JUST IN FROM CARANDDRIVER.COM

The Quickest Sedans of 2008: $30,000 to $40,000

2008 Dodge Charger SRT8
Base price: $37,0100-to-60-mph time: 4.8 secQuarter-mile time: 13.2 sec @ 109 mph
How does Dodge manage to put more than two tons ahead of such pedigreed track stars as the Evolution and 335i? Simple. Throw lots of cubic inches at it, 370 to be exact. With 6.1 liters of V-8 madness beneath that snorty hood, the Charger SRT8 sends 425 horses rearward for transformation into thrust or smoke—you decide. Driven for optimal speed, the Charger SRT8 hustles to 60 in 4.8 seconds and looks and sounds quick while doing it. Perhaps mindful of the car’s bruiser status, Dodge placed the traction control switch within finger-flicking range of the shift lever, should you want to scratch the burnout itch. Although this isn’t a “10 Fastest Sedans” contest, this car would make the list with an almost three-miles-per-minute, rpm-limited 173-mph top speed (ignore Chrysler’s claim of 165 mph).
It’s faster than its chrome-mawed sibling, the 300C, for almost a grand more. The SRT8 Chrysler leapfrogs the similar Charger by $5250. Aside from price, choosing between them boils down to your preferred projection of self. Charger headrests are just slightly more likely to support mullets than high-’n’-tights. And for all the Motown history, the 300C is more likely to have a disc in the changer from DeathRowRecords.com, and the Charger’s six speakers will probably be broadcasting Alan Jackson. The Charger is the urban 300C’s country cousin—same nature, different nurture.
In either sedan, the benefits are manifold when jumping from the not-a-slouch, Hemi-equipped R/T model to the SRT8. Chrysler’s Street and Racing Technology group packs just about everything, mechanical and otherwise, with muscle. Another 85 horsepower arrives for a total of 425, thanks to that growth in displacement from 5.7 to 6.1 liters and fitment of higher-compression (10.3:1) pistons. The five-speed automatic transmission channels 420 pound-feet of torque to 255/45 tires on forged and polished 20-inch alloy wheels, only prevented from looking silly by huge 14.1-inch front Brembo rotors and four-piston calipers. For such a big sedan, the Charger SRT8 hustles through curves and jerks to a halt just as well as it screams in a straight line.
VEHICLE TYPE: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door sedan
BASE PRICE: $37,010
ENGINE TYPE: pushrod 16-valve V-8, iron block and aluminum heads, port fuel injectionDisplacement: 370 cu in, 6059ccPower (SAE net): 425 bhp @ 6200 rpmTorque (SAE net): 420 lb-ft @ 4800 rpm
TRANSMISSION: 5-speed automatic
DIMENSIONS:Wheelbase: 120.0 inLength: 200.1 inWidth: 74.5 inHeight: 57.7 inCurb weight: 4274 lb
C/D TEST RESULTS:Zero to 60 mph: 4.8 secZero to 100 mph: 11.2 secZero to 130 mph: 19.9 secStreet start, 5–60 mph: 5.2 secStanding ¼-mile: 13.2 sec @ 109 mphTop speed (redline limited): 173 mphBraking, 70–0 mph: 168 ftRoadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.90 g
FUEL ECONOMY:EPA city/highway driving: 14/20 mpg

HERE IS YOUR LIST OF TRACK STARS THE CHALLENGER CRUSHED!

By the way four of the top ten available from HAROLD ZEIGLER

Tenth Place: 2008 Volkswagen Passat 3.6
Ninth Place: 2008 Cadillac CTS V-6 DI
Eighth Place: 2008 Buick LaCrosse Super
Seventh Place: 2008 Acura TL Type-S
Sixth Place: 2008 Chrysler 300C
Fifth Place: 2008 Infiniti G35
Fourth Place: 2008 Lexus IS350
Third Place: 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo
Second Place: 2008 BMW 335i
First Place: 2008 Dodge Charger SRT8

A Savior for Chrysler? Read On

After reading things like this you just stop and wonder what is true and what is not...I for one believe that Chrysler will come out of this on top because we simply make the best looking, safest and most fun to drive vehicles in all of our price ranges. Anyone who disagrees needs to stop by the dealership and take your choice of SRT-8s on a test drive...THAT IS AMERICAN METAL!!!!

