Everyone knows me for being head over heels in love with the Dodge Challenger. It is the most beautiful car to have ever existed. Well, so certain glasses wearing, mail carrying, car nuts say. So much emotion is drawn from this muscle car and has thus far enjoyed a warm welcome by even the simplist of car lovers. Playing the waiting game from concept to my garage was border line torture. Unfortunately, this reborn beauty may be short lived.

In 2006, Chrysler revealed their newest eye catching concept. Demand of a production model came quickly. Somewhere in the design process, an accountant decided that the best retro muscle car to hit the market in recent years did not deserve a new engine. So it got the standard SRT8 6.1L V8, producing 425 horsepower. Yes, the nostalgia was purposeful, remembering that the old 426 HEMI from the 1970′s had 425hp. But we…cough, cough……enthusiasts were screaming for the more unique 6.4L which would put the approximate horsepower above the coveted 500 mark. However, Chrysler opted for a quick concept-to-production run, which I must say was executed quite impressively, and went with the proven motor.

It came near the date to finally put an order on the first of the true second generation Challengers. No, I don’t count that piece of *** Mitsubishi Galant that ran from the late 70’s into the mid 80’s. Excitement grew, talk abounded all over the internet forums, and enthusiasts flocked into dealership showrooms to hand over their astronomical down payments. But when they arrived, found that ALL the 2008 models would be AUTOMATICS! I’m tearing up just thinking of that saddening night in December. Don’t get me wrong, this newly designed Dodge Challenger has a smooth and quite responsive 5-speed automatic. Obvious though, the real men who like to enjoy their obscene automotive purchases prefer the love and control that only a manual transmission can give. 6-speed in 2009! Holy Mosses, that means no numbered badge. Crap!

If you purchased a Dodge Challenger in 2008, you got the SRT8. I know, history shows that most manufactures begin pushing the setup that will often bring the most money: the cheaper, lesser equipped cars. I believe Chrysler knew that while the Challenger had unanimously won the hearts of enthusiasts, the common buyer still didn’t “get it”. Let’s be honest, it weighs over 4,000lbs, is larger than many sedans currently on the market, but with two fewer doors, and the concept car’s color was orange when the whole country seemingly wants green. So if Chrysler wanted to bring this reborn muscle car to fruition, the only way to sell it would be to build the enthusiast car, get it out on the street and let others know that Dodge performance is back! Neighbors of the enthusiasts would then go to the dealership, figure out they can’t afford neither the sticker price nor the fuel mileage of the thirsty V8, so they opt for the 3.5L V6 instead. For 2009, Chrysler only sold a meager 25,852 Challengers, compared to Ford’s 66,623 Mustangs that same model year. You may think that’s pretty good, but consider just 10 years earlier, Ford sold a total of 126,067 Mustangs for 1999. Perhaps this is just a sign of the times.

For 2010, the Challenger got updates! That’s right, color choices now include Plum Crazzy Purple and Detonator Yellow, replacing Hemi Orange. Before your favorite colorful finger comes shooting out, let us think about how many other cars out there get any major changes within a year and a half of its generational debut. Yes, the die-hard, mullet wearing Challenger lovers were keeping their fingers crossed once again that the coming model year would include that dreamy 6.4L HEMI, but it didn’t. In reality, the let down wasn’t just the absence of the larger HEMI, it was the absence of really anything new coming out of Chrysler for 2010. Ford debuted the redesigned Mustang, GM released the sexy new Camaro after taking an 8 year break, and Chrysler, well…….brought yellow. Hold on just a second, rumor once again has it that the 2011 model Challenger WILL come with updated powertrains across the board. Please don’t let it be a HEMI Hybrid!

With US demand growing for more fuel efficient vehicles and Fiat/UAW/US Government owned Chrysler soon producing cars like the Fiat 500 and electric models on the way, the Dodge Challenger has little chance of surviving past its Chrysler-announced 2013 production end, where it may or may not get a 3rd generation update (once again, the Galant can rot in hell before I acknowledge it as a Challenger). If it does, it may come with two extra doors. The second-time demise of the Challenger might not come from popular demand of certain vehicles pushing out the muscle car, but rather the direction, or lack thereof, that Chrysler is headed. Currently, Chrysler is losing money hand over fist. The typical car buyer wants a car that is reliable, fuel efficient, and appeals to women; attributes not typically synonymous with Chrysler products. Therefore, it is my opinion that the Dodge Challenger in my garage will never have many brothers out there on the street. Some may think that’s a bad thing, but I almost prefer it that way.

