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General Patton's Dodge WC57 Command Car headed to auction

Indiana will see some excellent vintage metal on several auction blocks this summer. Mecum Auctions has the 1965 Pontiac GeeTO Tiger and 1963 Shelby Cobra that was a Ford demonstrator planned for in Indiana in late June. Two weeks before that, and as noted by Carscoops, Worldwide Auctioneers will offer what could have been Gen. George S. Patton’s Dodge WC57 Command Car. We say "could have been" because although the WC57 came out of the National Military History Center in Auburn, Indiana, a few years ago and is fitted with the modifications Patton made to his personal WC57, the auction house doesn't have paperwork explicitly linking Patton to this car, and there are other replicas of Patton Command Cars out there. That could help explain why when RM Auctions put this WC57 up for sale in 2017 with a pre-sale estimate of $100,000 to $150,000, the vehicle failed to make the $60,000 reserve. Dodge had been making vehicles for the U.S. military since before World War I, most of them based on civilian models. Before the U.S. entered World War II, Dodge turned its civilian TC pickup into the 1940 VC-1 military truck. The VC-1 quickly evolved into the WC range, the WC57 Command and Reconnaissance Weapons Carrier riding on a three-quarter-ton, 4x4 chassis and weighing almost 5,400 pounds. Built from 1942 to 1945, they were powered by Dodge's T214 side-valve, 230-cubic-inch inline-six with 92 horsepower.   This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. General PattonÂ’s Dodge WC-57 Command Car - Offered Without Reserve The WC57 was simple, reliable, capable, and at the end of the war, was part of the inspiration for the Dodge Power Wagon. The story is that soldiers returning from active duty badgered Dodge for a civilian version of the indefatigable WC warhorse, so Dodge responded with the postwar's most hardcore pickup in 1946. The open-topped WC57 rig was also popular with U.S. Army officers, and because of that, it was popular target practice for German infantry and Luftwaffe pilots. So Patton, before heading to France in 1944 with the Third Army, had the motor pool in Cheltenham, England, modify his WC57. Mechanics added an armor flap to shield the radiator, half-inch armor plate under the floor, and a Browning M2 .50-caliber machine gun for fending off aerial attacks. A second, drop-down tailgate provided extra space and covered tool storage.

Dodge to reveal Hellcat-powered Challenger in Detroit?

On top of all the other performance car debuts slated for next week's Detroit Auto Show, we might be able to add one more to the list - the new, supercharged Hellcat V8 from Chrysler. According to new reports, the rumored 640-horsepower mill is likely to cross the Motor City stage in the engine bay of a Dodge Challenger.
As AllPar points out, though, there may be more news than just the fire-breathing engine. While we've seen spy photos of the Hellcat testing under the hood of the current Challenger, there's a very fair chance that it won't arrive until the muscle car is refreshed later this year. The question now is whether that refresh will be shown off alongside the new engine in Detroit, or if it'll be saved, perhaps for the New York Auto Show.
Other details dug up by AllPar include potential transmissions for the supercharged engine - the Mopar-minded site is expecting an eight-speed automatic or a Tremec six-speed manual. Prices, meanwhile, could be in the same elevated range as the Chevrolet Camaro Z/28, at $70,000 to $80,000.

Is this the 2020 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Widebody?

Last month we told you about the heavy anticipation that Dodge will release Charger Widebody versions in SRT Hellcat and R/T Scat Pack trims for 2020. Now we have strong visual evidence to back it up. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Instagram user and self-described motorsports enthusiast zl1_dre_92c captured a brief video while out driving around suburban Detroit Tuesday of what appears to be a Charger SRT Hellcat Widebody with more pronounced fenders and distinctive graphics passing him in traffic. We can see SRT spelled out on the lower passenger front door and on the rear fascia, and curiously, it appears to be sporting a Florida license plate. Mopar Insider says a source told it that's because Dodge was trying to keep the muscle car away from the usual prying eyes in Detroit and instead has been running it around its secret testing facility near Naples, Fla. The website further surmises that the model could well debut this weekend at the SoCal LX Club Spring Fest 14 in Pomona, Calif., an annual gathering of Mopar fanatics. That would explain the flashy wrap graphics and our suspicions that this isn't a test car; why else would Dodge so clearly advertise the car's SRT lineage? Although both models would get specialized suspension tuning, it's believed that the engines and outputs will remain — a 485-horsepower, 6.4-liter V8 in the R/T Scat Pack and the 6.2-liter V8 making 717 hp for the SRT Hellcat. Both will also reportedly get the same 20-by-11-inch Pirelli performance tires as are found on the Challenger Widebody. They're wrapped around five-spoke blacked-out aluminum wheels, accented with red brake calipers. It appears we'll know more about this curiosity soon.