By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN
Published: February 19, 2008
“We despise all the public attention we are getting,” Stephen Feinberg, the secretive founder of Cerberus Capital Management, wrote to his investors last month. “We do our best to avoid the spotlight, but, unfortunately, when you do some large deals, such as Chrysler and GMAC, it is hard to avoid.”
Well, yes — and a letter like this certainly won’t help. Many Wall Street deal makers were shocked by it, BlackBerrying the letter around town with exclamation points in the subject line. One moment, Mr. Feinberg sounded cavalier about the prospects for the companies he controls. The next, he seemed cold and ruthless.
Cerberus is, of course, the hedge fund-cum-private equity firm that bought Chrysler last year for next to nothing. Mr. Feinberg is the brains behind the operation, but John W. Snow, the former Treasury secretary, is the frontman. Mr. Snow is trotted out for press conferences and interviews because of Mr. Feinberg’s self-described “disdain” for publicity. Dan Quayle, the former vice president, is also on the payroll.
To Mr. Feinberg’s apparent dismay, Cerberus — named for the mythical three-headed dog that guards the entrance to the underworld — has grabbed a lot of headlines lately. The reason is that people can’t stop speculating about whether its investments, notably Chrysler and GMAC, the former financing arm of General Motors, are going to go under.
Cerberus, which got into the private-equity game late, made perhaps the riskiest bets at the peak of the buyout boom. Indeed, if there is one buyout portfolio that Wall Street worries about most, it is Cerberus’. (Apollo Management, with its investment in Realogy, the real estate company, and Linens ‘n Things, is perceived as a close second, though I’m not sure we need to worry about them just yet.)
But Cerberus, more than any other private-equity firm, also finds itself thrust into the spotlight for another reason: It bought an American icon. If Chrysler, which has $18 billion in pension and health care liabilities for at least the next two years, winds up sinking into bankruptcy, it would be a watershed event. Such a failure might take down the entire private-equity industry — everyone in the business, bystander or not, would be tarred. It would be on the 6 o’clock news. Mr. Feinberg would be hauled in front of Congress. It would be considered a national crime. Remember the outcry when Kohlberg Kravis Roberts bought RJR Nabisco for $25 billion back in the 1980s? That was just a dress rehearsal.
No wonder regulars at The Four Seasons are nervous.
Mr. Snow has tried to paint Cerberus as Chrysler’s savior. In a speech to the Detroit Economic Club in July, he said that private equity in general and Mr. Feinberg’s firm in particular offer “perhaps the last, best hope of turning around the auto industry and basic manufacturing in the U.S.”
Which is why it is so disturbing to read Mr. Feinberg’s letter, which sounds downbeat about the economy and, at times, indifferent to the firm’s investments.
“We do not need to be heroes to earn a good return on the investment in Chrysler,” he said, suggesting he has no ambition to reinvent the troubled American automobile industry. Cerberus, after all, bought Chrysler on the cheap.
“We do not need to transition the car industry or even to return Chrysler to a much stronger relative position in the U.S. car market in order to be successful,” Mr. Feinberg continued. (This makes you wonder what Robert L. Nardelli, Home Depot’s former chief executive and $225 million man, does as chief executive of Chrysler.)
At one point, Mr. Feinberg says his firm’s “success does not depend on the future of GMAC, Chrysler, or any other single investment.”
Mr. Feinberg seems less indifferent — and more negative — about GMAC.
“GMAC is an investment about which we have significant concerns,” he wrote. “If the credit markets continue to decline and we find ourselves in a prolonged environment of capital market shutdown, GMAC could run into substantial difficulty.”
Despite all the unwanted attention, Mr. Feinberg is as sharp-elbowed as ever. He whined about ending up in court after Cerberus walked away from its deal to buy United Rentals.
“They hauled me and other Cerberus people into court, and prior to trial brought me to a deposition where they tried to pressure me by asking numerous personal questions that had nothing to do with the case,” he wrote. “We stuck to our guns, and the truth prevailed.”
To be sure, Mr. Feinberg, in his letter, was playing to his audience: his private investors, not the public. He tried to appear introspective and “disciplined,” which, on Wall Street, is code for ruthless. He even tried to humanize himself: “We need to remain vigilant, humble, hard-working, focused and disciplined. We cannot let up for one second.”
But set against everything else he said, those words rang hollow. Mr. Feinberg must have realized his letter backfired because by Friday, Cerberus was sending around a new statement to anyone who would listen.
“We continue to be extremely enthusiastic about our investment in Chrysler,” the statement said.
Trying to explain away Mr. Feinberg’s cheerless outlook on the economy, Cerberus said it “has an obligation to be forthright with our investors about all possible risks and uncertainties that could impact their investment.”
“Although we prepare for the worst-case scenario,” the company said, “it doesn’t mean that it will certainly happen: in fact, we are committed to doing everything in our control so that it doesn’t.”

Thanks for the assurance!

This is a great quote I took from an article my boss gave me on the Challenger SRT-8...

It is in the April 2008 Motor Trend

HE ALSO TOLD ME WE HAVE ONE MORE WE CAN SELL....LET ME KNOW ASAP IF YOU ARE INTERESTED, THEY ARE ONLY MAKING 4800 OF THESE CARS AND THEY ARE GOING FAST. E-MAIL ME AT russjohnson@haroldzeigler.com


Sorry, Ford. Your by-default reign over the American musclecar party is about to come to an end. This is clear the instant we climb aboard a final engineering prototype of the Challenger SRT8, fire its 425-horse Hemi V-8, and plant our right foot hard to the mat. The engine screams to over 6000 rpm, the rectangular exhaust outlets bellow, and the Big Bad Dodge's husky butt fishtails in response, just like the good old days. Better, in fact.