Why do I keep hearing heavenly angel music every time I say Corvette Grand Sport. Oh, that’s right, because only God could have made a car this awesome! Yes, we at Burnout Radio land have finally got our review video of the 2010 Corvette Grand Sport up for viewing. Gotta say, we’ve tested a lot of cars, but this one has become a favorite.

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It may seem odd, but for years I associated the Camaro with speed. It’s true. I had no feelings of malcontent, and I did not associate the Camaro with wife-beater t-shirts, mullets, and bondo. It looked good, had a great V8, was relatively comfortable, and provoked driving fast. That was a win in my book. It still is to some degree.

My entire first-hand Camaro experience was with a 1989 Camaro RS which had the 5.0 liter V8 option. By today’s yard stick, the engine’s 170 horsepower and 255 lb-ft of torque is quite meager. But in 1990, even short the 70 horsepower which was available in the IROC-Z’s 5.7 liter V8, it was a monster to this high school student.

It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon in North Texas when a friend picked me up in his new RS. I immediately was addicted to the torque pushing me into the seat. The next thing you knew we were flying along at 135mph, T-tops removed, and my hair blowing in the wind. That’s right. I had hair once. Moving on…

Now let’s fast forward almost 20 years. Everything has changed. Here’s where the wife-beaters, mullets, and bondo come into play. In the 7 years following Chevrolet killing the Camaro in 2002 after 35 years of production, its reputation went drastically downhill. There still was that distant memory of high school, but that memory was all too often overshadowed by a giant mullet cutting me off in traffic with his bondo-covered Camaro apparently fitted with a smoke screen “feature”.

A few weeks ago, everything changed again. Chevrolet delivered Burnout Radio a 2010 Camaro 2SS, and I drew the long straw to drive it the first few days. This is the 5th Generation of the Camaro, and I’ve yet to find someone who dislikes the way the way this car looks. Every curve and angle blend together to make one of the best looking American cars produced in recent decades. This 2010 model urges you to reminisce of the first four generations while remaining wholly modern in design. Chevrolet nailed the styling, pure and simple.

Here is my experience:

As I slide into the driver’s seat, I am first amazed at how comfortable I am with no adjustments. I make a few seat adjustments and surprisingly quickly have the perfect driving position. The layout of the cockpit caters to the driver and everything is well within reach without taking my eyes far from the road. While I do like the gauge layout and design, the speedometer and tachometer need some work. First they are annoyingly vague with their sequoia sized needles. I want to know exactly how fast I’m going at a glance and not a 5 mph estimate. Yeah, yeah, I know there’s a digital readout option in the driver information center (DIC), but maybe I want something else on that screen. There are plenty of other good options to display there. Anyway, the gauges just feel a bit of an afterthought. Secondly, a few times the speedo even seems to stick a little while decelerating. It jumps down in 5-7 mph increments rather harshly instead of a fluid motion under braking. Otherwise, the gauges and DIC readout are very well placed and designed. The DIC is very easily navigated by controls on the blinker stalk. Most of the rest of the interior looks great. There is nifty ambient lighting in the top edge of the door panel inserts, which unfortunately is seemingly made of CD case plastic. The design continues across the dash, but for whatever reason the lighting does not. I am assured it is not broken and is not actually lit. Odd.

Now it is time to really drive this puppy. As I roll out, the clutch requires little effort while still feeling solid. It engages smoothly and quickly as a proper muscle car should. The 6-speed transmission is smooth with enough of a snick to know I am properly in gear, albeit with a bit of a long throw. Unfortunately though, there’s no good way to hold the shifter. It just feels peculiar in my hand regardless of how I hold it. The same goes for the steering wheel if you’re the 9 and 3 type (as all should be). Both are a bit awkward.

Next is the requisite downshift and foot to the floor to merge on the freeway. The 6.2 liter LS3 V8 roars to life, punches me into the seat with 400 lb-ft of torque, builds to its full 426 horsepower, and all thoughts of the aforementioned awkwardness go out the windows as I launch up the ramp. The colossal acceleration is well beyond anything I experienced that Sunday afternoon in 1990. That aside, this Camaro is different somehow. It is more composed…a bit mature even.

