Stellantis’s EV Day: Life At Chrysler, Plug-In Jeeps, An EV Ram, And What The Hell Is That Dodge?!

There was a whisper of something coming from Stellantis regarding EV cars a couple of days ago. But there was no way that anybody was prepared for the full-on battery of news that the company released today that spelled out the future of not just the North American brands, but every brand under the Stellantis fold. It’s not too surprising that EV powertrains are the focus…Stellantis, and previously FCA, have been viewed as lacking in electric vehicle innovation and like it or hate it, that is a part of the company that is necessary for business in today’s automotive climate. We’ll run you through the quick notes on the brands overall, but obviously we want to tackle the four main brands that we feel BangShift readers want to know the most about. The very short version goes like this: There will be four main platforms coming out soon (“soon” meaning about 2024, provided no more global plague, chip shortage, zombie apocalypse, what have you) and they will flow like this:

  • STLA Small, with up to 300 miles of range
  • STLA Medium, with up to 440 miles of range
  • STLA Large, with up to 500 miles of range
  • STLA Frame, with up to 500 miles of range

And this impacts every brand under the Stellantis fold. And just in case you didn’t know or weren’t aware, here’s the full list of brands and the associated taglines they are using for this EV push. Don’t shoot the messanger, we didn’t write these.

  • Abarth – “Heating Up People, But Not The Planet.”
  • Alfa Romeo – “From 2024, Alfa Becomes e-Romeo”
  • Chrysler – “Clean Technology For A New Generation Of Families”
  • Citröen – “Citröen Electric: Well-Being For All”
  • Dodge – “Tear Up The Streets, Not The Planet”
  • DS Automobiles – “The Art Of Travel, Magnified”
  • Fiat – “It’s Only Green When Green Is For All”
  • Jeep – “Zero Emissions Freedom”
  • Lancia – “The Most Elegant Way To Protect The Planet”
  • Maserati – “The Best In Performance Luxury, Electrified”
  • Opel/Vauxhall – “Green Is The New Cool”
  • Peugeot – “Turning Sustainable Mobility Into Quality Time”
  • Ram – “Built To Serve A Sustainable Planet”
  • Commercial Vehicles – “The Global Leader In e-Commercial Vehicles”

So, what are the new products that are coming? We’ll get to Chrysler, Jeep, Ram and Dodge in a minute, but here’s the cliff notes for the rest: Peugeot is taking the lead with their already decent-selling EV line. Fiat is going full EV, though there is no word on if that will continue to sell in the North American market. Lancia, a company many thought was on death row with a guaranteed date, is supposed to be whipping up at least three new vehicles. Opel/Vauxhall is projecting to have a crossover SUV tenatively named “Manta” and intends to be fully-electric by 2028. But we know what you came here for, so let’s get straight to it.

Chrysler

Not much was spoken in the way of Chrysler. But in the full Stellantis EV Day video (at the bottom of this story), during Ralph Gilles’ segment, you will see this concept that is plainly badged as a Chrysler. It comes off like a street-friendly AWD crossover, but the big story here is that something is happening at Chrysler that doesn’t involve further de-contenting the 300 sedan. It’s that one blip of heartbeat on an otherwise dead heart monitor. Now, let’s see if something comes from this. Stellantis promised that every brand had some time to prove their value before they were pruned off. Chrysler was vying with Lancia at the bottom of the pile for years. Let’s see if they can claw their way back into the market.

Jeep

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Ram

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Dodge

Jeep and Ram speak for themselves. But pour over the Dodge video carefully, because there are some surprising notes in here. Namely three items:

Item 1: A roofline that could either be Charger or Challenger (or, potentially, a new-named vehicle).

Item 2: The return of the “Fratzog”, the tri-point emblem that graced Dodge products from 1962-1975. Those hood creases have an interesting shape to them as well…

Item 3: As you can see in both the lead image and the video below, a car with a very 1968 Charger-esque front light design and the Fratzog symbol waking up all four tires with extreme violence, after Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis showed off tons of tire-torching muscle (and the car world’s version of a hiked-up skirt with that slight pullback of the covered car). Out of all of the announcements of Stellantis’s EV Day, Dodge has our full attention. Not for the battery car, not for the planet. EVs have proven to be daily-useable. They’ve proven to be blindingly fast…ask the dude in the stripped Tesla Model S who hustles Hellcats what that life is all about. What they don’t have is a soul. If Dodge can give an EV a soul, and provide that X-factor that no other EV really has for a gearhead, they win. Hands down.

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CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FULL STELLANTIS EV DAY VIDEO (start at 29:14).

