Dodge Redeyes

[2pac]

I think the reason an Explorer ST can pick up a decent amount of power from just a tune is because they're turbo charged. Start playing with boost pressure and things get interesting. A tune on a standard SRT 392 won't give a ton.

My 4runner is 21 years old and I've had two things go bad on it. One oxygen sensor and one rear axle seal. That's pretty damn reliable.

Yeah exactly, same concept as the M/amg/s&rs cars, tune the trans and engine and you can literally pick up a full second or more on a tune type of deal.

Definitely detuned from the factory for reliability/fuel economy standards.

Yeah toyota is so wild they won't even put out a car unless they know it's been stress tested and built to last.

Speaking of toyotas have you taken a look into the supra, it has bmw powertrain but it has been refined and made reliable by toyota engineers, best of both worlds imo, lot of guys running crazy numbers in those cars and due to the weight of the car can achieve some incredible stuff.

 

[Speedy!]

I'm a purist and that isn't a "Supra" to me but yeah I've looked at them. I think where Toyota sorta falls down is they're afraid to do anything outside of the mold. For example, if they'd dropped the 5.7L V8 in the 4Runner, it'd be a huge seller I think. Now they don't offer a V8 anymore but have a pretty power TT V6 that is begging to be put in a 4Runner but I bet they'll never do it. Instead they keep making 300HP V6 engines for that platform that tow the same 5,000 lbs my 21 year old model is rated for. I supercharged mine, then did a smaller pulley, and then water meth injection and a smaller pulley still. Makes about 11psi in good air and 300rwhp. More than the 2023 and it's lighter to boot. Toyota really misses opportunities for enthusiasts.

I looked in to doing an LS Swap but with the 4WD and the oil pan it didn't look doable without going crazy and doing a solid front axle conversion and custom oil pan and I was afraid that'd ruin the car.

Here are my spiffed up valve covers painted wrinkle red after doing the gaskets and seals a couple week ago. You can see the water/meth injection port installed in the aluminum intake tube I made to replace the bulky intake silencer.

 

[EricG]

It's one of the reasons I like bmw and porsche for daily'ing cars, most people wouldn't know an m5 or 911 turbo s if it hit them in the face, all they see is 5 series bmw of 911 porsche.

Isn’t that kind of a cool thing about a hellcat Durango too? BMWs should be ashamed for how they up-badge everything, worse than Dodge! They do perform great, I’ve had a lot of friends with them and you just make sure they are new”ish” and under warranty. I dont see what is so great about their interiors or tech? But again I don’t care about tech that much compared to some people, who doesn’t like a nice interior though? Could endlessly debate that, many cars are plenty good enough in that department, after that your splitting hairs…I grew up poor driving old MK2 Toyota supras when I was young so if it isn’t ratty or smells like farts I’m happy

I don’t disagree with a lot of what you say necessarily. A tuned exploder with added mod $ and without a warranty versus a Durango with one is an even call or advantage Durango IMO, a 392 may be a little slower and slightly more $$$, but I think the Durango is a nicer vehicle. bigger and more comfortable.

You are right about that Wagoneer in that upper scale, I forgot about that, I really struggle to find value in any of those SUVs at $100k plus, that is so much money for something that does not have crazy performance of serious off-rod ability. So many of them are just highway cruisers. I could supercharge my LX, it’s only got 85k miles on it and may look to do that after my redeye is paid off.

 

[2pac]

I'm a purist and that isn't a "Supra" to me but yeah I've looked at them. I think where Toyota sorta falls down is they're afraid to do anything outside of the mold. For example, if they'd dropped the 5.7L V8 in the 4Runner, it'd be a huge seller I think. Now they don't offer a V8 anymore but have a pretty power TT V6 that is begging to be put in a 4Runner but I bet they'll never do it. Instead they keep making 300HP V6 engines for that platform that tow the same 5,000 lbs my 21 year old model is rated for. I supercharged mine, then did a smaller pulley, and then water meth injection and a smaller pulley still. Makes about 11psi in good air and 300rwhp. More than the 2023 and it's lighter to boot. Toyota really misses opportunities for enthusiasts.

