2020 Dodge Charger R/t on 2040-cars

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2019 Dodge Challenger Hellcat with twin-scoop hood spied with no camouflage

Dodge recently teased an updated 2019 Challenger SRT Hellcat sports coupe complete with an all-new hood with dual scoops. It didn't reveal anything else about the vehicle, saying more details were coming. And now we have more details, but not in the way Dodge probably wanted. We can now see the updated Hellcat with the new hood. To be perfectly honest, it's pretty much what we expected. The teaser photos indicated that the hood was the only major body change, and this car confirms it. The rest of the body is identical to a normal Hellcat. The bumpers, grille mesh, even the wheels are all standard Hellcat parts. Even the slotted rotors and Brembo calipers look the same. This car does suggest that the hood will be available on both the narrow-body Hellcat and the Hellcat Widebody, the latter of which was featured in the teaser images. There is actually one other minor difference on this 2019 Hellcat's exterior, and that's the grille badging. There's now a vintage-style badge with "Challenger" written in script off to one side. Currently only one grille and badge design is available on Hellcat, and it features just the SRT Hellcat logo. It appears the SRT badge is still present, but blocked off on this prototype. So it's possible this new badge comes with the new hood as a sort of retro package for Hellcat. We should have all the details on this and other 2019 Challengers when the car is officially revealed later this summer. Related Video: Featured Gallery 2019 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Spy Shots View 11 Photos Image Credit: KGP Photography Spy Photos Dodge Coupe Performance dodge challenger srt hellcat

Challenger A/T Unlimited Concept could be your next Hellcat-powered ORV

This past June I spent an excellent day hanging out with Joey Ruiter, driving and discussing his Reboot Buggy project. Before heading home, I let him know that he was more than welcome to keep me abreast of whichever new automotive project he'd get into. You can never have too many car designers and one-off fabricators in your Rolodex, right?
Ruiter recently made good with the follow-up, emailing me with details on this Dodge Challenger A/T Untamed Concept that pushes a lot of hot buttons for the muscle car and off-roading enthusiasts.
This all-terrain Mopar is a lot more than a Challenger body dropped on a truck chassis, too. A materialized version of the A/T would included a completely new, long-travel suspension, skid plates, body armor and rock sliders, and obviously flared fenders to help accommodate a hellacious set of off-road-ready tires. The dramatically revised underpinnings would be topped with a slick graphics package and a killer lower light bar, all making the A/T look quite cohesive in its own, radical way. And the result would be a car no longer limited to mere road-driving.

Chrysler expecting up to 200,000 9-speed transmissions for 3 models this year

Striving for improved fuel economy, we already knew that Chrysler will begin using a nine-speed automatic transmission in some of its new products this year, but what we haven't known is that volume at which this gearbox will be used. According to Bloomberg, Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne has been quoted as saying that the automaker expects to sell close to 200,000 units equipped with this new transmission in 2013. Those gear-rich trannies will be spread out across three models, consisting of the redesigned Chrysler 200, the still-unnamed Jeep Liberty replacement and the Dodge Dart.
This transmission should play a pivotal role in making Chrysler vehicles more competitive in their respective segments. Just for comparison, one of the Dart's key competitors, the Toyota Corolla, still uses a four-speed automatic, and a previous report indicates that the next-generation 200 could get up to 38 miles per gallon on the highway, which is better than most non-hybrid midsize sedans on the market. Marchionne says that the new Jeep model is expected during the second quarter of this year, but there is no word as to when the new 200 or nine-speed Dart will debut, but clearly Dodge would like to have the transmission in its compact yesterday. As for that volume figure, it definitely doesn't seem out of reach since the Dart, Liberty and 200 combined for a total of more than 225,000 units in 2012.
How many more gears can we expect in future cars? Probably not many more, since the CEO of transmission-builder ZF, Stefan Sommer, previously stated that nine speeds was the "natural limit" for transmissions.