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Huffer Hospital: Watch NHRA Crew Chief Rob Wendland Save A Blower That’s Lived A Hard Life


Huffer Hospital: Watch NHRA Crew Chief Rob Wendland Save A Blower That’s Lived A Hard Life

When it comes to guys who know every inch of a top fuel dragster or nitro funny car, NHRA crew chief Rob Wendland is in elite company. Having won races as a driver and a tuner and having lived his whole life in the sport of straight line competition, Wendland is uniquely qualified to tackle just about any job you can think of, including the work of saving a top fuel blower that has seen better days.

Wendland served as the crew chief for Terry McMillan’s top fuel operation for years and they were always a team that did more with less. It was not ever about out-spending anyone there but it was about using all your resources as smartly and as efficiently as possible. We’re hoping to get Rob and Terry back on the tour as soon as possible. But we digress.

In this video we’re in Rob’s shop and he’s got a blower from a lower budget NHRA top fuel team that needs some serious help. Over the course of the video we see some procedures, some tools, and some tech that we’ve never seen before. The amazingly trick cutter from DMPE is but one example. The process and procedure of not only rebuilding the blower but actually repairing the rotors and the case is great and detailed.

We dig Rob’s honesty at the end of the video when he mentions the fact that the work he did here is above and beyond what most would do, but since this is a supercharger from a smaller team who is not racing for the title, it made the most sense for time and money.

This is some really neat stuff!

Press play blow to see Rob Wendland save a top fuel supercharger that’s had a hard life –

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Big Swap, Big Speed, Big Money: This Ferrari Testarossa Has A 500hp Honda K24 Engine In It!


Big Swap, Big Speed, Big Money: This Ferrari Testarossa Has A 500hp Honda K24 Engine In It!

(By Tom Lohnes) – The Ferrari Testarossa, a dream car to 80’s kids and even some today, is without a doubt one of history’s most iconic cars to date. Well, it’s coming back, with a more reliable powertrain.

That is right, there will be a Ferrari Testarossa restomod for sale with a Honda K24 under its mid-mounted hood. This engine is a fully built N/A engine making 500 horses to the wheels, which is nuts for a naturally aspirated four banger. The transmission is a 6-speed manual, in fact the same manual that originally came with the K24 in the 7th-gen Honda Accord, just built to withstand all of that power. Basically, all they did to make this work was take the front subframe of the FWD Accord and move it back, creating RWD.

What is the end goal of this car, you may ask? Well, 200mph. With the much lighter Honda motor under the hood and nearly 150 more horses than it had from factory, that is entirely possible. And, another perk of this Honda powertrain is reliability. Even when fully built, this K24 is much more dependable than the Ferrari’s Finicky V12. Pricing hasn’t been released yet, but judging by previous retromods with this type of powertrain, they’ll be looking for a pile of moolah.


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Awesomely Weird: This 1970s Chevrolet Parts Film Stars Evel Knievel And Literally Makes No Sense


Awesomely Weird: This 1970s Chevrolet Parts Film Stars Evel Knievel And Literally Makes No Sense

We’re guessing someone lost their job for this one. You are going to watch this 1970s Chevrolet parts film which stars Evel Knivel and makes literally no sense at all. The theme of the film is “conflict” and it is illustrated by a series of scenes where animals eat other animals, black and white movies are shown, and Evel Knievel jumps stuff on his motorcycle, sometimes crashing, sometimes not. Throw in a dose of 1970s Anchoman-level hilarity with a bikini-clad woman, and you have yourself one of the most singular odd things we have ever seen.

Make no mistake, Knievel would never turn down a gig, especially one with Chevrolet that likely was a great payday for reading some cue-cards. The company definitely did not hire him for his suave acting ability because this dude is straight up stiff while narrating the action. By action, we mean the bizarre things we are shown on screen.

Oddly, while Chevrolet parts are mentioned a handful of times there’s barely (if ever) a Chevrolet car shown as a prop in the film. This whole thing is some weirdo theater of the mind that was likely schemed up by an executive’s kid. “Hey Johnson, get my son a job in the media department and let him run wild!”

Obviously, Knievel was majorly famous at this point and his star only grew bigger. Note that he mentions that someday, “I’ll jump a mile….” we all know how that quest ended.

You have to see this one to believe it.

Press play to see the weirdest Chevrolet Parts video ever made, starring Evel Knievel!

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Autopsy Of A Dyno Mule: Real St Performance Tears Down A Stock Block and Crank 1,850hp 2JZ To Check Its Guts


Autopsy Of A Dyno Mule: Real St Performance Tears Down A Stock Block and Crank 1,850hp 2JZ To Check Its Guts

Engines tell us things when we take them apart after they’re used, right? We look to see how things are wearing, what stuff is wearing and shouldn’t and what we can do better the next time we put one together. In this case we join the crew at Real St Performance, one of the neatest and most accomplished shops in the country. These guys are wizards with a lot of stuff but the 2JZ engine platform is definitely their wheelhouse. The engine you are going to see being taken down was build to be used as a dyno mule to test a new piston design for the Toyota inline six. You’ll see what worked, what didn’t and what these guys learned from the component inspection.

