50th Anniversary Edition Challenger celebrates golden anniversary with new exterior paint color, body-color Shaker hood on HEMI® V-8 models, unique badging and heritage style available on four Challenger models. Never one to turn down a chance to market yet another special edition of its wares, Dodge pulled the wraps off a 50th Anniversary Edition Challenger today at the L.A. Auto Show this week.Available in Canada on the Scat Pack 392 Shaker trim, this rear-drive brute earns a body-colour Shaker hood in addition to a raft of unique badging.On this side of the border, 70 numbered units of Scat Pack 392 Shakers painted in eye-popping Go Mango will mark Challengers original 1970 model-year introduction.Check Out All Our Auto Show CoverageThat Shaker hood puts the fun in functional, by the way, and comes with a Mopar cold-air intake that deploys a conical air filter and matching air box for improved airflow. Be sure to make like Brian OConnor and pop the hood, as youll also find a SHAKER underhood decal thats reminiscent of the original 1970 Challengers.Each 50th Anniversary Edition car will also wear a Satin Black painted hood and black-wrapped roof and decklid. Its interesting to your author that Dodge paints one panel but wraps the others.Challenger 50th Anniversary logo badges will show up on the grille and spoiler in a new Gold School finish (Dodges retro marketing team strikes again). Fender badges are also finished in this colour, while the standard Satin Black fuel-filler door with jumbo FUEL lettering adds a touch of nostalgia. From the steering wheel to the instrument panel, startup screens, gauge faces, seat backs, door bolsters and floor mats, the 50th Anniversary theme extends into the Challenger’s athletic interior. Future bidders at Barrett-Jackson, take note: All 2020 model-year Challenger SRT Hellcat and SRT Hellcat Redeye models will feature the 50th Anniversary badge. Dont let em fake you out in Scottsdale in twenty years time.Elsewhere in the FCA-in-LA booth, the Fiat brand showed off a refreshed 500X Sport, a machine that will need to take up much sales slack now the 500 has gone to the great scrap heap in the sky. The cousins of Giulia and Stelvio also got some tweaks for 2020, including a revised interior and some flashy new
Origin: Dodge’s latest Special Edition celebrates 50 years of Challenger
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News Roundup: The heaviest GT500, a US$20M auction mistake and Trump’s latest auto tirade
The all-new Shelby GT500–the pinnacle of any pony car ever engineered by Ford Performance–delivers on its heritage with more than 700 horsepower for the quickest street-legal acceleration and most high-performance technology to date ever offered in a Ford Mustang.Ford Welcome to our weekly round-up of the biggest breaking stories on Driving.ca from this past week. Get caught up and ready to get on with the weekend, because it’s hard keeping pace in a digital traffic jam.Here’s what you missed while you were away.The new Shelby Mustang GT500 is going to be heavy in all senses of the wordThe 2020 Mustang Shelby GT500 is the heaviest Mustang of all time. According to Ford’s dealership guide eSourceBook, the 760-horsepower GT500 will have a curb weight of 4,225 lbs (1,916 kg). Pushing that chunky coupe is a 5.2-litre V8 that pumps power through to the rear wheels via a brand-new Tremec seven-speed dual-clutch auto. There are some ways to lighten it up a bit, like by adding the Carbon-Fiber Track Pack, which cuts out the rear seat. Trump freaks out over automakers siding with California on fuel-efficiency regulationsThe Commander-in-Chief in charge of the the most powerful nation on earth is at it again. This week, Trump lashed out at automakers – via Twitter, of course – over fuel-efficiency requirements. “My proposal to the politically correct Automobile Companies would lower the average price of a car to consumers by more than $3000, while at the same time making the cars substantially safer,” he wrote. The outburst was allegedly caused by news that auto giants including BMW, Ford, VW and Honda had come to an agreement to better the efficiency of their cars through 2026, using Obama-era mandated-in-California rules as their template. Auctioneers blew it with the sale of Ferdinand’s Porsche’s Nazi car The 1939 Porsche Type 64, the only remaining example of one of the ancestors of the marque, was supposed to go up for auction at the recent RM Sotheby’s Monterey sale, and expected to fetch around US$20 million. But, when the auctioneer accidentally started bidding at US$30 million, it drew cheers and laughs from the crowd, especially as bidding quickly rose to US$70 million. That’s when the auctioneer clarified he’d apparently been saying thirteen, not thirty – as in US$13 million – and fourteen, not forty, etc., which caused some auction-goers to walk out and the sale to stall right there on the docket. Something tells us that may have been that auctioneer’s final event.Here’s what the Ram EcoDiesel will costAvailable on all trims in Ram’s 1500 series is the new EcoDiesel option, currently the best-in-class for torque, with 480 lb.-ft. What would you pay for that grunt? Now we know what Ram thinks it’s worth. The EcoDiesel V6 costs $5,800 above the standard Pentastar V6 eTorque in Big Horn and Tradesman, and $3,900 over the Sport, Rebel, Longhorn, Laramie and Limited’s 5.7-litre HEMI V8. Watch for the EcoDiesel badge to start appearing on roads this fall. Toronto drivers play soccer in gridlock trafficWhen all lanes closed on the busy 401 highway near Toronto this week, vehicles came to a complete standstill — but not all drivers did. Two men, one in a suit and the other in jeans and a t-shirt, got out of their cars to take advantage of a bit of open ashphalt in front of a city bus and kick around a soccer ball. A video of the friendly game was posted to a 401 trucker Twitter account. Watch it
