SRT – Car-ED.com

Test Drive: 2019 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye

2019 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye Dodge summons the spirit of the Demon in this ferocious muscle car. By Nick Kurczewski, Car-ED.com | August 2018 With the 840-horsepower Demon now gone from its lineup, Dodge finds a way to translate that car's drag-strip performance into this new Camaro and Mustang-baiting muscle machine. What is this vehicle? The Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye has a whole lot of attitude and horsepower to go along with its very long name. For simplicity, let's simply refer to it as the Redeye. And just in case you're wondering, this brand new muscle car has not been named after an early-morning flight option. If you look closely at the Hellcat logo placed on the front fenders, you'll see the growling kitty now sports a set of red eyes. Unbelievably, that's one of the few visual cues that this Dodge has close to 800 horsepower under its heavily-sculpted front hood. Other than the red beady eyes, the Hellcat logo changes from silver to black and, in the case of our test car, you can also choose to add the wide-body exterior treatment, which adds fender flares and bigger tires at the front and rear. Then again, this design flourish is also available on less powerful versions of the Challenger, too. So is this what we'd call an under-the-radar kind of sport machine? Well, the answer is 'yes'...until you get [...]

The Art of the Sub-Brand: Performance

The Art of the Sub-Brand: Performance Performance sub-brands give buyers something special By Randy Lioz, Editor, Car-ED.com | July 2018 Carmakers love to produce "special" cars that appeal to an enthusiast audience. The market abounds with models that display a certain letter that indicates they're ready to take on some of the most high-performance machines out there, and come out a winner. Many of these vehicles have four doors, or even an SUV body, yet underneath lurks the equipment that can enable a super-fast lap time at one of the world's premier racetracks. Here we'll take a look at the history of this trend, and what's out there for enthusiasts in today's market. Where did the trend start? M535i, photo credit: BMW Most enthusiasts credit BMW with kicking off the trend with its Motorsport division, which was shortened to just M. While its origins were in racing, in the late-1970s M started developing cars for the road, the first being its famous M1 supercar. But the first car that really set the template for the models that abound today was the 1979 M535i, a pumped-up version of the first-generation 5 Series. The car pictured at right displays the M division's tri-color striping. E30 M3, photo credit: Rudolf Stricker From there BMW began tuning an increasing number of its models, with some particular versions achieving legendary status, like the M3 [...]