Thursday, June 13, 2013

2011 Dodge Charger SRT 8

Front 3/4 view of 2011 Dodge Charger SRT-8

Never underestimate the power of something that looks this mean.

Its kinda easy to do, given that the Dodge Charger has been with us for 5 years now and a new ones on the way. Weve seen it too many times in airport car rental lots and giggled as Mark Harmon and the gang on NCIS make the 6-cylinder ones they drive try to look menacing.

But five minutes in a Charger SRT-8 is enough to wipe that smirk right off my face...and replace it with a great big ear-to-ear grin.

                              Rear 3/4 view of red 2011 Dodge Charger SRT-8

Tromp on the pedal of an SRT-8 and the rear of the car is what everyone else on the road is going to see.

Yes, it has a Hemi. 6.1 liters worth, putting out 425 horsepower with 420 pounds of torque. The 5-speed "AutoStick" automatic transmission is up to the task, though a real six-speed manual would be ideal.  Whatever...the point is brute strength and the Charger SRT-8 delivers big time.

According to the window sticker that came with our tester, its the official passenger car of NASCAR, which makes perfect sense. This is what NASCAR used to be. Take a big standard car, stuff the hairiest engine possible under the hood and hang on.

Sophisticated?

Refined?

Elegant?

No...but a big barrel of fun for a reasonable price. Base is $38,180. Yeah, that is awfully close to $40K. Find me this much performance for less than this money and maybe Ill change my mind.

Of course, you can load these up and thats just what the Dodge PR people did. This one had the SRT Option Groups II and III, roughly $2,800 worth of options including an upgraded radio, 13 high performance speakers, a 322-watt amplifier, a 200-watt subwoofer, surround sound, Uconnect, iPod control, a security alarm and a nav system.

Throw in the power sunroof ($950), HID headlamps ($695), performance tire and wheel upgrade ($250), rear seat video system (in a sedan?) ($1,480) and the inevitable gas guzzler tax (13 city/19 highway) of $1,700 and your bottom line after $750 destination charge is $46,850.

If your heart and your bank balance say yes, theres a lot of fun to be had here.
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Monday, June 10, 2013

Worst Parking Job Ever Here Comes The Judge

                        

Six months and a few hundred thousand pageviews later, the authorities have sentenced the woman seen in the video above parking her car on....well, two other cars.

Tripta Kaushal was arrested on the evidence of that video back in October. But the wheels of justice turn more deliberately than those of her SUV, so its only this week that the judge brought the hammer down.

A $500 fine for leaving the scene and failing to report the accident, restitution to the owners of the two cars she damaged, six months probation and shes not allowed to drive between 7PM and 7AM.

Do we really think low light was the issue here?

And yes, shes driving a BMW X5. Now, just imagine what the media would have said about the video if it had been a Toyota.
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Friday, June 7, 2013

Megacity BMW Vehicle Future Concept Cars

Future direction of the concept vehicle is already clear. Several terms, now is getting to be such obligation that is not too large size, low emissions and fuel economy must certainly be there. With the same understanding as well as BMWs long player in the automotive trying to design a concept car that will be the future of transportation. This car will be fully using electrical energy source and will carry a number of todays modern technology.


Megacity BMW Vehicle Project was actually started from Project i at the end of 2007. At that time, BMW began to try to glance at the hybrid car market with the launch of the Mini E. It was indeed a comparison between the use of fuel oil to electricity is not balanced and therefore BMW 1-series and then launched ActiveE Concept which will be launched later in 2011. This is not the last project of the BMW because for the year 2013 BMW is preparing for this Vehicle MCV or Megacity.



From the sketches on display, it appears that Megacity Vehicle body design is indeed very futuristic. It is possible that this concept will change shape when entering the later production globally but at least we can predict the basic shape of this Vehicle Megacity. From the data specification, BMW says that this MCV would accommodate four passengers although there is no clarity about the number of doors to be installed on this car.



An important component in realizing the optimal electric car is obviously the weight of the car itself. How not, the weight of the batteries alone can reach 250kg - 360kg. Therefore, BMW took dugwells Carbon to design what they call a carbon fiber cells that will become the fundamental building blocks of this MCV. With an electric motor that can generate power of 135 horsepower and weighs a light car it is expected that these MCV can achieve the ideal distance to be called as a tool of modern transportation. Source: spinnwebzine.wordpress.com
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Saturday, June 1, 2013

ABCs Brian Ross Did Toyota Hide Life Saving Information

The fuel just keeps getting poured on the Toyota fire. ABCs Brian Ross aired this piece on Good Morning America Thursday, with more promised for World News with Diane Sawyer. His on-camera introduction deals with Toyotas admission of a brake design flaw in the Prius, which we told you about earlier this morning. Its whats in his taped report that begins about 30 seconds in that is likely to cause still more damage to whats left of Toyotas reputation:

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