My Boy Goes Car Shopping

He digs Audis, but has a thing for the new Chrysler 300C. Then he sees pics of the 392 Super Bee, and LOVES it. He says it would have to be in black and he might go with the 6-speed manual. I can't stop grinning; I seem to have taught him well.

The production is only 1,000, not sure how many, if any, will be left in the inventory come Spring/early Summer.

We'll see where this goes.

Patrick

Reply to
patrick.mckenzie84
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One must assume by "boy" you mearly mean "yours" and hot his age?? LOL

Reply to
WindsorFo

Yes. Though he is a "boy" in the car shopping world -- this will be his first car.

Patrick

Reply to
patrick.mckenzie84

I'm really liking this Super Bee. After reading more, it truly is NoOption approved.

Here is an article and the details, from MT.

There's so much smoke wafting around the figure-eight track, I have to look through the passenger-side of the windshield to see where the car is headed. I barrel down the straight while the Charger Super Bee's

6.4-liter Hemi pours out its constant gurgling bellow. I jump on the brakes and the nose dives onto the front tires as the tailpipes burble. Hard left, and the front end bites in and the tail begins to rotate like it's afraid of the orange cones. Halfway through the 200- foot turn and it's hard on the gas, and the car tenses as the smoke rolls off the rear tires.

The cop-show heroics continue until just before the pillar of smoke reaches a level that would attract the attention of the local fire department. It has gone on long enough to make me want a Charger -- and I don't even like big cars. I drove the full line of SRT8 vehicles a few months back at Willow Springs Raceway and left impressed, but not sold. The chassis tuning was impressive, and the 470-hp and 470 lb- ft of torque threw the car forward with ease, but the entire thing just didn't seem to live up to its musclecar heritage. The Super Bee package sets everything right, turning a fast luxo-cruiser into the knuckle-dragging beast it was always meant to be. To start with, the leather seating is gone. In an effort to create a world-class interior for the standard Charger SRT8, Chrysler put together a package that neither lives up to the European benchmarks nor its musclecar roots. The Super Bee, however, nails it perfectly, forgoing the luxury hides for black cloth with yellow stripes as well as Super Bee logos embroidered on the seats. The SRT8 steering wheel remains, but the navigation system was cut for cost savings. In its place is a touch screen not much bigger than a smartphone to handle HVAC, audio, and phone control.

Other amenities have also been left for the standard SRT8 and contribute to the nearly 100-pound savings in the Super Bee. Gone are front and rear heated seats -- wear a jacket. You won't get heated and cooled cupholders; people in the '60s survived without Starbucks, and so can you. Say goodbye to the 19-speaker harman/kardon premium audio system; tailpipes are better than tweeters any day. You won't even notice the LED reading lights are gone -- it's a car, not a library. There are other features missing inside as well, but why continue to mention what isn't there?

Underneath the car, a few more components have disappeared for the sake of simplicity and honesty.

The Bilstein Adaptive Damping Suspension, which allows shock rates to be adjusted at the flip of a switch, is replaced with standard dampers. While the ADS does look good on paper, I never found myself wishing for softer settings during normal driving or stiffer settings during testing. It seems to pay off in performance, too, since the Super Bee is slightly faster around our figure eight than the last SRT8 we tested.

The Super Bee might be slowed down by the lack of 20-inch forged wheels, which have been replaced by cast pieces. The cheaper and heavier wheels are still a split five-spoke design and remain wrapped in 245/40 Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercars. This brings us to an important point on all the SRT8s. Although the 4.4-second 0-60-mph time and the

12.8-second, 112.6-mph quarter mile are impressive, a good set of sticky tires would likely shave a couple tenths off both numbers. There would, however, be a trade-off. The big, smoky, sideways shenanigans described at the beginning of this review would not be nearly as easy to perform with a better set of tires. As the Super Bee sits right now, big power slides come easy and often. Long, arcing drifts are simple to control and as rewarding as finishing a steak that earns you a T-shirt. Although bragging about performance is fun, I'd rather be out creating smoke at the track than blowing it from a barstool.

The Charger SRT8 Super Bee isn't for everyone. Some buyers will still want the coddling and comforting supplied by the standard car, but when I fantasize about chasing a perp through the city's alleys and parking garages, I don't care if my Frappuccino is chilled while my cheeks are warmed. I'll take my Super Bee in Pitch Black and put the money saved into rear tires.

Patrick

Reply to
patrick.mckenzie84

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