What we dig most about this video is the honesty. It would have been easy to pull it down and say, “Yep, everything is awesome and we wouldn’t change a thing, we crushed it!” Well, they did crush it because the thing made 1,850hp with a stock block and crank but the parts in a few places were not the happiest. Not the stuff you may be expecting, either, and maybe not for the reasons you are expecting.

Engine forensics at their finest. Check out this gnarly 2JZs guts!

Press play below to see this cool teardown video of a Toyota 2JZ –

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Mountain Of A Man: Sonny Leonard Has Passed At Age 77 – Legendary Engine Builder Leaves Amazing Legacy


Mountain Of A Man: Sonny Leonard Has Passed At Age 77 – Legendary Engine Builder Leaves Amazing Legacy

(Photo by Charles Wickam) – One of the most legendary drag racing engine builders of all time has died at age 77. Sonny Leonard who pioneered massive cubic inch engines, lead the way in classes like mountain motor pro stock, radial vs the world, pro modified and more, has left this mortal coil. Leonard was afflicted by pneumonia at the end of December and was seemingly recovering before he passed away yesterday. It is hard to sum up what the man meant to the sport of drag racing but when one begins to think about the fact that his engines won 13 IHRA mountain motor pro stock championships, have dominated in truck pulling, and have honestly set the gold standard for what it means to be a cutting edge engine builder in both sports, it only begins to scratch the surface of who he was and what he did.

His story is one of humble beginnings. It is one of measured growth that turned into a cascade of demand that he worked much of his life to keep up with. One of his engines can be found in the Game Over boat of Mike Finnegan. Attend a PDRA event or any race where classes like top sportsman or dragster are being run and you’ll see that famed Sonny’s logo on hood scoops, valve covers and more.

Owning an engine from his works was and will continue to be an aspirational goal for so many drag racers it is nearly impossible to imagine. Regarding the business that produces these awesome engines, they will carry on. Here’s their statement, “As most of you have heard, unfortunately Sonny passed away this morning. He will will be deeply missed beyond what words can describe, but we want to reassure our customers that Sonny’s Racing Engines will continue to thrive and remain open for business.”

Beyond building things like a 1,005ci engine that made 2,000 naturally aspirated horsepower, winning all those races, and changing the sport, Leonard was a fantastic man. He was a joy to be around, to listen to, and to learn from. If you could spend time around Sonny Leonard and not smile or laugh, your life was severely out of whack. It was rare to see him without his glasses around his neck or without his trademark smile.

Sonny Leonard’s legacy will live on with his name, his business, and the beastly engines that he forged a trail in creating, engineering, and tuning into winners. Most importantly it will long live in the memories and fond feelings his friends and family have for him. Anyone that knew this man was richer for the experience.


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Mucho Dinero: This Authentic and Rare Pontiac Ram Air V Camshaft Has To Be The Most Expensive On eBay


Mucho Dinero: This Authentic and Rare Pontiac Ram Air V Camshaft Has To Be The Most Expensive On eBay

Thanks to BangShifter Troy Kellas we have been informed of what has to be the most expensive camshaft/lifters/pushrods ad on eBay. This authentic and rare Pontiac Ram Air V cam is listed for $5,000. The Ram Air V engine is the Holy Grail of Pontiac horsepower making in so many ways. The tunnel port heads, special intake manifold and exhaust, and the list goes on. Designed as race engines they were not really intended to have street manners, but this camshaft provides a wrinkle to that story. This General Kenetics ground cam is claimed to have been specified to allow for street driving with less radical lift and duration than the otherwise rowdy race camshaft that would have been in the engine.

We get that this thing is like one of none, we get that if you are a diehard Pontiac fan this camshaft has special meaning but is there really anyone out there who loves Pontiacs enough to throw down five freaking thousands dollars for this thing? It is exactly what the seller claims in the fact that it’s NOS stuff, it has never been run, it is still basically wrapped is some cosmoline looking stuff, etc.

It’s just huge dollars and for what? To tame down your Ram Air V engine? Don’t get us wrong. This is a cool piece of muscle car and specifically Pontiac history but man, $5,000 is wild.

eBay: Check out this listing for a real deal, never run, Ram Air V camshaft…bring money


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The Toyota Man Cometh: This Review Of The 1993 Toyota T100 Was A Wildly Prescient Look Into The Future


The Toyota Man Cometh: This Review Of The 1993 Toyota T100 Was A Wildly Prescient Look Into The Future

It was monumental news when Toyota said that it was going to step up its truck game in the early 1990s with the addition of the T100 model. This was going to be a small-ish truck that was kind of in its own size class. They had done their marketing studies and determined not only what their own loyal Toyota buyers wanted but also what many people who were intimidated by larger trucks wanted to buy.