As I amble through traffic, I plug my almost dead iPhone into the USB port to give it a little charge on the way home. Much to my surprise, a few seconds later, “Trent’s iPhone” displays on the screen and my stored music begins to play automatically. Brilliant! I turn up the Boston Acoustics audio system equipped in this 2SS model. It sounds crisp and clean even at 70mph with windows down and sunroof open. It’s at this point that I notice the exhaust note could use a little tweaking, as it’s a bit of a nasal sound when behind the wheel. And since I’m nit-picking here, a little more volume under normal acceleration would be nice for those who like to roll the windows down and shift by ear. I have no complaints outside the cabin though, as a quick jaunt through a tunnel sounds great.

Yes, the 2010 Camaro SS has a few faults. Yes, it still has a bit of a back-woods reputation. Yet this is just the first year back from retirement. The Camaro will improve and will overcome the stereotype. Once again I am in love with the Camaro, although even with no hair I do miss the T-tops. The Chevrolet Camaro is back in the muscle car fight. Welcome.

Over the next few days, I was able to experience the Camaro in various scenarios. Unfortunately it rained almost the entire time, although I luckily got one small window of dry roads to explore the Camaro’s capabilities.

Ugh. More rain

THE RUNDOWN:

Rush-hour commuter: The comfortable seats, low RPM torque, and high gearing make bumper-to-bumper traffic easy. Throw it in 2nd or 3rd and leave it there. Gas mileage isn’t great, but if you’re buying an SS then it’s most likely not a priority. While on the gas topic though, the fuel cap needs a better hook to hold it while fueling. It is horribly small and rarely actually prevents the gas cap from hanging loose on the paint.

Highway cruiser: The comfortable seats and high gearing are great here as well. With the engine spinning less than 2,000 RPM at 80mph, it gobbles up the miles with ease. On-center steering feel could use a little adrenaline kick though, as it’s a bit vague.

Grocery getter: I wouldn’t advise going to Sam’s Club and grabbing a flatbed, but for an average grocery purchase there is reasonable space in the trunk. The back seats are easily accessible as well if the space is needed.

Family & friends hauler: If you only have friends under 6ft tall, you’ll all be happy with the occasional back-seat passenger. Notice I didn’t say passengerS. Unless you’re both jockeys, an average-sized adult won’t fit behind the driver. For those with kids, there is plenty of room for them even with a booster seat. If you have a child still in a rear-facing safety seat as I do, adult passengers over 5ft tall should avoid you like swine flu and take their own car. The passenger seat has to be fully forward and completely upright in order to fit the safety seat in back. Surprisingly though, it was relatively easy to install the safety seat in the back.

Occasional hoon-mobile: I find the SS suspension to be quite competent. The suspension is compliant, yet responsive and communicative with minimal body roll. As I stated above, steering feel does need some dialing in regarding on-center feel, which is a bit lifeless. However it is nicely weighted and communicative once you chuck it into a turn. If you take it into that turn smoothly and with a bit of reserve, there’s enough suspension compliance to get hard on the throttle on exit. Yet if you throw it in hard, you’ll get the obligatory initial understeer and a nice progressive switch to oversteer if you get on the go-pedal. I am quite pleased with the progressive nature near the limit. If one is to press the StabiliTrak button in front of the shifter once, traction control is disabled to allow tire spin while the stability control keeps you from getting sideways. If one is to press it twice, Competitive Mode allows a generous amount of tire spin and slip angle before bringing the tail back in line. It will make lucky bad drivers look good. Unlucky bad drivers will still crash. Competitive Mode also enables launch control. It’s as simple as holding the fun pedal down while the ECU limits engine RPM and dumping the clutch. Finally, holding the button for about 5 seconds will defeat all traction and stability systems and let you have your way with the Camaro.

Track toy: Most of the characteristics which make the Camaro SS a capable hoon-mobile apply here as well. The pedals are a bit widely spaced for easy heel-toe downshifts in my size 9s, but it’s manageable. The giant Brembo brakes work as expected and haul all 3849 lbs down quickly with good pedal feel. Modulating the brakes under hard braking is no problem. The Camaro handles well but is no Miata, so a tight course or autocross won’t suit it too well. Like usual with many production vehicles, a few modifications would be needed for a frequent track car, but the Camaro SS should easily handle a track day every now and then with no problem.

Dragster: Like all Camaros of yore, this car is at home on a drag strip. All but the novice will find faster times not using launch control. The engine and transmission beg to slammed through the gears and the suspension is compliant enough to give you a little of that muscle car squat under acceleration.

