1967 Dodge Coronet 440 2 Door Hardtop on 2040-cars

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Experience the Woodward Dream Cruise in a Dodge Challenger Hellcat

While Autoblog was consumed by coverage of the increasingly important Monterey Car Week last weekend, there was another big even going on. The Woodward Dream Cruise is significantly lighter in terms of news, but there's no denying that it's a far bigger, and far more egalitarian than what the wine-and-cheese crowd experience on the links at Pebble Beach. The Dream Cruise crams tens of thousands of cars and over a million spectators along a four-lane ribbon of asphalt between Ferndale and Pontiac, MI. What's remarkable aren't these numbers, though, so much as the distances they travel. Owners and admirers come from far and wide, across the United States and in some cases across the globe, to take in the spectacle. This year, local radio and television coverage featured fans that traveled from Japan, Australia, and Europe, just to take in the cruise. Of course, we realize that not everyone can make the pilgrimage to Woodward Avenue. With that fact in mind, we decided to bring a bit of the Dream Cruise to Autoblog with a time-lapse video of the cruise route. You can experience the good (a Lamborghini Gallardo, Chevrolet Chevelle, and Oldsmobile Cutlass 442), the bad (the traffic jams), and the ugly (no, your 2003 Ford Focus does not qualify as a classic, get the hell out of the cruiser lanes). So join us, as we turn off 8 Mile Road behind the wheel of our 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and run north, through Ferndale, Pleasant Ridge, Royal Oak, Huntington Woods, Berkley, Bloomfield Township, and Bloomfield Hills, before ending up on Wide Track Drive in Pontiac.

The last time Dodge recycled the Demon name, it was for a Miata fighter

We and the rest of the automotive world are eagerly awaiting the reveal of the Dodge Challenger Demon. And why wouldn't we be? It's going to be a Hellcat, but with less weight, bigger fenders, more performance, and more Vin Diesel. This isn't the first time we've been excited about a Demon from Dodge, though. Ten years ago, Dodge had another demonic car, but it was very different from the new one. The Demon of 2007 was a lithe little roadster that looked primed and ready to take on the Miata, as well as the now-departed Solstice and Sky twins. The Demon was just under an inch shorter than the MX-5 and the Solstice, and it packed a 172 horsepower 2.4-liter four-cylinder that fell right between the Miata's 170 and the Solstice's 177 outputs. Dodge's estimated the curb weight, which for a concept is largely theoretical, also slotted between the two cars at 2600 pounds. That was about 150 more than the Mazda, and about 200 less than the Pontiac. The pitch perfect specifications were presented in a crisp two-seat roadster wrapper. In many ways, it looked like a baby Viper, with a menacing crosshair grille, slanted headlights, and fat rear fenders. The Demon's line's were brutally simple and geometric, too. They didn't seem far removed from the first-generation Audi TT. The interior was also plain and simple. The key highlights were a horizontal aluminum accent that ran the width of the dash, echoed by an aluminum-covered center console. The instrument cluster was uncluttered, with just four gauges, and the only controls were some climate knobs, a double-DIN head unit, and a six-speed manual. It turns out that the 2007 Demon didn't drive very well, though. You see, we actually drove this concept back in the day, and like many concepts, it still had a long way to go to be production ready. The gearbox would grind, the ride quality was terrible. However, the interior was roomy, and the engine sounded suitably grumbly, if a bit coarse. At the time, we said Dodge should absolutely build the little roadster. In retrospect, the company probably made the right decision not to invest in the Demon. The small rear drive sports car segment was, and still is, an extremely niche market. It would have been a big investment for little return, something FCA today is trying to avoid. This is all before taking into account the fact that the recession was just around the corner. In the end, we can't be too sad though.

The Dodge Neon is alive!

"Holy crap! It's a new Dodge Neon! Like a new new one." Oddly, no one else on the Cancun resort shuttle seemed to notice. Or care. Ogling Mexican-market compact sedans is apparently something exclusive to automotive journalists on vacation. Yet there it was, fittingly on Dio de los Muertos, in all its resurrected glory. With a margarita in hand and an ocean in front of me, ignored, I turned my attention to my phone to get to the bottom of Neon version 3.0. Introduced for 2016, today's Dodge Neon is based upon and built alongside the Fiat Tipo/Egea, a C segment compact sedan co-developed by Fiat and Turkish industrial outfit Koc Holding. More than 125,000 were sold last year in Europe, with another 47,000 in Turkey. It's also sold in the Middle East and Africa, with Mexico alone getting the Neon version. Exterior styling is really the only difference, and then, only the crosshair grille manages to identify it as a Dodge. Then again, the same could be said for the not-so-dearly departed Dart, which belonged to the same segment. It was much bigger, though, with an extra 6 inches of overall length and 3 inches of wheelbase (which, as I just discovered, is "distancia entre ejes" en espanol). The Neon interior, not surprisingly, is pretty much the same as its Fiat siblings. The dash has two variations. A bigger, upgrade touchscreen resides in a dash-mounted, tablet-style infotainment pod, but the standard stereo head unit or 5-inch touchscreen upgrade fits into a binnacle shared with the instrument panel. It's a bit more like the Challenger, Charger, and yes, Dart in this regard, but in total, the Neon's cabin design is also less blocky and more organic in appearance. The switchgear is pure Fiat, but the steering wheel has the same control layout as Dodges, Jeeps and Chryslers. Power comes from the Challenger Scat Pack's 6.4-liter Hemi V8. No, it doesn't, I totally got you. The standard engine, dubbed FIRE, is a 1.4-liter naturally aspirated four-cylinder good for 95 horsepower and 94 pound-feet of torque. So, less than the Scat Pack. The optional engine, dubbed E.TorQ, which is in no way related to the Ram's eTorque mild hybrid system and not especially eTorquey, is a 1.6-liter naturally aspirated four-cylinder good for 110 hp and 112 lb-ft. Sadly, the Neon color selection is in no way neon, which probably doesn't matter since virtually every car on the Yucatan peninsula is painted white.