Dodge Remains Winless In Nextel Cup Season

By Anthony Fontanelle

Going into the Citizens Bank 400 at the Michigan International Speedway, Dodge teams are counting on history to give them their first win at the Nextel Cup season. At the said track, only Dodge and Ford cars have won for five straight years excluding the last one held last Sunday. Another factor that gave Dodge teams the confidence that they will finally rack up a win at the Citizens Bank 400 is the back-to-back second place finish by Dodge driver Ryan Newman.

Unfortunately for Dodge teams though, they have to wait for the next race of the season to take their first win this season. This is because not only did they not take a top ten finish, the highest finish of a Dodge driver at the Citizens Bank 400 is 23rd which was taken by Reed Sorenson in his No.41 Target Dodge Charger.

“We had a real fast car in practice, and I thought we were going to qualify better than we did,” says Sorenson. “I really didn’t know what to expect in the race, but we hung in there and got a decent finish. I guess we had the best finishing Dodge, but the Dodge Boys didn’t have a real good day today. We’ll get ‘em next week in Sonoma.” The next race of the season will be the Toyota/Save Mart 350 which will be held at the Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California.

The second highest finish by a Dodge driver in a Dodge brake pad-equipped Charger is the 25th spot which was taken by Kurt Busch on his No. 2 Penske Racing Dodge. “We had a good car that ran in the top five most of the day. We had to come in on lap 166 to change a loose lug nut, and the car got really loose after that,” says Busch about his car’s performance at the race.

John Andretti, onboard his No. 45 Petty Enterprise Dodge Charger, finished 27th. The next Dodge on the ranking is the No. 9 Evernham Motorsports Dodge which was driven by Kasey Kahne. “We were able to get the car to turn in the corners with the 2006 nose, but we couldn’t get the back of the car hooked up,” says Kahne. “We made progress as the race went on, but we couldn’t overcome the early deficit. I thought we made progress with the car yesterday and was optimistic we could have a good finish. It didn’t work out that way.”

Behind Kahne is Scott Riggs driving the No. 10 Valvoline Evernham Racing Dodge. Riggs has this to say about his performance at the race: “We were way too free on entry for most of the race. By the time we got the handling improved we had already been caught two laps down after a green flag stop. The guys on pit road did an incredible job today, and everyone has been working really hard and doing the right things.”

Ryan Newman, the most promising driver for Dodge going into the Citizens Bank 400, is hampered by a blown out tire. This cost him a good deal of time which eventually forced him to finish at 37th. “We had a real good car, but we didn’t have a car that could have beat Carl Edwards today. We just caught a piece of debris or something and it popped that tire. It wrapped itself around the caliper and rotor and stuff and it cost us three laps.”

Better Dodge Viper for 2008

By Evander Klum

Dodge has made several refinements to its 2008 Viper SRT, giving the coupe and convertible the same aerodynamic numbers.

For 2008, the vehicle’s power train builders increased the engine’s performance, and best of all, complied with the regulatory requirements like the federal Tier 2, Bin 5 and California’s Low Emissions Vehicle (LEV) 2 mandates. SRT builders worked with specialists from McLaren Performance Technologies and Ricardo, Inc. And here is good news for race enthusiasts: the Viper SRT now has the power of a race car which such as higher engine agility.

The refreshed vehicle has V-10 aluminum engine that raised the displacement to 8.4 liters from the former 8.3 liters. This yields 600 horsepower and 560 lb.-ft. of torque. It has new cylinder heads with Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) shaped combustion chambers, bigger valves and Variable Valve Timing (VVT). When the exhaust valves are open and closed according to the speed and load of the engine, the VVT adapts to permit the engine to “breathe” cleaner and more efficiently.

The engine has two-piece intake manifold. This combines cast aluminum lower with smooth runners for the air to flow better. They are bolted to a die-cast aluminum upper plenum. The engine also has an improved low-restriction filter that sends air via dual electronic throttle control into the intake module.

And because it is refreshed, the Viper SRT comes with improved bulkheads, water jackets and blocks that have pressed-in iron cylinder liners and cross-bolted main bearing caps. The cylinder liners and bolts are built to yield durability and strength.

A plastic hood contributes to the power that the engine releases. It is used to augment the airflow through the hood scoop. Openings along each side are used to so that air can circulate within the engine compartment. This consequently keeps power to continue going even with a hot engine. The plastic lessen the weight of the vehicle and helped keep it at a low cost. Some body panels are also made up of plastic. For some structural parts, carbon fiber is used.
As to its ride and handling performance, the 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10 has fully independent four-wheel suspension. It features lightweight, high-performance aluminum control arms and knuckles that are moisten by lightweight coil-over shock absorbers.

You want to know about the wheels? The Dodge Viper SRT10 has smooth looking forged aluminum, 18 x 10-inch front and 19 x 13-inch rear wheels. These are now available in three styles. These include the five-spoke, the H-spoke and the all-new Razor wheel with five U-shaped spokes. These tires assure intensive grip, less noise and excellent handling.
To arrive in North America this summer, this new Dodge automobile will be available in four new interior color combinations, and a new wheel design. Plus, Dodge fans now have the options for bezel finishes on the center instrument panel and console. Both the Roadster and Coupe forms have an improved hood with a larger, more effective hood scoop for air induction and larger, functional hood louvers.

Dodge fanatics can now choose from eight exterior colors. The new ones include Venom Red, Snakeskin Green, Viper Violet, Viper Orange and Bright Blue. The stripe ones with six dual painted stripe colors (white, black, silver, graphite, blue, and red) are still options.
The front fascia and fenders, hood and doors are the only body panels which are common to both the coupe and convertible. The current Viper SRT10 design cues remains. These are the crosshair grille, deep-cut side scallops, swept-back fenders, and lowered hood lines.
Vehicles nowadays are not patronized if they lack safety features, and the 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10 has many of those. These are the adjustable pedals, anti-lock brake system (ABS), interior head-impact protection, tire pressure monitoring, and remote keyless entry (RKE).
For more assured security, the vehicle also has: advanced multistage front air bags with occupant classification system (OCS), which measures based on the weight of the occupant the status for activation or deactivation of the passenger side front air bag; belt alert, which regularly activates a chime and lights an icon in the instrument cluster to imply buckling up if a car is driven without a properly belted driver; center high-mounted stop lamp (CHMSL), which uses light emitting diodes (LEDs) for extended life; constant force retractors (CFR), which spread force or load exerted on a seat belt and then eventually release the seat belt webbing in a regulated manner; crumple zones, which are built to compress during an accident to inhale energy (this decreases transfer of that energy to the diver and passengers); energy-absorbing steering column, which uses two hydro formed coaxial tubes that can move relatively to each other in order to permit the column to move forward so that during a crash more energy will be absorbed; and knee bolsters to positioning of occupants that enable the air bags to function efficiently.

All these and more!

The 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10 will be manually built in Detroit at the Conner Avenue Assembly Plant.

Aside from this greatly improved car, Dodge is also the maker of durable Dodge truck bed liner.