Their answer was the T100 which was first sold here in 1993. This MotorWeek review is pretty good because it really shows the truck in an honest light. It was “lesser-than” the half ton trucks and even had some short comings when compared to rigs like the Dakota and others. It was short on power, it was pretty slow, and the interior was cramped, but what it did and what they correctly recognized it as doing was to lay the foundation for Toyota’s truck expansion and while that expansion took years and years, it was the long game that ultimately paid off with the Tundra which has been a success for the company.

The neatest part of this video is the end where they basically read the tea leaves of what Toyota is going to do regarding larger trucks in the US market. They debuted the Tundra about 5 years after this truck hit the market and it had V8 power, larger size, and has been sold now for two decades. The Tundra did not harm the Detroit companies in ways that may feared. Lots of Tundras, like T100s find buyers who are already Toyota loyalists and want a truck that it’s “too much” for their tastes.

The T100 really started the whole process.

Press play below to see this interesting review of the 1993 Toyota T100 –

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Watch Al Hofmann Run The Table At The 1995 NHRA Finals And Needle John Force The Whole Tim He Does It


Watch Al Hofmann Run The Table At The 1995 NHRA Finals And Needle John Force The Whole Tim He Does It

If there is one thing we know it’s that one of the most fun parts of drag racing in the 1990s was the rivalry between John Force and Al Hofmann. No, Hofmann did not get around Force for a title during his reign of terror but he did beat him enough on race weekends to officially be a pain in his ass and the fact that he so loved doing it and telling the world that he loved doing it made the scene even better. In 1995 Hofmann finished second in the NHRA funny car points and seemed poised to really make some big noise in 1996. It did not necessarily work out that way but for this moment in time captured here on video, Al Hofmann was coming into John Force’s life like a freight train through his living room.

You are going to see Hofmann take on and take down Tony Pedregon, John Force, and then Cruz Pedregon all on the same day and in that order. Tony P almost got him, he puts an all-time gate job on Force, and Cruz has had so many problems that they had to go get a body from the NHRA Top Eliminator Club ceiling which was hanging there for decoration!

Wild and wooly times at the NHRA finals…which we hope will be back in Pomona next year.

Hit the image of smilin’ Al Hofmann to see his triumph at the 1995 NHRA Finals –


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In Memoriam: Eddie Van Halen


In Memoriam: Eddie Van Halen

This one stings. It’s not that one of the top-tier masters of not only the guitar but just about every single solid instrument he ever touched has finally left this earth after years of dealing with the worst of the diseases. Eddie had been suffering from cancers and injuries for decades, had a problematic hip that required surgery in 1999, and certainly endured the aches and pains that come with the circa-1980s rock and roll lifestyle, and if anything, those problems are now ceased, and for the better. No, it’s because without a question the work of Edward Van Halen is pretty much the soundtrack of my life, from birth. I was dancing around to “Jump” and “Panama” when I was a toddler, thanks to a household of young “adults” who were blasting the records nearly non-stop in a rotation of 1980s rock choice cuts. Doesn’t matter who was singing in the band to me…I might be one of the few who will give Gary Cherone a break and his due for singing during that odd “Van Halen III” era. But name the song, I can tell you what it means to me. “Dreams” is Colorado Springs on a hot summer day with the T-tops out of my Monte Carlo as I’m ripping through the mountains along Interstate 24. “Hot For Teacher” is a song that might be Alex Van Halen’s calling card, but Eddie was right there with him as he always was, with each brother supporting the other. The synthesizer of the 5150-era sounds, the finger-tapping techniques that galvanized “Eruption” as a benchmark for everybody else to attempt…hell, the man used a freaking Makita 6012HD drill to play the intro and solo for “Poundcake”! Who does that?

The memories and the accolades are flooding in ever since Wolfgang Van Halen made the announcement yesterday. Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine, Nikki Sixx of Mötley Crüe, Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready and John 5 referred to him as “our generation’s Mozart”. And if they aren’t right, they certainly aren’t far off. Eddie was always striving to advance, to push himself, to perfect a craft that he had been working on ever since the day he and Alex swapped instruments of choice after he grew frustrated while trying to play “Wipe Out” by The Surfaris. He might not have perfected that song, but he certainly did his damndest to perfect his guitar work. He could make the most wicked bits look like he was playing them via telepathy, the whole time wearing this sly, shit-eating grin that almost seemed to tell everybody that this was his territory. Just about every music video Van Halen ever made, you’ll see it.

Sixty-five years old…too young. Pray for the speakers in my car…like every other one that has come before, they are going to get a workout thanks to the influence of this man. Rest easy, EVH.

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