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2013 Dodge Charger Daytona marks the return of the blue-blood

Jonathon Ramsey — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 00:01:00 EST

Filed under: LA Auto Show, Sedan, Performance, Dodge, Design/Style

A Daytona package hasn't been available for the Dodge Charger since 2009, but for 2013, its coming back. For an extra $2,995 on top of the price of a 2013 Charger R/T or another $2,500 added to the price of a 2013 Charger R/T Road & Track, customers will get a limited-edition trim level set off with Satin Black hood stripes, black roof wrap and an R/T spoiler all riding atop 20-inch polished aluminum wheels.

There will only be 2,500 Daytona packages on offer, all naturally featuring Chrysler's Hemi V8 with 370-horsepower and 395 pound-feet of torque under a Daytona Blue engine cover. Only four exterior colors will be offered - Daytona Blue, Bright White, Billet Silver and Pitch Black - additional exterior notes being the Satin Black crosshair grille with vintage-look R/T badging, and the name "Daytona" applied to the rear quarter panels.

The cabin gets Daytona tweaks like Daytona Blue embroidery, stitching and piping on the seats, dark brushed aluminum trim, a Mopar bright pedal kit and a 552-watt, 10-speaker Beats Audio System. A dashboard plaque will let everyone know where you fell in the special line.

Prices work out to $32,990 for the R/T and $36,495 for the R/T Road & Track Daytona models. You can find out more in the press release below, and get a glimpse of your blue heaven in the high-res gallery above. We'll have pics of the real thing from the floor of the LA Auto Show shortly.

Continue reading 2013 Dodge Charger Daytona marks the return of the blue-blood

2013 Dodge Charger Daytona marks the return of the blue-blood originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 26 Nov 2012 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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2011 Dodge Charger R/T hits the dyno

Chris Shunk — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 17:30:00 EST

Filed under: Sedan, Dodge

2011 Dodge Charger - Click above for high-res image gallery

Lift the hood of a 2011 Dodge Charger R/T and you'll find a powerful 5.7-liter Hemi V8 engine bursting at the seams. It's a joyous site that gets better when armed with the knowledge of the Hemi's prodigious power - 370 horsepower and 395 pound-feet of torque, to be exact.

But just how accurate are those numbers? The folks over at Inside Line put the Charger R/T to the test on their dyno, and it appears Chrysler may be underplaying its hand. Tests by Inside Line show that the Charger R/T sends 360 hp to the rear wheels at 5,300 RPM, with torque peaking at 393 lb-ft at 4,260 RPM. When you consider that the average drivetrain accounts for a 10 to 15 percent power reduction before its all sent to the wheels, you're looking at a powertrain with a lot more bite than the company brochure cares to admit. Head over to Inside Line to see the official horsepower and torque map.

Gallery: 2011 Dodge Charger: First Drive

Photos copyright (C)2011 Drew Phillips / AOL

[Source: Inside Line]

2011 Dodge Charger R/T hits the dyno originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 23 Mar 2011 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Video: 2011 Dodge Charger R/T and Challenger SRT8 392 make more power than expected

Jeremy Korzeniewski — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 19:58:00 EST

Filed under: Coupe, Sedan, Performance, Chrysler, Dodge

2011 Dodge Charger R/T and Challenger SRT8 392 - Click above to watch the video after the break

As part of its Hemi Highway Tour, a country-wide tour that started in November of 2010 and just recently came to its end, Dodge decided to stop and spend some quality time with the boys and girls from National Speed in Wilmington, NC. Though that company's main purpose is modifying high-performance machinery to make even more power, Dodge decided to put a couple of its brand new 2011 models on their dyno to see what kind of power could be had right off the showroom floor.

As a preface to the actual dyno results, you should know that Ralph Gilles, Dodge Car Brand President and CEO, claims that a bone-stock 2011 Challenger SRT8 392 ran the quarter-mile at Infineon Dragway in just 12.44 seconds at 110 miles per hour. That, boys and girls, is seriously fast. And those figures are backed up by the data spat out by the computers hooked to National Speed's dyno.

Without further ado, the numbers: The 2011 Dodge Charger R/T put down 327 horsepower at the rear wheels and 349 pound-feet of torque. For a car rated at 368 horses and 395 lb-ft, that's quite good. Remember, the dyno measures power after it's already gone through the transmission and through the wheels to the ground, which saps around 15 percent of total power.

And now on to the big guns. The 2011 Challenger SRT8 392 was measured at 420 rear-wheel horsepower and 419 lb-ft of torque. Also impressive when stacked up against its factory ratings of 470 ponies and pound-feet. Even more interesting, these same machines put down ever more power just a few days later on a different dyno, though still below the 452 horses obtained by the scribes at Inside Line. Enough talking already. Check out the video after the break. Thanks for the tip, Norm!

Gallery: 2011 Dodge Challenger SRT8 392: First Drive

Photos copyright (C)2011 Drew Phillips / AOL

[Source: Red Letter Dodge]

Continue reading Video: 2011 Dodge Charger R/T and Challenger SRT8 392 make more power than expected

Video: 2011 Dodge Charger R/T and Challenger SRT8 392 make more power than expected originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 05 Jan 2011 19:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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SEMA 2009 Worst of Show: This car stinks...

Jonny Lieberman — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:04:00 EST

Filed under: Aftermarket, SEMA Show, Sedan, Dodge, Specialty

Worst of Show - Click above image for hi-res gallery

Stinks. You might think that we're talking about the overall design of this shockingly orange scissor-door/scissor-trunk Dodge Charger R/T. Or the build quality, what with panel gaps that you can insert your index finger into, wheels so large the tie-rods can't hold them and the world's saddest piece of vinyl covering the trunk's goofy hinge. You might even be under the impression that we're referring to the poor Charger's taillights, which set a new SEMA low. But you'd be mistaken. While this poor, 26-inch dubbed Charger has no doubt been beaten to death with the SEMA stick, we're actually talking about its odor. Quite literally, it smells like synthetic cat urine.

The why and the how of this particular example of aftermarket hubris and wretched, mindless - and let's not forget pointless - excess don't really matter now, as the poor thing will spend the next 15 years quietly rotting in the side yard of some shop in Joliet, Illinois waiting to either shrug off this mortal coil or get turned into a fine LeMons car right around 2025 - whichever comes first. Despite the poor design and execution, the pointy end of our query-arrow is pointed straight at the heart of where the offending aroma came from. Did they finish off the interior with a nice shellacking of formaldehyde? Or, is this rough, slouching-towards-Bethlehem beast already sleeping outside, doors scissored up with cats as tenants? Who knows. But it's easily the Worst of Show; a sad, unfortunate offering at an otherwise entertaining and action-packed event.

Gallery: SEMA 2009: Stinking Scissor Trunk Charger

SEMA 2009 Worst of Show: This car stinks... originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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