I looked in to doing an LS Swap but with the 4WD and the oil pan it didn't look doable without going crazy and doing a solid front axle conversion and custom oil pan and I was afraid that'd ruin the car.

Here are my spiffed up valve covers painted wrinkle red after doing the gaskets and seals a couple week ago. You can see the water/meth injection port installed in the aluminum intake tube I made to replace the bulky intake silencer.

Completely understand the purist take, yeah I mean it's not a traditional supra by any means but it was gonna be the only way that toyota pushed out a supra.

Unfortunately toyota is afraid to do much of anything outside the box these days, everything they do is super super conservative, twin turbo 6 cylinder tundra?? Copying the f150 ecoboost, hybrid tundra?? Copying f150 powerboost, obviously they were days late and multiple dollars short when it came to pushing out their vehicles... approximately 10 years late but hey better late than never I guess.

Yeah that's my big issue with a lot of these Japanese and korean companies, they kind of settle in and get conservative once they have made it, at one point honda, nissan, and toyota were making great performance cars and had a massive aftermarket for these cars, unfortunately seems like those days are past them, now you see kia and hyundai pushing the pace a little. Guess we will see what happens with them because the stinger is supposedly getting axed.

That engine bay looks nice, very impressive how stout those engines are with handling a little boost, those 2jzs are the halo of jdm engines in my opinion.

 

[Speedy!]

Rumor has always been the 3.4L was supposed to be the next Supra power plant and was built stout, then EPA regulated them out, detuned, and dropped in everything from Camry to 4Runner.

 

[2pac]

Isn’t that kind of a cool thing about a hellcat Durango too? BMWs should be ashamed for how they up-badge everything, worse than Dodge! They do perform great, I’ve had a lot of friends with them and you just make sure they are new”ish” and under warranty. I dont see what is so great about their interiors or tech? But again I don’t care about tech that much compared to some people, who doesn’t like a nice interior though? Could endlessly debate that, many cars are plenty good enough in that department, after that your splitting hairs…I grew up poor driving old MK2 Toyota supras when I was young so if it isn’t ratty or smells like farts I’m happy

I don’t disagree with a lot of what you say necessarily. A tuned exploder with added mod $ and without a warranty versus a Durango with one is an even call or advantage Durango IMO, a 392 may be a little slower and slightly more $$$, but I think the Durango is a nicer vehicle. bigger and more comfortable.

You are right about that Wagoneer in that upper scale, I forgot about that, I really struggle to find value in any of those SUVs at $100k plus, that is so much money for something that does not have crazy performance of serious off-rod ability. So many of them are just highway cruisers. I could supercharge my LX, it’s only got 85k miles on it and may look to do that after my redeye is paid off.

So from a daily driver perspective I like how the durango blends in but for me the latest muscle car/suv era especially for the hellcats should be special, the way the chargers and Challengers can diffentiate themselves among trims with noticeable changes is a lot better than what they did with the trackhawk and durango, in my opinion they kind of cheaped out and basically parts bin'd these cars.

I don't think the interior and tech of the bmw is that out of this world it's just that it's up to par with the price point for the car, whatever stance you have on the hellcats it's universally agreed that the interior is super dated and no different than a v6 rental car, personally I don't think they needed to add an ipad in there to make it updated but a little bigger of a screen, wireless carplay/aa, aesthetically a little nicer of a center stack, better stiching and for god sakes a nicer dash preferably wrapped in leather or a nice material than the hard plastic, some nice soft touch materials as opposed to hard plastic, etc etc.

As far as tech the only thing that I would have really realy wanted is a fkn heads up display that has sport tach settings like every other performance car out there, imagine how nice it would be to see shift lights on your windshield at the drag strip, or able to see how high your rpms are for a launch. I'll attach a picture below of how awesome bmw M cars hud track tac is. Also would have been nice to have two configurable srt buttons for different modes (traction/suspension/steering/ etc etc)




Explorer on a tune is already faster than a durango 392, the other bolt ons put it in the durango hellcat/trackhawk Territory, gotta remember because of the aluminum body and updated platform it weighs just a tad bit more than a charger (circa 4700lbs) which is about 1000 lbs less than the durango hellcat. Kind of what I'm talking about, imagine if the durango hellcat shaved 1000 lbs.... that's a 10 second suv that's repeatable on the street because of awd, small changes like this make a monumental difference imo.

