1972 Dodge Dart Sedan 4-door 3.7l on 2040-cars

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The Hemi deserves to die | Opinion

Hi. I'm Byron and I love V8s. I want them to stick around for a long, long time. But not all V8s are created equal, and I will not mourn the passing of the modern Hemi. You shouldn't either. While we may agree that its death is untimely, if you ask me, that's only because it came far too late.  Stellantis’ announcement of its new, turbocharged inline-six that is all but guaranteed to kill off the Hemi V8 has led to quite a few half-baked internet takes. The notion being suggested by some, that automotive media were brainwashed into believing the Hemi was in need of replacement, is so far divorced from reality that I openly guffawed at the notion. Journalists have been challenging Chrysler, FCA and now Stellantis for years to deliver better high-performance engines. The response has always been the same: “Why?” Why replace a heavy V8 with a lighter, all-aluminum one? Why repackage powertrains for smaller footprints and better handling vehicles? Why be better when “good enough” sells really, really well? I too mourn the departure of good gasoline-burning engines, but since when was the Hemi one? HereÂ’s a quiz: Name every SRT model with an all-aluminum engine. TimeÂ’s up. If you named any, you failed. They donÂ’t exist. This isnÂ’t GMÂ’s compact, lightweight small-block, nor is it a DOHC Ford Coyote that at least revs high enough to justify its larger footprint. The Hemi is an overweight marketing exercise that happened to be in the right place at the right time. That time was 2003, when Chrysler was still Chrysler — except it was Daimler-Chrysler and the "merger of equals" was doing a bang-up job of bleeding the company's cash reserves dry while doing virtually nothing to address its mounting legacy costs. "That thang got a Hemi?" was emblematic of the whimsical, nostalgia-driven marketing of the colonial half of the "marriage made in heaven." That was 20 years ago. 20 years prior to that, emissions-choked American V8s were circling the drain faster than a soapy five-carat engagement ring in a truck stop sink.

Watch these Dodge Demons explode on a Texas drag strip

The Dodge Challenger SRT Demon is extremely quick. It can hit 60 mph from a dead stop in less time than it takes to read this sentence thanks to its supercharged 6.2-liter V8. That engine makes up to 840 horsepower and 770 pound-feet of torque, depending on what octane is running through the fuel lines. That's a ton of power going solely to the rear wheels. So much so that Dodge developed a number of features and a new set of tires specifically for the car. In our time with the Demon, the car took abuse run after run on a drag strip without skipping a beat, but it seems some actual owners aren't quite so lucky. Just take a look at what happened to a few of these cars. You can see the whole car shake and jitter right as the whole rear explodes in front of the tree. It seems the initial shock from the launch — the most taxing bit of any drag run — is what kills the differentials. Catastrophic failure is rarely pretty, but it is neat to see the whole thing occur in slow motion. Three more cars — four stock and one modified in total — suffered similar fates. Not a great look for Dodge or SRT. According to The Drive, a private drag event in Texas drew a number of Demon owners all trying to beat NHRA NHRA Top Fuel racer Leah Pritchett's time in her personal Dodge Demon — 42 stock Demons attended along with five modified cars. While no one managed to match her 9.65-second quarter-mile run, a few owners did dip below 10 seconds. Now, there are a few of caveats we must address. First, with any modified car, you run the risk of breaking something, even with a car that's set up from stock specifically for drag strips. Even a set of tires like the Mickey Thompsons shown in the video above can have an effect on driveline components. Horsepower may be king, but it's torque that's the rear killer. All that torque sends a shock through the car. Adding even more with aftermarket parts increases the risk of something failing. The modified car was apparently pushing out about 1,000 horsepower. That said, four of the five vehicles were stock, so any extra power or torque should theoretically be a non-factor. The drag strip's surface was maintained by a company called Mass Traction. FCA used Mass Traction during the Demon's development, so that too should be a non-factor in the part's failure. It's unclear what exactly caused the failures, though The Drive reports that FCA officials are investigating the matter. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party.

Chrysler teases upcoming outlay of SEMA cars

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is hauling a multitude of modified models to the annual SEMA show in Las Vegas this November, and the company is releasing the first teasing sketches of many of them.
Unfortunately, FCA isn't giving many solid details on any of the concepts other than saying the vehicles from Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Ram and Fiat all benefit from tuning from its Mopar performance brand. The teaser photos include a sinister-looking Chrysler 200S, Fiat 500 Abarth with two-tone paint and a scorpion on the hood, a red and black 500L, seemingly two different takes on the Jeep Renegade, a green Dodge Challenger wearing the T/A badge, an orange and black Dart, a very neon Charger, just the outline of a red and black Viper, a Ram ProMaster in Mopar livery and a Ram pickup called the Outdoorsman.
Take a look through the gallery to see what you think of the sketches for these concepts, and scroll down for the full announcement from FCA.