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2020 Dodge Charger Widebody Daytona wrecked with 296 miles on the clock

The Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Widebody Daytona 50th Anniversary Edition can do 0-60 faster than you can say its name, and one new owner appears to have proven that it can all go wrong just as quickly. This one-of-501 sedan currently resting on a Copart lot in California has already met its end.  Dodge named the model after NASCAR's season-opening venue. The Daytona 500 gets the numerical part of its name from the length of the race — 500 miles. This poor White Knuckle example didn't even live long enough to put that much distance behind it; it shows just 296 miles on its odometer, says Motor1.com, who spotted the wreck on Copart.  This poor Widebody suffered a front-end accident severe enough to pop the airbags, which is never a good sign. Both front fenders took a beating, and the passenger-side panel was ripped off completely. The hood was badly buckled in several places, and the bumper covers appear pretty badly thrashed. It's difficult to tell from these photos whether the front crash structure was badly mangled, but we suspect it didn't come out unscathed. The passenger-side front suspension clearly took a beating, as the tire on that side was de-beaded from the wheel.  On the bright side, multiple images show that the car's electrical system is intact; whether it starts and runs is another matter.  The Daytona 50th Anniversary Edition package is, fundamentally at least, little more than a plaque, a sticker package, and a re-rated 717 peak horsepower. What you really get for your money is exclusivity, and thanks to this little "oops," there's more of that to be had. Only 501 were built (to commemorate the number of production units required to homologate the original Charger Daytona for NASCAR racing); just 451 went to U.S. dealers, and the other 50 were reserved for the Great White North where it's built. These models are so scarce that some dealers were already tacking on tens of thousands of dollars in additional markup. Back in December, at least one dealer had slapped a $25,000 market adjustment on a Daytona model (in the same "White Knuckle" finish as the wrecked car here), and others were being spotted with similar tacked-on premiums.  Related Video:    

How fracking is causing Chrysler minivans to sit on Detroit's riverfront

It's fascinating the way that one change to a complex system can have all sorts of unintended consequences. For instance, there are hundreds of new Chrysler Town and County and Dodge Grand Caravan minivans built in Windsor, Ontario, sitting in lots on the Detroit waterfront because of the energy boom in the Bakken oil field in the northern US and parts of Canada.
The huge amount of crude oil coming from these sites mostly use freight trains for transport, and that supply boom has resulted in a shortage of railcars to carry other goods. According to The Windsor Star, North American crude oil transport by train has gone from 9,500 carloads in 2008 to 434,032 carloads in 2013. Making matters worse, some North American rail infrastructure is still damaged because of this year's harsh winter, and that's slowing things down even further.
Chrysler admits to The Star that it has had some delivery delays due to the freight train shortage. In the meantime, it's using more trucks to deliver its vehicles. Trucking is a far less economical solution, partially because a train can carry so many more units at one time, but alternatives are slim. The Windsor plant alone has a deal for 33 trucks to distribute the minivans around Canada and the Midwestern US.

Dodge Challenger ACR rumored finally on its way using Viper ACR as benchmark

In 1995, Dodge released the ACR Neon, an unlikely combination of cheap, compact American sedan and high-performance parts and engineering marked by initials standing for American Club Racer. Dodge sold a heap of them, so the automaker flexed the ACR brand's potential with the first ACR Viper in 1999. The racy coupes made huge noise for Dodge and the Viper. After the fourth-gen Viper ended production in 2010, Dodge took a Challenger ACR concept to SEMA in 2011. But instead of carrying the coupe to production, Dodge resurrected the Viper for 2013 and got one more Viper ACR model out during the last Viper's final years. With the Viper gone again, it appears Dodge is sorting out that Challenger ACR concept for real. Last October, Mopar Insiders reported the automaker was trying to get a Challenger ACR prepared for the model's 50th anniversary this year. The timing looks highly unlikely, but an Allpar source says the track-happy coupe is still coming, and with bonkers expectations and gear. We're talking about a big-boi widebody Challenger tuned to do hard laps, fast, around twisty circuits, all day long. An Allpar insider known as "Muther," a code name to tug at John le Carre's heart, said Dodge is considering two engines. Because the point of the car is to be raced and some series don't accept forced induction, one trim would fit the naturally aspirated 392 Hemi from the R/T Scat Pack. There's no telling if that motor would get a power bump, but the Challenger ACR concept upped its output slightly with measures like a cat-back exhaust. The other trim, naturally, would fit the 6.2-liter Hellcat Redeye V8.     Muther told Allpar that if engineers can get the car under 4,000 pounds, the math points to being within two seconds of the time set by the Viper ACR-E at Road America. That "E" represents the Extreme Aero Package, with addenda like a deeper front splitter, dive planes, and an adjustable, dual-element rear wing that helped the Viper ring up 14 lap records on U.S. tracks. The fastest time we know of for a Viper at Road America is from 2011, factory race driver Kuno Wittmer doing 2:20 even in a Gen IV Viper ACR. Wittmer's ride weighed 3,408-pounds. Dodge boffins want to get the Challenger ACR under 4,000 pounds. Achieving the weight goal would mean cutting at least 387 pounds from a standard R/T Scat Pack Widebody, and 512 pounds from the Hellcat Redeye Widebody if that trim has the same target.