In terms of 5 year+ reliability I like the durango 392/hellcat over the explorer all day. Something about the 6.2 s/c powertrain being bulletproof as long as proper maintenance makes me feel comfortable, it's just hard to argue with the results the explorer gives at a ridiculously low price point.

As far as the wagoneer goes you gotta understand not everyone wants fast and loud, some people want luxurious and quiet. It's why escalades and navigators are so popular, they reek of opulence and luxury, people like to feel extravagant and in a roundabout way rich, personally I'm a fast and loud guy but everyone is chasing different goals, speedy might be chasing world records, you might be chasing a 9 second car and I might be chasing a car that's just faster than 99% of what's on the road, different folks different strokes.

 

[Jimmy N.]

.
I don't think the interior and tech of the bmw is that out of this world it's just that it's up to par with the price point for the car, whatever stance you have on the hellcats it's universally agreed that the interior is super dated and no different than a v6 rental car....

Apparently living in a different universe, my version of the Challenger would have either the '70 or the current body. I'm fine with either one.

But it would have the '70's interior, completely void of all the tech nonsense and nannies. More of a driver's car and less of a video game arcade.

 

[EricG]

Apparently living in a different universe, my version of the Challenger would have either the '70 or the current body. I'm fine with either one.

But it would have the '70's interior, completely void of all the tech nonsense and nannies. More of a driver's car and less of a video game arcade.

I was kind of thinking the same thing this morning as I was driving around. I really like and enjoy old school muscle car interiors, ads to their character. As I was looking over mine, I actually think the Challenger interior is nice, leather padded surfaces everywhere. Good layout of dash and console and screen/features. So what if the dash is plastic, so are the upper door panels but that’s about it really. Same for almost all other cars. And even if the dash is leather-wrapped like the ‘20+ Dodges are, other than the fancy stitching around the edges you can’t really tell the difference anyway, looks almost the same. If I was getting a cab/Uber and they picked me up in a Dodge with leather I’d be just fine with it.

 

[2pac]

Apparently living in a different universe, my version of the Challenger would have either the '70 or the current body. I'm fine with either one.

But it would have the '70's interior, completely void of all the tech nonsense and nannies. More of a driver's car and less of a video game arcade.

You do live in a different universe 🤣, your closest neighbor is in a different zip code 🫣.

I'm just saying something a little updated would be nice, nothing fancy just a few updates. I like the concept of the new interior minus the tacky red strip lighting.
Simple yet elegant.

 

[Speedy!]

A little tech is fine by me, heated cooled seats, nice stereo that'll run Android Auto, etc. However a huge pet peeve of mine is running HVAC controls through the head unit. So when it goes bad you lose HVAC too. That should always be separate IMO.

 

[2pac]

So what if the dash is plastic, so are the upper door panels but that’s about it really. Same for almost all other cars. And even if the dash is leather-wrapped like the ‘20+ Dodges are, other than the fancy stitching around the edges you can’t really tell the difference anyway, looks almost the same. If I was getting a cab/Uber and they picked me up in a Dodge with leather I’d be just fine with it.

At 70k it's no issue at all, when you start paying 100k it's a bit of a disappointment.

I'll ride in a prius for a cab/uber, I don't really care lol, as long as it's clean and has enough space it doesn't matter.

The biggest thing that really grinds my gear is build quality, dodge/tesla have the worst build quality out of any 100k+ car, tesla is a whole different level of bad, but the charger/challenger/durango has its pitfalls as well. I guess I'm just a little salty that I'm paying so much for the charger redeye, I love the car, love the value it holds but cannot wrap my head around how dodge skyrocketed the msrp 10-20% in a matter of 12-18 months.

 

[2pac]

A little tech is fine by me, heated cooled seats, nice stereo that'll run Android Auto, etc. However a huge pet peeve of mine is running HVAC controls through the head unit. So when it goes bad you lose HVAC too. That should always be separate IMO.