Origin: News Roundup: The heaviest GT500, a US$20M auction mistake and Trump’s latest auto tirade
Fiat Chrysler plans merger with Renault in latest auto industry jolt
In this file photo taken on August 21, 2017, a car dealer in Turin, Italy, shows the logos of Jeep, Fiat, Lancia and Alfa Romeo automobile company, brands of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA).Marco Bertorello / Getty Images Fiat Chrysler Automobiles proposed a merger with Renault to create the world’s third-biggest carmaker as manufacturers scramble for scale to tackle an expensive shift to electrification and autonomous driving. The transaction would be structured as a 50-50 ownership through a Dutch holding company, Fiat said Monday. Renault shareholders, including the French government, would get an implied premium of about 10 per cent. In a statement, Renault’s board said it would study what it called a “friendly” proposal. The carmakers are moving ahead without Renault’s 20-year partner, Nissan, and Mitsubishi Motors, the other member of their troubled alliance. Fiat has conditioned the merger talks on Renault agreeing not to pursue a transaction with Nissan in the short term, according to people familiar with the matter. The Japanese company would be welcome to join the merged entity later. The broad strokes of the plan would make Fiat’s founding shareholder, the Agnelli family’s holding company Exor NV, the single largest investor in the combined entity. Fiat chairman John Elkann would likely stay in the role while Renault chairman Jean-Dominique Senard would be chief executive officer, the people familiar with the proposal said. The talks come as automakers worldwide face intense pressure to spend heavily on new technologies and adapt to trends such as car-sharing. Falling sales in the world’s biggest markets – China, the U.S. and Europe – have brought fresh urgency to consolidate. Fiat and Renault expect their joint annual synergies to amount to more than 5 billion euros, coming from areas such as purchasing power. “Fiat and Renault are looking for surer footing by gaining scale, and that’s not a bad idea for mass-market carmakers,” Bankhaus Metzler analyst Juergen Pieper said. “The execution of the deal is a significant hurdle. But on paper, this proposal looks good.” The plan has political backing from the French state, which is Renault’s most powerful shareholder. Italian Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini, who initially threatened to intervene, later gave his blessing—telling Agence France Presse he trusts the deal “will safeguard every job in this country.” Together, Fiat and Renault made about 8.7 million cars last year, which would vault the pair past South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Group and Detroit’s General Motors. That’s still behind the world’s two biggest automakers, Volkswagen and Toyota Motor, who both topped 10 million vehicles last year. But if combined with output of Renault’s existing alliance with Nissan and Mitsubishi, the total would be more than 15 million vehicles a year. Fiat and Renault would have a “broad and complementary brand portfolio” covering markets from luxury to mainstream, the Italian company said in its statement. Premium brands Jeep, Maserati, Alfa Romeo and Infiniti would come under a common umbrella. Fiat would give Renault access to the North American market, while gaining clout in Russia, the French carmaker’s second-biggest market with its Avtovaz
Origin: Fiat Chrysler plans merger with Renault in latest auto industry jolt
This functioning Tesla Model X is the latest rad Lego fan-build
There have been many Lego replicas, big and small, come to light on the Internet in recent years, many of which we’ve covered here. What makes this latest example, a 1:10 model of the Tesla Model X, worthy of your attention is the fact its creators at RoboticLife found a way to incorporate nine small Lego motors to accomplish a variety of electric functions including four-wheel-drive, automatic doors and an adjustable suspension. And it’s all controlled by a mobile app. The suspension adjusting between ‘standard’ and ‘high’ – the latter being reserved for when the little EV needs to do some off-roading, like drive over some leaves or a small branch – is highly satisfying to behold. A hand pushing down on the front and rear of the model demonstrates the softness of the suspension. The falcon doors don’t open quite as smoothly as on the real things, but they’re made out of plastic bricks, so—. The front doors also operate automatically, just like in the actual vehicle. The Lego Model X can even do something the real Model X can’t—open its doors while moving. Inside, a paper cutout of the vertical infotainment screen is mounted to the dash. Because it’s not officially sanctioned by Lego, the kit for this Model X build isn’t for sale anywhere, but its creators at RoboticLife are offering the build instructions for just US$2. Hit them up on Facebook if you want in.
