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Dodge delaying Challenger Hellcats ordered with satin black hood [UPDATE]

The new Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat is one of the most formidable muscle cars on the planet. And it looks the part, too – especially with the optional satin black hood. But if you were one of the first customers to place an order for the 707-horsepower Mopar muscle car and specified the black hood on the options sheet, you may have to wait awhile. According to members of the Hellcat.org forum cited by Car and Driver, deliveries of certain Challenger Hellcats have been delayed without explanation. When these fanatic customers started looking into the issue, they realized that all of the delayed orders shared one thing in common: they all had ordered their Dodges with that optional black hood. Although an exact reason wasn't specified, those who ordered the black hood on their Challenger coupes were told that delivery was being pushed back to February. But some were reportedly informed by their local dealership that things could be moved along if they switched their order to a body-colored hood instead. It's not clear if the issue is a supplier problem, a paint booth issue at the factory, or something else entirely. We've reached out to Dodge for clarification, and will update this story when we hear back. UPDATE: Reached for comment, a Dodge spokesperson confirmed to Autoblog that the satin black hood "is not currently available for production" and that customers who ordered it "can opt to change their order to a body-color hood" or otherwise have their orders delayed until the option becomes available at a later date to be confirmed.

Dodge to reveal Hellcat-powered Challenger in Detroit?

On top of all the other performance car debuts slated for next week's Detroit Auto Show, we might be able to add one more to the list - the new, supercharged Hellcat V8 from Chrysler. According to new reports, the rumored 640-horsepower mill is likely to cross the Motor City stage in the engine bay of a Dodge Challenger.
As AllPar points out, though, there may be more news than just the fire-breathing engine. While we've seen spy photos of the Hellcat testing under the hood of the current Challenger, there's a very fair chance that it won't arrive until the muscle car is refreshed later this year. The question now is whether that refresh will be shown off alongside the new engine in Detroit, or if it'll be saved, perhaps for the New York Auto Show.
Other details dug up by AllPar include potential transmissions for the supercharged engine - the Mopar-minded site is expecting an eight-speed automatic or a Tremec six-speed manual. Prices, meanwhile, could be in the same elevated range as the Chevrolet Camaro Z/28, at $70,000 to $80,000.

NHTSA closes investigation on 4.7M FCA power modules, no recall

FCA US hasn't had the best time with recalls as of late. Not only did the company recently agree to greater safety oversight and paid $105 million to the government, that came just days after hacking fears prompted a 1.4-million model recall campaign. However, a recent decision to close an investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration means that the automaker doesn't have to worry about another major recall possibly affecting 4.7 million vehicles, according to the agency's report (as a PDF). Last September, the Center for Auto Safety petitioned NHTSA to investigate an alleged problem with the totally integrated power module (TIPM) on these FCA US models. The group claimed that a fault with the component could cause a variety of maladies, including stalls, not starting, catching fire, unintended acceleration, and airbag non-deployment. At the time, it also submitted 70 cases where this had reportedly happened. According to NHTSA, "no valid evidence was presented in support of claims related to airbag non-deployment, unintended acceleration, or fire resulting from TIPM faults and these claims were found to be wholly without merit based on review of the field data and design of the relevant systems and components." The agency did find signs of an issue with the fuel pump relay in some Jeep Grand Cherokees and Dodge Durangos, but FCA US issued recalls for the problem in September 2014 and February 2015. Without anything else to go on, the Feds don't think it's worth investigating this topic any more.