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We drive the cars of Furious 7... in Forza Horizon 2 [w/video]

On March 27, Turn 10 Studios, the folks behind the Forza Motorsport series, and Universal Pictures, the studio responsible for the Fast and Furious franchise, gave us a match made in heaven, announcing a "standalone expansion" featuring the two franchises. Called Forza Horizon 2 Presents Fast and Furious, it features the cars from the latest film installment, unique missions and the voice-acting of Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, who plays tech guru Tej Parker on camera. A Fast and Furious video game? Seems like a no brainer. It gets better. Rather than limiting the Fast and Furious Edition cars to the expansion game, Turn 10 made them available through one of their (some may say notorious) downloadable content packages. Eight of the expansion's 11 cars were made available for just $4.99 (the only cars that weren't included were the Fast and Furious Edition Nissan GT-R, while the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport and McLaren P1 are already available in-game). What's cool ais that the cars featured in both games are visually identical to the vehicles driven by the stars of Furious 7. Each in-game car has an on-screen parallel that plays a role in advancing the film's story. Considering that we're unlikely to score seat time in Dominic Toretto's real Dodge Charger, then, we figured we'd take to the game and test the car in the digital realm. We've got nine little cluster reviews, covering the cars both in the game and how they appear in the movies. And don't worry, there are no major spoilers here. Click on for the cars of Forza Horizon 2 Presents Fast and Furious. 1970 Dodge Charger R/T Fast and Furious Edition Supercharged 7.2L V8 / 900 HP / 663 LB-FT The one vehicle that is mandatory in a Fast and Furious video game, Dom's hot-rodded 1970 Dodge Charger, is as much a character in the films as its driver. Furious 7 marks the fourth appearance of this Mopar beast in the series. Not surprisingly it's a handful to drive, wildly quick and with a four-speed transmission packed full of very tall gears. But beyond that, it's arguably the coolest of the FF Edition cars. This black beauty is exactly as it appears in the latest installment of the film, with the video game version featuring intricate little details, like the moving parts on the BDS supercharger. It's an iconic car, and it's treated as such in the game.

Chrysler almost smothered the Hellcat before it lived

Chrysler's 6.2-liter supercharged Hellcat V8 was an absolute sensation from the very moment it was announced, and honestly, how could it not have been? Packing 707 horsepower and 650 pound-feet of torque, its numbers immediately put every other production muscle car (and many supercars) to shame. Plus, we soon learned that would be wrapped in a package retailing for around $60,000 - a pittance compared to other vehicles offering similar grunt. However, the Hellcat almost never got the chance to rumble under the hood of the Challenger and Charger.
The Hellcat was initially proposed back in 2011, back when Fiat was deciding its future strategy for Chrysler Group, according to Automotive News. At the time, the company was just emerging from its bankruptcy doldrums, and an ultra-high-performance V8 wasn't exactly a must-have item. The program didn't move forward. However, SRT engineers kept fighting, according to AN, and four months later, they received the green light to pull the project off the shelf and continue developing the Hellcat. The muscle car world is certainly better for that decision.
The work of those engineers focused on taking Chrysler's standard 6.2-liter V8 and making it reliably handle all of the extra power from the supercharger. "It came down to micron levels of changes in the crank to be able to withstand the pressures of the engine," said Chris Cowland, director of advanced and SRT powertrain, to Automotive News. The changes amounted to switching out about 91 percent of the parts to make the Hellcat, including some quite minuscule alterations. For example, the washer holding the supercharger pulley is embedded with industrial diamonds to keep it from slipping.

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.