1958 Dodge Pickup Power Wagon, Great Condition! on 2040-cars

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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.

Junkyard Gem: 1994 Dodge Spirit

Under Lee Iacocca's watch, Chrysler began selling the first of the modern new K-Cars for the 1982 model year, and American sales of Ks and K-derived cars and minivans continued all the way through 1995. While these vehicles saved Chrysler from near-certain doom after the agony of a government bailout in 1979, the platform had become pretty outdated by the middle 1990s (though GM didn't hesitate to sell its similar-vintage J-Cars well into our current century). The Spirit replaced its aging Aries cousin starting in 1989, and has become very tough to find today. Here's a late Spirit with the optional Mitsubishi V6 engine, found in a Denver self-service yard recently. For the 1991 and 1992 model years, the Spirit R/T was the fastest new four-door car you could buy in the United States. With 224 horsepower from a very nervous turbocharged 2.2-liter engine, the Spirit R/T could run the quarter-mile in 14.5 seconds and hit a top speed of 141 mph. Today's Junkyard Gem isn't one of those cars, unfortunately. The base engine in the 1994 Spirit was a 2.5-liter Chrysler straight-four rated at 100 horsepower, but this car has the optional 142-horse Mitsubishi 6G72 V6 engine. The 6G7 family of engines remains in production to this day, 35 years after the first one went into a Galant, and members of this engine family have powered everything from the Diamante to the Sonata. On Chrysler vehicles of all-Mitsubishi design from this era, the engines tended to have big Mitsubishi emblems prominently displayed. For a Chrysler-designed car, though, it made more sense to badge the engine as a Chrysler. Note the British spelling of the unit of displacement here; GM and Ford started that trend back in the 1960s, with the "6.5 litre" Pontiac GTO and "7.0 litre" big Fords. With the big engine plus power windows, decklid luggage rack, and other luxurious (for a Spirit) options, I'm pretty sure this car didn't start life in a fleet. It drove more than 175,000 miles during its time on the road. The resale value of a 26-year-old Detroit sedan with high miles can't be much, even if the interior still looks nice enough, so any mechanical problem (or just a trade-in) spells doom for cars such as this one. The gold insets in the aluminum wheels look very stylish. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. 117 out of 200 Americans preferred the Spirit to the Honda Accord! This content is hosted by a third party.

This Dodge Challenger was stolen, used in police chases and recovered all in the week before its SEMA debut

Most of the drama in a SEMA build is in getting the car ready in time for the big show. That was all Quintin Bros Auto and Performance was expecting when they built a supercharged Dodge Challenger Scat Pack with custom carbon fiber body parts, aftermarket wheels and upgraded brakes. But unfortunately, a bigger drama happened in the week leading up to the show. And it was the worst kind. As part owner Pete Quintin told us, the car was shipped out in a small trailer, and while the delivery driver was spending the Monday night a week before the show at a hotel, a thief showed up in a stolen pickup and made off with the trailer and the car. It wasn't an easy task, either, as the delivery driver had parked the trailer in with the truck blocking it. The thief used his own (well, not his own, but you know what we mean) truck to shove the trailer hitch out where he could access it, then hooked it up and took off. Several miles down the road, he parked, opened up the trailer and vanished in the Challenger. The following morning, the delivery driver discovered the theft, and Quintin Bros immediately informed the owner so that a police report could be filed and a search could begin. The trailer was found not too long after, thanks to someone who was following the story on social media. But obviously the car was missing. Folks on social media were also helpful in tracking the car, in addition to the help of the Las Vegas Police Department (LVPD). What followed was a week of chasing the car down. Twice the car was found in parking garages, Quintin said, and both discoveries resulted in police chases. The second chase was the most dramatic, with a police officer stopping after noticing the car. The thief was in it, and he bolted upon seeing the officer. He powered the Challenger right through the nose of the police car, damaging both. The chase culminated on the highway, where Quintin told us 14 cars were in pursuit, and the thief got up to 150 mph. Police ended up calling off the chase because of the danger. But the car was damaged enough that the thief eventually abandoned it at one last garage, where it was picked up on Thursday. Once the car was recovered, things gradually began looking up for the Quintin family. Pete Quintin said that as soon as LVPD found out the Challenger was meant to go to SEMA, the department got the car out of evidence impound as fast as it could so the shop could show off the beat-up car.