Ta Package, #32 Of 33 Made, Sabelt Seats, Sidewinder Matte Wheels on 2040-cars

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1970 Hemi Challenger is a family heirloom with serious muscle

Petrolicious turns up the emotion in its latest video about a family's connection to their 1970 Dodge Challenger. The orange muscle car that gets the spotlight here is a remarkably beautiful vehicle, but the story of a father and his sons at the core of this clip might leave you feeling a little misty eyed. Juan Escalante is the current owner of this Challenger, but it belonged to his dad first. Juan's father spotted the iconic muscle car during the 1969 Detroit Auto Show and had to have one. He soon placed an order for the orange '70 Challenger R/T with the rare combination for that year of a 426 Hemi V8 and a four-speed manual gearbox. The family even brought the coupe with them when they moved to Venezuela in 1972, and local fans dubbed it El Hemi. However, parts were scarce for the muscle car in that country, and it returned to the US in 1996 for a restoration. Now, the rumbling Challenger with its Coke-bottle profile and black hood is the world's most awesome family heirloom for the Escalantes. In this poignant video, Petrolicious shows how the coupe connects Juan to his father. Related Video:

BMW M5 and FCA's 5-year plan | Autoblog Podcast #544

On this week's Autoblog Podcast, Associate Editor Reese Counts is joined by Green Editor John Beltz Snyder and Consumer Editor Jeremy Korzeniewski. We talk about driving the Subaru Ascent and BMW M5, and discuss FCA's five-year plan and the Audi Q8. As always, we help spend a listener's cash on a new car in the "Spend My Money" segment. Autoblog Podcast #544 Your browser does not support the audio element. Get The Podcast iTunes – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes RSS – Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator MP3 – Download the MP3 directly Rundown Cars we've been driving: 2019 Subaru Ascent and BMW M5 FCA's five-year plan Audi Q8 Spend my money Feedback Email – Podcast@Autoblog.com Review the show on iTunes Related Video: Podcasts Audi BMW Chrysler Dodge Subaru Car Buying Used Car Buying FCA subaru ascent

Guy trying to sell Challenger Hellcat for $89,000 because VIN ends in '666'

The Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat is undoubtedly one of the baddest cars on the road today. With a 707-horsepower supercharged V8 snarling under the hood, the coupe can go down the road like a bat out of hell. There's not much that could make one of these muscle machines much more menacing, but a seller on Craigslist has one bizarre solution: offering a hellacious Hellcat with a VIN marking the Dodge as the beastly 666. What's the price for such unholy identification? That's a cool $89,000 – around $30,000 more than a brand new, less sacrilegious example. The seller claims that the Challenger's blasphemous number makes the vehicle "one of a kind," which is true only to the extent that VINs ending 665 and 667 would be similarly unique. The seller also says in the Craigslist ad, "This car is sure to become a collector's item and will only increase in value." There's no question that the Hellcat is a special machine, and the models just might be worth something decades into the future. Expecting that a future owner is going to care about the VIN seems pretty optimistic, though, unless this is either the first or last example, which it's not. To the credit of this superstitious seller, the Challenger appears completely untouched with all of the warning stickers, paperwork and even the plastic still covering the seats. So, the new owner is at least getting a practically untouched example. While we applaud audacity here, a roughly $30,000 premium for an unholy VIN seems a bit... devilish.