This is a clip from Top Gear Series 4 episode 3 in which Richard (The Hamster) Hammond decides he wants a 1968 Dodge Charger (don’t we all) and so takes one out to the country side to road test it……

There’s something about quarter-mile times that car tuners seem to have a fixation with. Whether it’s trying to post world record times or just seeing how fast their tuned-up creations can go the quarter-mile run has seemingly become a badge of honor of sorts – post the fastest time and wait for somebody else to beat it.

The folks over at SpeedFactory seemed to have that record in mind when they completely overhauled a 2006 Dodge Charger and put a Gen III Hemi stroker motor boosted by a Vortech supercharger engine underneath the hood, tuning up an already fast 900-hp sedan into a mind-numbing 1,000 horsepower.

The result, as you can imagine, is a car that could very well challenge the world record for fastest quarter mile time, and that’s exactly what the
souped up Charger did, clocking a time of 9.453 seconds at 145.38 mph.

We’re still going to need confirmation on whether the car broke the world record for fastest quarter-mile time, but either way, a 9.453-second time is ridiculously fast.

Check out the video and see how SpeedFactory’s tuned-up Charger fared in its quest for quarter-mile immortality.

Press Release after the jump

Video: Tuned-up Dodge Charger attempts to break quarter-mile speed record originally appeared on topspeed.com on Saturday, 13 February 2010 14:00 EST.

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Last year towards the end of the NASCAR season we had the opportunity to talk with three time Daytona 500 winner and South Florida native Bobby Allison about his life in the stock car circuit. One of his more memorable machines was a red and gold Coca-cola sponsored 1970 Dodge Charger Daytona, that oddly enough never even turned a wheel in competition, recently went up for auction at the 2010 Mecum Auto Auctions in Kissimmee, FL.

What makes this car so special, aside from the over sized wing towering over the rear end that was designed to provide down force and stability at over 200 MPH on the high banks of super speedways like Talladega and the track the car was named after, Daytona. For the 1970 season, the man in charge of NASCAR, Bill France, handicapped the big winged race cars by limiting their displacement forcing racers to choose between sheer power and aerodynamic optimization. Never being one to back down from a challenge, Allison and car builder Mario Rossi decided to try their luck with a destroked version of the 426 Hemi that only displaced 305 cubic inches.

Any enthusiast knows that there is no replacement for displacement, but any engine builder will tell you that for every 0.1 Liters you lose, the motor gains about 2,000 RPM. While the new combination looked promising for the 1970 NASCAR season, Mr. France flexed his muscle once again and banned the car from competition, so the world was never able to see what a big winged high revving Hemi could have done on track. Unfortunately the one of a kind test mule didn’t sell at auction despite registering a high bid of $210,000.

Press release after the jump.

Bobby Allison’s Dodge Charger Daytona originally appeared on topspeed.com on Tuesday, 9 February 2010 16:38 EST.

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While the perception in society points to men becoming “tied-down” after they get hitched, we should all be reminded that perception isn’t always reality. It seems a little short-sighted and naive to think that men have become a little too predictable once we become domesticated.

That being said, as far as the new Dodge Super Bowl commercial is concerned, they seem to think that all men, no matter the course of action they take, will, at some point in time, end up on sort of leash in their lives.

But as the ad puts it in the end, men will abide by the rules for as long as they have something – even just one thing – to go crazy about.

And for Dodge, that ‘one thing to go crazy about’ is the new Charger.

On some levels, we cringe at thought of seeing men – husbands, specifically – get stereotyped in the way Dodge did it. But on the other hand, we can all agree that, while some men do indeed fall on that label, the thought of speeding off on a new Dodge Charger is something a lot of us do go crazy about.

Dodge’s Super Bowl Ad highlights Charger as ‘Man’s Last Stand’ originally appeared on topspeed.com on Monday, 8 February 2010 16:00 EST.

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On January 23rd a SpeedFactory 426 Charger race car has set a new world record in the LX community by running a 9.45s @ 145 mph in the quarter mile.

The 426Charger is powered by a GEN III 426 HEMI stroker motor that delivers a total of 900 hp. A curb weight of 3,750 pounds was achieved by removing the interior.

With this time, SpeedFactory bested all previous quarter mile times set by actual production LX/LC-platform cars- modern Dodge Chargers, Challengers, Magnums and Chrysler 300C.

Press release after the jump.

SpeedFactory 426 Charger sets world record quarter mile originally appeared on topspeed.com on Tuesday, 2 February 2010 15:30 EST.

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Go to MYRIDE.COM for more car videos.Old name, new car. The Charger nameplate dates back more than 30 years and, if one applies selective memory loss to some unloved Charger-badged cars from the late ’70s and ’80s, represents muscle-car era performance. In most regards, the new Charger does live up to the name. It’s based on the same platform used for the Dodge Magnum wagon, which is itself based on the Chrysler 300 sedan. Like these two cars, the Charger is rear-drive, has four doors and …

Need For Speed: Undercover cars review [Modifided cars] | 1. Dodge Charger SRT8 Super Bee | 2. Mercedes-Benz CLS 63 AMG

We have made a big fuss about all of the Chevrolet Camaro body kits on the market that transform it into the retro looking Pontiac Firebird that they should have, but there are also a few Mopar fans who are looking for a bit of 21st century American muscle car nostalgia. That is where the HPP Daytona comes into play, starting off as an ordinary Dodge Challenger, the Chrysler transforms into a brand new big winged Dodge Daytona ready to tackle the high banking of Talladega and its sister super speedway with a fuel injected 5.7 Liter Hemi V8 being fed compressed air from a Vortech Supercharger in order to make a total of 600 HP.

As good as all the Firebird transformations look, there is something about this Daytona conversion that strikes a special cord inside us. Perhaps it was all of the ridiculous rule bending that the big three were doing back in the 1960s and how Chrysler went that extra step to break the 200 MPH barrier with a special edition Dodge Charger that was decked out with a nose cone complete with streamlined hidden headlights, more vents than you can shake a stick at to get all that hot air out from under the hood and the wildest wing that NASCAR’s rule books have ever allowed. And HPP has included all of those things into their modern day Daytona.

HPP Daytona brings NASCAR’s Superbird back to life originally appeared on topspeed.com on Monday, 30 November 2009 14:30 EST.

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