16th Annual Chrysler Performance West Poker Rally

Chrysler Performance West held their 16th annual Poker Rally on Sunday. Luckily, it wasn’t too hot for Southern California, which helped keep the cars and drivers running cool. The rally covered over 100 miles and started in Granada Hills (north San Fernando Valley) and ended in Ventura, California. Over 100 miles of fun, with plenty of twisties! Great to see these old Mopars out getting driven. Tons of pics after the jump. Thanks to Chrysler Performance West, and be sure to check them out on Facebook, too!

If your club has pictures from a recent cruise or event, please send them to moparblog at gmail dot com!

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Should Dodge be the Big Muscle Brand?

Allpar has an interesting take on the whole “Is Fiat Planning to Kill Dodge” thing that Ward’s Auto kicked off two weeks ago. Allpar claims that instead of losing Dodge, we instead might be looking at “the first real focus Dodge has had since it was named Dodge Brothers.” Allpar thinks that Dodge should be allowed to take the “‘big muscle’ rep” and run with it. I think that would be awesome. But there are a few problems with this idea.

1) Chrysler would lose Dodge as the bread and butter brand that it has been for a long time and force Chrysler to take that role, when Chrysler has historically been more of the “luxury” brand. And Americans aren’t going to accept Alfa Romeo or Maserati as substitutes in the a luxury area.

2) Chrysler has already invested a lot in the SRT brand.

3) CAFE standards. You can’t build a brand on performance and rear wheel drive anymore, unless you are talking high end, low volume (and that’s SRT).

This discussion reminds me of the whole Pontiac discussion a few years ago, and we all know how that ended… But read the article at Allpar and see what you think.

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Mocars At The Ridge

Just got these pics from Tom at Rocket Restorations. Here’s the word from Tom:

The Mocars at the Ridge Mopar show was this weekend at the Ridge Motorsports Park in Shelton, WA. The Ridge is a brand new 2.5 mile race track near Shelton, WA. This was the 2nd year for the show and more cars and swap meeters showed up than ever before. The location gives the unique opportunity for any car entering the show to do parade laps at lunch. It is very exciting to be able to drive around the road course and punch it a little on the straightaway.

Lots more pics after the jump!

If your club has pictures from a recent cruise or event, please send them to moparblog at gmail dot com!

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