Click any image to view the gallery:

Thank you GM and Burnout Radio for providing the Camaro and making this review possible. Read more of Trent Landreth’s work at Reflections Of The Drive. ♦

Yes, after months of working out the details of the Saturn exchange from GM to Penske Automotive Group, the deal is now dead. The thought was that Penske would continue to use rebadged GM vehicles over the next couple years and then open their repertoire to overseas brands. However, with GM still in bankruptcy limbo and the future/direction of the company in question, Penske saw the light and backed out of the deal. Coincidentally, Penske Automotive Group’s stock shortly there after got bumped up to “a good buy”.

That’s right. Coming to a full sized family garage near you, Ford has developed a new minivan called the C-MAX. It’ll be powered by a 1.6L I-4 and carry up to 5 passengers. Is it just me, or does this look a bit too similar to the coming Fiesta (which also sports a 1.6L)? If room for five passengers isn’t enough, a stretch version that will tote 7 people is in consideration as well. If a twin turbo charged V6 ecoboost becomes an option, I’ll let you know.

You heard me right! However, I am being a little misleading. Chevrolet has just announced a Transformers package for the all new Camaro. If you’re wanting to roll out with your personal Bumblebee, it’ll cost you an extra $995. This announcement came from, of all places, the Comic-Con convention in San Diego a few days ago. While this package will get you a bucket full of Transformers badges and racing stripes, it will NOT transform into the bumblebee character we all know an love.

I found this hilarious article in Yahoo News. In the good ‘ole US of A, when a group threatens AND places explosive devises into a building as a measure of bargaining in any sense, there is definite jail time coming. Not in France! Former plant workers of french auto parts supplier New Fabris have just voted to remove the gas canisters intended for blowing up their plant as a result of a paycheck coming from the once main clients of New Fabris, Renault and Peugeot. So…… terrorism + france = $ ……?

How cool is that? Terry Box did an awesome write up on us and the Fiesta Movement in Today’s Dallas Morning News. You guys can check it out here. (link works after the jump)  There’s also a really good video, although we sound like goobers in it.

Now don’t get too excited, no v-12 for this go-kart. Aston Martin is taking the Toyota I-Q  and giving it that Aston Martin flair. Why? Because Aston Martin has a problem with their vehicles. That wonderful big rumbley v-12 they are so famous for, just isn’t kind enough to the environment for European Union. So to combat this, they commandeered Toyota’s I-Q and renamed it Cygnet. For the extra money, you’ll not only get the Aston Martin emblem, but the plush interior and some sexy but squished Aston Martin styling on the exterior. But sadly no v-12 to go with it.

That’s right! Charlie’s favorite origin of car makers is sending us yet another top quality brand of vehicle. CT&T wants to tap in on the electric car craze going on in the states right now and wants to do it quick. Their e-Zone vehicle may be here as early as next year! I wonder if it will also come with a 1,000,000 mile / 1,000 year warranty.

Thats right we’re on the news! Miss Vanessa Brown did an awesome piece on us and the Fiesta Movement for KDAF.

Tell us what you think! We’ll also be on her show, DFW Close Up, Sunday at 7am.

Today’s Topic Comes from the 2009 Aaron’s 499 at Talladega. There were two huge wrecks during last weekends race. And there is some question over what NASCAR should do about it. Here are a link to the videos of the wrecks:

The Big One
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TncQI…
The Second Big One
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oIqka…

The cause of the wreck was two fold, first is the restrictor plates that reduce horsepower and force drivers to race in packs and the second is a rule that doesn’t allow any driver below the yellow line dividing the apron from the track.

So the questions is this: Is nascar to blame for the accident and subsiquent injury of 8 fans? If so what should they do? should they get rid of the yellow line rule? Should the slow the cars down with a more agressive restricor plate or is there another solution?

You Ladies have it easy. That little black dress works for any occasion. Not so for those of us belonging to the more masculine persuasion. So today I ask you what should men wear to a cocktail party. I ask because we were invited to attend the Grand Opening of the North Texas Auto Museum, which just happens to be a cocktail party and I have never attended one, so I don’t know what to wear.

BMW aims the new z4 at chicks? Vauxhall gets a new pair of shoes. Ikea may be making the first flat pack car (some assembly required). Audi goes on a diet! Yup Audi is looking to loose over 800 pounds of the next gen A5. Then V W get’s a bit confused about it’s Rabbit, and then they bult a 250 mpg car, all in a days work for those zaney Germans.