Everyone wants to run hvac through the headunits now, even if you have physical buttons they still display on the headunit, I think we are cooked regardless of physical or no physical buttons if we can't see temperature/flow rate on the physical buttons.

An example of what ford does is you can see the temperatures on the dials but fan speed and mode still are illustrated on the headunit.

In a way you can still control temp and fan rate manually but you are running blind.

I prefer physical buttons in general just because if you ever had to adjust something while ur driving the physical buttons are a god send.

 

[Jimmy N.]

I like the concept of the new interior minus the tacky red strip lighting.

C'mon, man. What do you need night vision for? Tacky interior lights are a thing. Nearly a must have.
How would you know where the steering wheel is, for example, if the center wasn't lit up?

 

[Jimmy N.]

Everyone wants to run hvac through the headunits now, even if you have physical buttons they still display on the headunit, I think we are cooked regardless of physical or no physical buttons if we can't see temperature/flow rate on the physical buttons..

Never did understand the readouts on HVAC, or the radio volume for that matter. Either I feel that the temp is right, or I don't, regardless of what the display says.

Same with the radio. Is 18 too loud, or just right?

 

[2pac]

C'mon, man. What do you need night vision for? Tacky interior lights are a thing. Nearly a must have.
How would you know where the steering wheel is, for example, if the center wasn't lit up?

Helps us taxi drivers see better at night 🤣🤣🤣, you 2 door guys are different, most of the time nobody wants to see the girl you have in your passenger seat 🤭😬😬

 

[2pac]

Never did understand the readouts on HVAC, or the radio volume for that matter. Either I feel that the temp is right, or I don't, regardless of what the display says.

Same with the radio. Is 18 too loud, or just right?

18 in one car doesn't correlate to 18 in another car, how is volume even calculated? Do they measure it in decibels?

Gotta remember some people need that perfect 76.2 degree temperature to keep themselves from soaking their panties.

 

[Illegal_Demon]

What hit him the hardest initially was all the animals that didn't make it, including quite a few exotics.

Then, I'm sure, that most everything he'd worked for all his life (except for companies in other locations) was just gone.
Buildings, orchards, vineyard, cars, all of it.

And that many of his employees now had no work probably didn't feel good, either. Especially the ones who had their homes on the ranch.

I feel so fortunate that we had already moved, so I didn't have to see the aftermath. Including the foundation (pretty much all that remained) of my old house.

We lived through all of this over the past 18 months. 75% of my neighborhood was gone in a matter of a few hours. We were displaced for 7 months but super lucky our home (and a Demon and a Viper) didn't go up in smoke. Nothing as sinister as fire imo. Gone in an instant. All of it. Not having insurance especially in a fire zone was crazy, esp with all he had to lose. Definition of pennywise pound foolish, imo.

I hope he has mentally recovered and that no one died in the blaze. We lost 1100 homes in ~8h in a 10x10mi area (tiny!) but miraculously loss of life was incredibly low. 2 people too many, but it could have been in the thousands had it happened at night.

I still have PTSD anytime we get high winds in the fall/winter months. I thought we would be out here for life but not anymore. We will be back east (likely in NC with lots of family in late 2025).

 

[Jimmy N.]

Hey, after 10 years I still look very nervously at the smoke from people burning the ditches around here. Which they do now, during the windy season.

When that fire in CA took place I was both out of the state and the loop, so I don't know how large the burn area was, how many houses burnt (other than "many"), or how many, if any, died.

One friend/former neighbor still hasn't got all his permits, and where my house used to be there's now (surprise, surprise) a much larger house.

 

[Illegal_Demon]

Hey, after 10 years I still look very nervously at the smoke from people burning the ditches around here. Which they do now, during the windy season.

When that fire in CA took place I was both out of the state and the loop, so I don't know how large the burn area was, how many houses burnt (other than "many"), or how many, if any, died.

One friend/former neighbor still hasn't got all his permits, and where my house used to be there's now (surprise, surprise) a much larger house.

You mentioned moving to the USA, where are you originally from, if you don't mind me asking?

 

[Jimmy N.]

You mentioned moving to the USA, where are you originally from, if you don't mind me asking?

Vikings do mind, and don't reveal such personal things.