Origin: This functioning Tesla Model X is the latest rad Lego fan-build
Under the skin: the latest CVT gearbox technology
Toyota’s umpteenth incarnation of the Corolla is now on sale, mainly in Hybrid form. It’s billed as having an ‘e-CVT’, which at first had our news antennae all a-quiver. In fact, e-CVT is simply another marketing moniker for essentially the same hybrid driveline concept Toyota came up with in the 1990s for the first Prius and has stuck with ever since. Originally called the Toyota Hybrid System (THS), it then also became Hybrid Synergy Drive (HSD), giving a nod to the fact that it was also used by Lexus and even sold to a couple of other car makers. Swapping cogs, gear changing, shifting: whatever your favourite expression, gearboxes and cars go together like sticky toffee pudding and custard – unless it’s a CVT. Some drivers loathe the way a CVT’s soaring engine revs are disconnected from the car’s rate of acceleration – known as the ‘rubber band effect’. The CVT was made famous by DAF when it launched the first production version, the Variomatic, in 1958. Instead of a complex box of cogs, it consisted of two pulleys of continuously variable diameter, connected by a belt. To give the lowest ratio (like first in a manual), the engine-driven pulley is at its smallest diameter and the second pulley, driving the wheels, at its largest. As speed increases the engine-driven pulley gets bigger and the drive pulley smaller, increasing the ratio – so the car speeds-up. Controlled not by a computer but by a vacuum, it continuously and automatically adjusts for hills and harder acceleration or cruising. The design has been used by many manufacturers over the years, including Audi, Ford and Fiat. CVTs are not all alike, though. Although Toyota offers a CVT in the new Corolla (but not in the UK), its hybrid drive e-CVT is nothing like the original Variomatic and there’s no belt. Instead, it consists of two electric motor-generators (MG1 and MG2) connected to a planetary gearbox. The whole caboodle has the engine at one end and the driven wheels at the other. Planetary gear sets exist aplenty inside conventional automatics. The compact package consists of a sun, planets and an enclosing ring gear and resemble a desk toy of the solar system. There are only a few components, but making the drive take different routes through the mini solar system allows the two motor-generators to perform different roles. MG1 can start the engine and at other times act as a generator to charge the hybrid battery. MG2 can act as a drive motor on its own or with the engine and also a generator to perform a regenerative braking role. MG1 can also apply small amounts of torque to the gear set to control the balance between the engine and electric drive from MG2, and there are many more combinations. The system allows electric-only drive by decoupling the engine (without the need for a clutch), and it’s small and compact. So not all CVTs are what they seem. This latest one is clever and mega-efficient, and it’s not surprising the basic idea has endured for more than 20 years. Reverse engineering Bosch’s electronically controlled version of the original CVT remains mechanically simple. Despite CVTs being scorned by some, Dutch rallycross star Jan de Rooy dominated with his DAF 55 and 555s in the 1970s. DAFs were banished to their own category in the annual Dutch backwards racing championship (yes, really, it used to be a thing) because CVTs enabled them to drive as fast in reverse as
Origin: Under the skin: the latest CVT gearbox technology
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