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Only in Japan: Dodge van one-make racing series is a thing

Japan seems willing to embrace a level of automotive insanity that many other places lack. Whether it's 1,200-horsepower Nissan GT-Rs blasting through tight, tree-lined mountain roads or advertisements with dances for the Toyota Prius Plug-in, the country definitely has a unique way of expressing a love for autos. The D-Van Grand Prix might be one of our favorite examples yet of crazy Japanese car culture, because the annual, one-make race at the Ebisu Circuit is exclusively for heavily customized Dodge vans. Like many great things, this wonderfully crazy idea came from a little rule breaking. D-Van Grand Prix organizer Takuro Abe was at a track event for a motorcycle racing school, and vans were used to haul the bikes around. During lunch someone came up with the idea for a race. Ignoring that the big machines weren't actually allowed on the circuit, the drivers headed out. The popularity has just grown since then. These days, the racing vans absolutely aren't the stock machines from the event's inspiration. In addition to stripped interiors and track rubber that you might expect, the list of mods for them is a mile long. For every possible advantage, the racers fit them with things like Brembo brakes, cross-drilled rotors, heavy-duty transmissions, and much more. Seeing vans lumbering around the track is very weird at first, but the racers take the competition very seriously. These folks even employ all sorts of little tricks to coax the most from the machines. This is a fascinating motorsports story, but be sure to turn on the subtitles to understand the interviews with the competitors.

Chicago Auto Show: The really big reveals from shows past

The 2024 Chicago Auto Show may seem like a shell of its former self, but it still holds the title of the largest consumer auto show in the United States. It didn't get that reputation simply by being efficiently produced or convenient for locals desperate for something to do in February — it earned it over decades of breaking automotive news and powerhouse reveals, eventually earning an informal designation as America's truck show.  2024 may be a down year for Chicago, but let's not forget all of the great things that have come out of it, historically. Here's a look at some of our staff favorites. Bet you didn't know about a few of these cars that were first revealed in the Windy City.    2008 Dodge Challenger SRT-8  I didn't just pick this one as a former Challenger owner, but instead to illustrate just how many cool Chicago debuts we take for granted. Chrysler often chose its home turf to debut new cars, so the few times its unveilings happened elsewhere tend to stick in our minds. The first Challenger SRT-8 was kind of garbage, if we're being honest. I mean, who buys a race-bred, V8-powered muscle car without a limited-slip differential? But the SRT-8 formula evolved over time into something truly special, and what we saw in Chicago was essentially the early version of the Scat Pack, which was ultimately very successful for Dodge. And who would have thought we'd be here, 15 years later, still talking about that debut? And still loving these big Mopars, flaws and all. — Associate Editor Byron Hurd SHO time in Chicago IÂ’ll always have a certain fondness for the return of the Taurus SHO at the 2009 Chicago Auto Show. Chicago has always leaned truck and van heavy for press reveals, but every now and then, as this list illustrates, something spicy would appear. The return of the SHO as a high-powered successor to the original that ran from 1989-1999 gave enthusiasts hope for FordÂ’s performance business, especially for sedans. With a 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6 packing 365 hp, all-wheel drive and five-spoke wheels, the SHO was a nice upgrade from the lower-rung Taurus models. It was a bit more sedate than the original SHOÂ’s Yamaha-sourced V6 that teamed with a five-speed manual transmission, but still a worthy response to the Chrysler 300, Dodge Charger and later the Chevy SS. The SHO — Super High Output — begat things like the Fusion ST and gave Ford solid four-door performance for the rest of the decade.

2019 Ram 3500 Regular Cab Big Horn Review | No B.S., just lots of truck

While luxury trucks of all sizes from all makes are growing in popularity, they are particularly prevalent in the heavy-duty segment, where they tow toys worth far more than the truck itself. Want proof? The volume-selling GMC Sierra HD is actually its most expensive version: the Denali, slathered with leather and chock full of convenience features. But the person who buys this 2019 Ram 3500 4x4 Big Horn Regular Cab would say they don't care about any of that crap. This is a dedicated tool for towing and especially hauling — even more dedicated than the Ram 2500 HD that was also overhauled for 2019. It has a regular cab with a three-person bench and no back seat. It has the longest bed available at 8 feet with the heftiest payload. Packing a standard 6.4-liter 410-horsepower Hemi V8, it can tow as much as 17,490 pounds. The 3500 is also the only Ram pickup that doesn't have a coil spring rear suspension. The five-link setup with coils in the 1500 and 2500 are abundantly strong for their respective segments, while providing superior ride and handling to boot, but when you enter 3500 territory, the old-fashioned leaf spring is still required (an auto-leveling rear air suspension that still utilizes the leaf springs is optional, but our truck was not so-equipped). Remember this when you're choosing between 2500 and 3500 trucks, because if you don't need the 3500's extra capability (more on that later), you're going to be suffering when the bed isn't loaded or the tongue isn't attached to something humongous. The ride is quite simply appalling, crashing over bumps and launching you from your seat into the shoulder belt. The 2500's is far superior. But of course, anyone who has ever driven a "1-ton" pickup would find such a comment charming. "No kidding," they'd likely say, "tell us something we don't know." Well, it probably wouldn't be that the ride settled down substantially when I loaded it with a relatively paltry amount of weight. The 500 pounds of mulch I dropped into the bed was quite obviously a light lift for a truck with a 4,660-pound payload, but I can't dump river rock into every truck I test. I also didn't have a 17,000-pound something around to tow. I hereby apologize. Yet, the point of this heaviest-duty regular-cab pickup was still made. If you owned a number of different vehicles or needed something to keep on a ranch for working purposes only, this is exactly the type of truck to keep on hand.