies and worries around his succession abound. Marchionne had long refused to jump on the electrification bandwagon, saying he would only do so if selling battery-powered cars could be done at a profit. He even urged customers not to buy FCA's Fiat 500e, its only battery-powered model, because he was losing money on each sold. But Tesla's success and the need to comply with tougher emissions rules have forced Marchionne to commit to what he calls "most painful" spending. "FCA is way behind rivals in terms of hybrid and electric vehicles and they need to hit the accelerator to convince investors they can close that gap," said Andrea Pastorelli, a fund manager at 8a+ Investimenti. Germany's Volkswagen, Daimler, BMW and U.S. rivals GM and Ford have committed to spending billions of euros each in coming years to try produce profitable cars powered by cleaner fuels. FCA needs to present a clear roadmap, just like Volvo Cars, which ditched diesel from its best-selling XC60 SUV, launched a new electric brand and pledged to shift all brands to hybrid by 2019, a banking source close to FCA said, noting: "The tech divide determines winners and losers in the industry." Marchionne has already said half of the wider FCA fleet will incorporate some elements of electrification by 2022, while luxury marque Maserati will spearhead FCA's electrification drive by making all new models due after 2019 electric. But its plans remain vaguer and less advanced than most big rivals and some investors wonder about the capital required to make vehicles compliant, and what share of spending can go to electrification given FCA's numerous demands.