We also talk a little bit about the Fiesta Movement,  our impending trip to Hot Import Nights, the launch of our new video cast, and a new series of articles we are writting called Public Service Announcments! Then we introduce, dum dum duuuuum! The Tech Segment! We swore we’d never do it, but we went and did it anyway. As usual I blame Nick.

And all apologies for the bad recording quality on Jini’s voice over, for some reason it came out all sparkley when I was editing it.

This week I found a list of the 25 most colectable cars from the past 25 years on howstuffworks.com. So you get to listen to us wonder why half these cars made the list as it made no sense to us until about half way though the podcast.

Then we finally got to take a test drive!  First time in months. The guys over at Ewing Pontiac hooked us up with a sweet G6 GXP for the afternoon. And Jini found us a pretty cool article on a new roadable plane called the Terrafugia.

Holy Jebus! 3 weeks late! Man I really got to put these up faster. Anyway in this episode we found out thanks to Matt Farrah over at Garage 419, that you can own a viper for a mere $27,000 dollars. Mini Cooper, is joining the electric ban wagon, and Oregon hates after market tires.

Last week we spent the entire day at the Fort Worth Auto Show, or the Greater Tarrant Count Auto Show, which ever you want to call it, so we missed recording an episode last week. But not to fear we’ll get you all caught up this week. This is our first podcast to be videoed so we kind of sucked it up. I think the camera scares Nick… You can see how bad we were on camera at our youtube channel, or you can just listen to the audio version here and you’ll get the general idea. Next week we’ll be back in top form! So we’ll see you then.

WOW! It’s been awhile since you guys have gotten to here us on the inter-web. But as I promised we’ve been recording new episodes every week, minus a couple of week hiatus over the holidays, and I’ve just uploaded the five episodes we’ve recorded. They will be listed under their original recording dates so you may have look back though the archived pages, or on the podcast page to get them.

Things have been super hectic around here lately, with the new site, the new recording studio, and all the other stuff we’ve been adding. (If we keep this up we might end up sounding professional or something.) And I wanted to give our loyal listeners a run down of the changes we’ve been making. So here the are.

1. The spiffy new site
2. You guys now have the ability to comment on articles and podcasts
3. We’re on itunes!
4. Videos! Yup that’s right we’ve added videos to the site which you can see under the video tab starting Monday.
5. We’re now uploading a video version of the podcast to YouTube. (don’t worry it’s no diffrent than our audio version, except you get look at our ugly mugs).
6. We’ve added a calendar to our new site so that you guys can see where we’ll be and what we’re up to each week.
7. We’re now broadcasting our suckiness across the interweb from a new recording studio, instead of the spare bedroom where we were recording.
8. We’ve add another member to our podcasting crew, he’ll be doing alot of behind the scenes work, but you guys will see him from time to time.
9. We’re starting a new video cast named Car Care 101, and we should have our first videos up once we complete the site sometime around March 1st. You guys can check out the site while’s it under development at www.carecare101.info

I think that’s all the major changes so far. Enjoy the podcast and let us know what you think of the updates. After all we’re doing this show for our listeners, so if you guys want us to do something we’ll do our best to accomidate.

Title: Greater Tarrant County Auto Show
Location: Fort Worth Convention Center
For more into: Click here
Description: We’ll be at the Greater Tarrant County Auto Show on January 30th. But you guys can check out the show from the 29th to Feb 1st if you are in the area.
Start Date: 2009-01-29
End Date: 2009-02-01

Alright any of you local guys will be able to find us the Creater Tarrant County  Auto Show on Friday January 30th. The auto show will be going on all week end but we’ll only be there on Friday. And I can’t wait to see some of the cars Ford’s going to have there. Ford’s bringing the 2010 Mustang, the 2010 Shelby GT500, and the new F-150 SVT “Raptor” truck. GM’s just adding icing on the cake with the ZR1 Vett, the Camaro, and hope upon hope the new Volt! We’ll also get to see the new Infinity G, and I hope we get to see the Pontiac Solstice hard top agian.

We’ll were back for a new season and in a new year! This week we try to figure out why Mercedes stole the Hyundi’s design chief. What were they thinking? We also introduce the newest member of our podcasting crew, Coby! Coby will be working mainly behind the scenes, but he’ll visit with us from time to time on the podcast.

