Dodge

In times as tumultuous as these, we’d be shocked, to say the very least, if the majority of statisticians didn’t report a noticable uptick in bank heist attempts over the past couple years. And while we obviously don’t endorse criminal activity of any variety, we can’t help wondering if there is such a thing as the perfect getaway car for such a task. Thankfully, it turns out we aren’t the only ones suffering from this perverse curiousity. In fact, the German hoons at GRIP were very, very interested in answering this question.

How do we know this? Well, for starters it appears they commendeered a disused military base complete with town-like sections of buildings and streets to test a vehicle’s agility, plus some long, wide runways for high speed running. Secondly, they’ve assembled a superstar collection of getaway vehicles (tuned models from Audi, Dodge and Porsche), plus one very special police car with which to play the game of cops & robbers about which young gearheads can only dream. So grab some poppin’ corn and make the jump for the video and an explanation of what’s going on, since all the dialogue is auf Deutsch. (Our friends who took Spanish instead in high school are totally jealous right now...maybe.)

One of the unfortunate truth’s about the blockbuster racing game Gran Turismo 5 is that, if it were a spouse in couple’s therapy, its mate would almost certainly describe it as “distant” and “uncommunicative.” Other than a few updates here and there (some from series creator/director Kazunori Yamauchi, some not), the gestation of the latest and rumored-to-be greatest installment in the groundbreaking franchise has been kept under more wraps than a sumo wrestler attending a toga party where deep-fried Double Downs are merely the appetizers.

However, with the gimongous industry pow-wow that is the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3 to its friends) kicking off tomorrow here in Los Angeles, Sony and developer Polyphony Digital have decided to throw the fans a bone in the form of a new GT5 trailer. Well, “new” in the sense there's some heretofore unseen clips of tracks on the streets of Rome and the hills of Tuscany. Mixed in with these vignettes are previously seen looks at the likes of the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG and the Ferrari 458 Italia, as well as NASCAR at Indianapolis and Super GT at Tsukuba Circuit. Make the jump to see it all in glorious motion.

With Independence Day less than a month away, it’s not surprising that the founding of our nation is on many people’s minds. It would appear that Dodge’s ad agency of record is part of that group. Why else would it have made a TV spot depicting the Father of Our Country leading his troops into battle at the wheel of a Challenger?

This ad is doubly timely in that Washington and Co.’s foes are the British Redcoats, to that point in history the most successful and feared army on the planet. Guess who's Team U.S.A.’s first opponent in this year’s World Cup on Saturday? That would be Great Britain, the same matchup that, in the 1950 World Cup, saw the Stars and Stripes topple the Union Jack 1-0 in the game many sports historians call “The Miracle on Grass.” Wanna see more Yanks schooling Limeys on sod? Hop the jump to watch the commercial.

Remember the awesomely-sinister (Or is that sinisterly-awesome?) concept coupe from Maybach, the Exelero, from a few years ago? Remember being smitten with its handsome fastback lines, Punisher-esque maw and, oh yeah, a stonking twin-turbo V12? Well, given the reanimated brand’s perpetually shaky future, it should be no surprise that parent company Daimler doesn’t seem to have any intent of putting the thing into production. Bummer, man.

But some of you really, really want one. You’re outta luck, right? Not if a recent JamesList posting is to be believed you aren’t. Well, you sorta are. To quote an obscure coach for a little-known Great Lakes area football franchise, “What the hell is going on out here?!”

While the Super Bowl is a spectacle of grand proportions, the commercials are what many look forward to just as much as the game itself. Automotive companies have big budgets and often produce some of the most compelling, interesting and talked-about ads that run during the big game. This year was no different. Check out the following videos showing the marketing engines at Hyundai, Kia, Audi and Dodge fast at work.

Times are hard, money is tight, interest in the Armed Forces is down and we have wars raging on foreign lands across the world. So, if you are the US Air Force and you want to pack your squadrons with young eager mavericks, what should you do? Why, build two awesome supercars that shock and awe the visual senses, of course! The Mustang X-1 and Challenger Vapor were both constructed as part of the Air Force's Project Supercar initiative to drive interest in signing-up and joining the ranks.

After just returning from the DUB Show in Detroit and seeing all of the crazy modifications that people have performed at their own expense, I must say that the US Government has jumped head first into the custom car game. With all of the tax payer dollars being thrown around to anyone with their hand out, why not build some badass rides. In fact, let's get the Army, Navy and Marines involved and have an Armed Forces custom car show traveling around the country with tank drifting and humvee off-roading. Truly, I jest, but I have to give the Air Force credit for these two initiatives, executed by Galpin Auto Sports. Who else but the guys from GAS could create rides as far out as these two radical pony cars, which both feature airplane-like modifications and Lambo doors.

The SpongeBob Dodge Charger at the 2009 DUB Show Detroit was one of the true standouts. Arandas Tire had some pretty cool rides but this got top billing. You should have seen the crowd around this thing. And they were cool about it, leaving the door unlocked with people climbing in and out. We've seen some SpongeBob SquarePants edition cars before but they usually just consisted of painting half the car baby blue and the other half yellow. Sometimes even a funky airbush figure or two... But nothing approaching the theme execution that these guys pulled off.

Even though the press has been pretty ho hum about the new electric car from Dodge, we at Sub5zero are always siked when we find an alternative energy vehicle which some acceleration chops. The Dodge Circuit EV will perform 0 to 60 in under 5 seconds, the quarter-mile in 13 seconds and has a top speed of at least 120 mph. 

Per the press release: "The Dodge Circuit EV utilizes just three powertrain components. These include a 200 kW (268 horsepower) electric motor to drive the wheels, an advanced lithium-ion battery system to power the electric-drive motor, and a controller that manages energy flow.