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FCA recalls 1.1 million vehicles worldwide due to confusing shifter

Fiat Chrysler is recalling 1.1 million vehicles worldwide to address the problematic shifter used on cars with eight-speed automatic transmissions. The issue is that the console-mounted shifter acts like a rocker switch and always returns to the middle position after moved. This has been deemed confusing to drivers – confusing enough to cause some to exit their vehicles without first selecting Park and leading to the car rolling away. FCA says 41 injuries are related to the shifter problem, and no evidence of equipment failure has been found. The company will enhance warning chimes and alter the shift strategy, meaning alert messages will be displayed in case the driver door is opened while the engine is running. With the door open, the transmission will prevent the car from moving even if Park is not selected. The affected vehicles are certain model-year 2012–2014 Dodge Charger and Chrysler 300 sedans, as well as model-year 2014–2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee SUVs, an estimated 811,586 US vehicles in total. The recall also affects 52,144 vehicles in Canada, 16,805 in Mexico, and 248,667 vehicles elsewhere. The shifter is used with ZF-designed and ZF-built eight-speed automatic; Audi uses a similar shifter setup in some of its vehicles, including the current-generation, which predated Chrysler's use of it. Chrysler uses a different, a rotating-dial-type shifter on eight-speed-equipped Rams. The company moved away from the problem shifter design in 2015 for the Charger and 300, and the Grand Cherokee's shift lever was modified for 2016. Owners of affected vehicles will be notified of the recall when service is available. Fiat Chrysler urges customers to follow the instructions in the vehicle's owner's manual in the meantime. Related Video: News Source: FCAImage Credit: AOL Recalls Chrysler Dodge Jeep RAM Ownership Safety SUV Sedan

Travis Pastrana signs with Dodge for another year, brings partner Bryce Menzies [w/video]

Dodge and SRT Motorsports announced that the Dodge Dart will be returning for its sophomore season of the Global Rallycross Championship with a two-car team fielded by Pastrana Racing. Travis Pastrana drove his GRC Dart to victory lane in the fourth race of the car's inaugural season, and his race team is looking for even more success with the addition of off-road racer Bryce Menzies behind the wheel of the second car.
The 2013 GRC season kicks off on April 21 in Brazil with plenty of dirt-spewing, ramp-jumping action. Scroll down for a video from the cars' main sponsor, Red Bull, and a press release from Chrysler.

Inner Demon revealed: 840 hp and other jaw-dropping details

After months of teasers, rumors, cryptic messages, and veiled hints, the 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon is finally here, and it's as wonderfully insane as we hoped it would be. Finally we know the facts and figures that Dodge has been hinting at for so long. 840 horsepower. 770 lb-ft of torque. 2.3 seconds to 60 mph. A quarter-mile run of 9.65 @ 140 mph. While pricing hasn't been announced, Dodge is trying to keep it under $100,000. That horsepower figure makes this the most powerful production V8 ever. With those 0-60 and quarter-mile times, it's also NHRA certified as the quickest production car ever. Someone with the means needs to line a Demon up against a Tesla Model S P100D. All that power and all of the Demon's trick launching software and hardware will throw a driver back against their seat with 1.8 Gs. Drivers will be seeing a bit of sky, as the Demon is the first production car to pull a wheelie from a dead stop. Yes, this is all totally and 100 percent street legal. View 48 Photos In order to make all this power, the red-painted supercharged 6.2-liter Hemi V8 has been significantly improved over the Hellcat. It's equipped with a larger 2.7-liter supercharger that turns the boost up to 14.5 psi, redlines at 6,500, and has what Dodge is calling SRT Power Chiller, a system that uses the air conditioning to cool the air coming in through the new Air Grabber hood scoop. In order to keep your engine running time and time again, there is an after-run cooler than cools the supercharger after the car is shut off. The pistons and connecting rods have been strengthened to deal with the higher load. In order to feed enough juice into the engine, the Demon uses dual fuel pumps. We assume that a decent EPA rating wasn't on the top of the engineer's list. Oh, and the Demon can run on 100-octane with the press of a button. With the traditional SRT black and red keys, the Demon actually has three horsepower ratings: 500 with the black key, 808 with the red key, and the full 840 with the red key and 100-octane fuel. Don't worry, even if you have the black key, the Demon will drop the 1/4 mile in 11.59 seconds, still quicker than almost anything around. Most of the rest you already know from the seemingly endless teasers. The Demon wears lightweight wheels with sticky 315/40R18 Nitto drag radials at all four corners.