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One of our favorite pickups tests the faithful by ditching V-8s for powerful twin-turbo inline-sixes. Traditionalism, in the car business, is often a euphemism for corporate penury. "Our buyers are very traditionalist," a car company will say, by way of explaining its continued deployment of some Bronze Age technology that should've been jettisoned decades before. Sometimes, there's a kernel of truth in there—certain Porsche fans still mistrust the dark magic of water-cooled engines—but more often the company in question simply amortized research and development costs long ago and is thus happy to keep furnishing leaf springs or drum brakes or...

C hrysler's Plymouth division had sand kicked in its face. Twice. First, when its all-new-fastback Barracuda's debut was completely eclipsed by the Ford Mustang, despite beating it to market by a couple weeks. Then, after redesigning the Barracuda for 1967 with dedicated sheetmetal that totally obliterated any traces of its Valiant origins, and adding a coupe and convertible, Plymouth's entry was again overshadowed, this time by the release of Chevy's first-ever Camaro. Chrysler execs were no doubt keenly aware that the still-new personal-coupe market didn't just generate sales, it garnered lots of attention for the makers of the category's hero...

Dodge has summoned another monster from the underworld. The latest is a new 1,000 hp engine called the “Hellephant” that’s based on the brand’s Hellcat supercharged V8 and will be offered as a crate motor for custom car builders next year. Its name is a tip of the hat to the original “Elephant” 426 Hemi V8 from the 1960s, and the new engine features an aluminum block with a bigger bore and stroke than the 376 cubic-inch Hellcat’s that brings it up to a historically appropriate 426 cubic-inches. The engine mixes parts from the engines found in the Dodge Challenger...

The Dodge Challenger SRT Demon is not a car for normal people. For starters, it comes standard with only one seat. Because passenger seats, and passengers, weigh too much and would slow it down. Your friends aren't worth that. Then there's the engine. The Demon's 840-horsepower 6.2-liter supercharged V8 is the most powerful V8 engine ever put into a regular production car. That makes the Demon the most powerful factory-produced muscle car... ever. The Demon has already recorded the fastest quarter-mile run by a factory production car ever, as officially certified by the National Hot Rod Association. Starting from a...

A cat named Hemi, who vanished without a trace in 2011 and reappeared just as mysteriously last week, will soon make a jet flight halfway across the country to rejoin the family that never stopped missing him. 'It's pretty crazy,' said Jennifer Connell, who adopted Hemi in 2009 in North Carolina, but now lives in Bismarck, North Dakota.

The new 2015 Ram 1500 Rebel brings a one-of-a-kind off-road design to the full-size truck segment. “Offering an off-road-style package on the Ram 1500 has been on our to-do list for some time but the right combination didn’t present itself until now,” said Bob Hegbloom, President and CEO — Ram Truck Brand, FCA US LLC. “The Rebel drops right into a core segment of the truck market with unique design cues and can-do attitude backed by Ram Truck engineering.

WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court ruled Monday that New York City couldn't use federal racketeering laws to sue out-of-state Internet tobacco retailers that don't file reports on city residents who buy cigarettes online. The city wants the reports so it can collect cigarette taxes directly from residents who purchased tobacco products online. The retailers aren't required to collect the taxes. The case before the high court centered on New York's allegations that New Mexico-based online retailer Hemi Group committed racketeering offenses of mail and wire fraud by allegedly failing to submit reports on its New York City customers to state tobacco administrators....

You're behind the wheel of a 1970 Dodge Hemi Challenger in a Vintage Grand Prix race. You're chasing a Ferrari, hitting speeds up to 160mph. This is NOT a video game! Ten minutes of outstanding arm chair racing. My first vanity, I apologize, but this video was Sofa King cool, I just had to post it! So who do you think wins?

August 9, 2005 Yes folks, this is a man’s barbeque. That’s Tim Kowalec firing up Chrysler Group's one-of-a-kind HEMI-powered grill at an event to announce the top five finalists in the company’s "What Can You HEMI?" contest. Until the event, the HEMI engine was only found in Chrysler, Jeep or Dodge vehicles. With the power and torque of the 5.7-liter V-8 HEMI engine, the grill can cook 240 HEMI dogs in three minutes and is covered by more than 330 square feet of steel. The contest involved people sending in concepts for machines that could be powered by a...

DETROIT, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- A blonde woman has given the term "car buff" a new meaning after sneaking into the Detroit Auto Show to be photographed naked on Dodge's new concept car. Jason Vines, vice president of communications for the Chrysler Group, said he had heard reports a man snuck the noticeably drunk woman into the Cobo Center around 2:30 Monday morning for the photo shoot...

DETROIT (Reuters) - DaimlerChrysler AG has no qualms about ignoring female tastes -- at least when it comes to selling Dodge cars. The new Dodge Magnum sport wagon and a soon-to-be-released Dodge Charger, a modern update of the classic muscle car from the 1960s, are very much targeted at a male audience, said Trevor Creed, design chief at the company's U.S.-based Chrysler unit. "It does scream male, there's no doubt about that. We found that in our market research and focus groups," he said at an automotive conference in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn. Creed was responding to a comment...

Despite high U.S. gasoline prices, DaimlerChrysler's Chrysler division on Wednesday said demand for its muscular Hemi V-8 engines was outstripping supply. "What we see is a tremendous shortage of our Hemis," Chrysler President and Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche told reporters. "It's a great problem to have," he added, saying Chrysler had underestimated demand for the big 5.7 liter engine, which is available in Dodge pickups and sport utility vehicles as well as the recently introduced Chrysler 300C sedan and Dodge Magnum sport wagon. Zetsche spoke on the sidelines of celebrations at two Detroit-area assembly plants, as Chrysler launched production of...

Once Howard Sucher saw the audacious Chrysler 300 on the Internet, he had to have it. But the Chrysler dealer near his home in Boca Raton, Fla., told him he'd have to wait five months. So Sucher and his wife traveled 180 miles to get a $38,000 satin-jade 300C, the model with a steroidal 340-horsepower Hemi engine. Sherrie Sucher is giddy about a car that "looks like a Bentley" and gives her a break from the hulking family SUV.

<p>We're power mad. Not that there's anything wrong with that.</p> <p>Fuel-sipping hybrid gasoline-electric cars may get plenty of hype at the North American International Auto Show, but when they vote with their wallets, more Americans elected a big, powerful V8 engine last year than any time since 1985.</p>

<p>AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group Monday tried to distance itself from a Super Bowl Sunday football game to be played by women in lingerie, after coming under fire for sponsoring an event some have called sexist. The car maker also reached an agreement with the event's producer to focus marketing activities on the athletic side of the game.</p>