Survivor!! 1971 Dodge Challenger 426 Hemi 4 Speed Numbers Matching W/build Sheet on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Roadkill pits every project car against each other

The guys behind Motor Trend's monthly Roadkill series have collected nine of their favorite project cars from their videos and pitted them against each other in a battle royale to determine a winner. It's 44 minutes long, but it's completely worth the investment of time.
The cars run the gamut from a 1973 Chevrolet Ramp Truck, a 1975 AMC Pacer and a legitimately impressive 1967 Chevy Camaro, and they are pitted against each other to see which is the fastest around an autocross course. The drivers include Roadkill's two hosts and Motor Trend's Johnny Lieberman and Carlos Lago. It's reminiscent of the best episodes of Top Gear and worth a watch.
So it's the weekend - the perfect time to relax. Grab your preferred beverage, get comfortable and enjoy 44 minutes of some seriously ratty but utterly cool project cars as they are throttled within an inch of their lives (or past it). Scroll down to check out the video.

Junkyard Gem: 1963 Dodge Dart two-door sedan

The 1963-1966 Dodge Dart, sibling to the Plymouth Valiant, was sturdy, cheap, and easy to drive, and it sold very well. Here's a worn-but-solid example of the two-door '63 Dart sedan, spotted in a Denver-area self-service wrecking yard. The only transmission choices for the Dart this year were a three-speed manual and an automatic controlled by Chrysler's famous dash-mounted pushbutton shifter. These shifters worked surprisingly well, even when used for road racing. Starting in the 1964 model year, the Dart could be purchased with a 273-cubic-inch V8 engine, but in 1963 Dart buyers had but two engine choices: a slant-6 displacing 170 cubic inches and good for 101 horsepower and a slant-6 displacing 225 cubic inches and making 145 horsepower. This car has the big engine. This is one of the most reliable engines to come out of Detroit, period. The interior is pretty beat, but the metal isn't rusty. You'd think that someone would have rescued this car long before it came to this sorry end, but perhaps Dart restorers only want numbers-matching V8 cars these days. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. "The new kind of compact in the large economy size."

FCA's shifter fiasco proves novel gear selectors are a bad idea

What's wrong with PRNDL? Why are automakers trying to overly complicate the simple task of selecting gears? If there's any lesson to learn from the recent news that NHTSA is investigating 853,000 Fiat Chrysler vehicles over its problematic gear selectors, it's that the trend of fancy shifters needs to stop. Now. Last year, NHTSA opened an investigation into Jeep Grand Cherokee models, and has now expanded this probe to include the 2012-14 Chrysler 300 and Dodge Charger. The problem? The shifter – assembled by ZF – is confusing for many drivers. "Testing ... indicates that operation of the (electronic) shifter is not intuitive and provides poor tactile and visual feedback to the driver, increasing the potential for unintended gear selection," a NHTSA document states. More than 100 crashes and over a dozen injuries are linked to this problem, according to The Detroit Free Press. To us, the problem isn't just limited to FCA. These unnecessarily novel gear selectors are spreading like wildfire across the industry. Honda and Acura use a weird pushbutton setup. Lincolns have buttons on the dashboard. Jaguar's shifter electronically raises out of the center console. Mercedes uses a stalk with up-for-Reverse, down-for-Drive, push-for-Neutral arrangement. And what the hell is BMW thinking with its M cars? FCA has since abandoned the confusing shifters in question. The 300, Charger, and Grand Cherokee now use the rotary shift dial that's quickly proliferating across the company's brands. Simplistic gear selectors might not be sexy, but no one ever complained about not being able to find the right gear in a Hyundai Sonata. What's most interesting is that this NHTSA investigation could push FCA – and possibly other automakers – to redesign vehicle functions that otherwise operate as designed. Just because most people will never have a problem putting a Dodge Charger in Reverse doesn't mean there isn't a flaw with the design. But perhaps a more simplistic solution – good ol' PRNDL – would have prevented these issues from the start. Related Video: News Source: The Detroit Free PressImage Credit: Copyright 2016 AOL Government/Legal Chrysler Dodge Jeep FCA shifters