Merry Christmas folks. This will be our last episode until after the new year. During the down time we’re going to be moving to a new site, adding a crapton of new features for you guys, and making some other general improvments. Anyway in this episode we’ll let you know whats on our Christmas wishlist, and then we’ll tell you what our picks for the best and worst cars of the year were.

Wow! I just realized we hadn’t released any of the episodes recorded during December… I blame Nick. It’s usually his fault. Anyway my depest apologies for Nick not incesnatly reminding me to upload the podcasts unitl I got them up. The recording quality on this episode is horrid because of some hard ware issues we were having. But should you choose to listen though the bad quality you’ll find out what Popular Mechanics says GM did to ruin their reputation, and how much we love cheep bar-b-q and our local driving roads.

Got to love Popular Mechanics. They were nice enough to help us out with this podcast. You can check out the article here. We also dug up some info on Dodge’s new Phenoix engine.

DON”T FOR GET TO CHECK OUT THE IMAGE GALLERY IN THE READ MORE LINK

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Yup thats right Chrysler’s cars are sooooo bad that in Brittian when you buy one Dodge Avenger you get one free. And in other news we test drive the 2009 Dodge Ram. Just what Chrysler needs a brand shiny new pickup, when last year’s model was 50% off MSRP for the last half of the year. At least this new model has some nifties like a coil over rear suspension.

This episode’s all about our trip to the drag races, GM and Chrysler loosing their big suv’s, and the birth of the V6 muscle car.

Our weekly podcast seems to be turning in to a bi weekly ordeal. But this time we have a really good excuse. We spent last Friday at the drag races down in Enis Texas! It totally rocked. They had the guys from Flo-Master and Garret Turbos there in the pits and a crap ton of bad ass dragsters. If you’ve never been to a drag race, you’re missing out. TV just doesn’t convey the roar of a thousand plus horspower screaming down the quarter mile in under 4 seconds! You feel it in your chest when they launch. Don’t forget to check out the image gallery on the read more link!

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We didn’t get around to recording a podcast last week becuase Nick would not leave the fair. He was too busy trying to complete his list of fried food he had to eat while we were there. However since we’ve been off the interweb for two weeks, you guys get a a full hour long show this week! Can’t rember exactly what we talked about in the episode, but I’m pretty sure alot of it had to do with my new found hatred of Kia, and I think the news consisted of GM’s giving away 50 shares stock with each car purchase, some leaked Prius photos, and AMG’s hybrid stuff. And of course Nick had to mention the Dodge Challenger the requisite minimum of 20 times. Then we get into the best cars at the show and how we meet a really cool guy named Scott that took this pic of us!

So I saw this car a few weeks back on the Discovery Channel, and I have to say, It’s freaking cool. The Splinter is an all wooden super car being produced by Joe Harden Designs (aka a bunch of college grad students). If you haven’t check out their site, you can see some pretty sweet videos of their working process over at www.joehardendesigns.com. If that’s not enough to get you over to their site they have a hot chick too!

I’ve been falling down on my job. It’s been two weeks since i’ve uploaded a podcast. We’ve been recording them, but i’ll be damned if I rembered to put them up. Any way this Episode’s all about our favorite electric cars, and my favorite breafast dognuts. As for the cars it’s the Chevy Volt, Fisker Karma, the Tesla Roadster, and the Lightening GT, and as for the dognuts, I think it was blueberry, glazed, and something creamy.

Yup thats right guys, we finally get to drive the Dodge Challenger SRT8, and by we I mean Nick, after hearing how much I’d have to pay to replace the damn thing should I have recked it, I opted to not even ask. But guarenteed, I’m  the newest Challenger convert as this car is BAD ASS! So check out our review on the 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8. And I have to give mad props to the guys out at Manuell Dodge for letting us test drive the Challenger SRT8 and many thanks to Joey Scott for buying us lunch and contributing to my fatness!

So you may have noticed that we didn’t realease a podcast last Friday and with good reason. Nick’s wife Julie gave birth to their first child, Baily. So hang loose and we’ll see you guys next week with another episode of Burnout Radio.

This week we take an extended test drive in the 200 horse power Acura TSX, Nick exposes his homosexual tendancies. And I realize that I will never get to own that pony I always wanted. We also take a look at some of the various American automotive manufactures that seem to be failing miserably this year and need $50 billion to bail them out.

Well we finally got our XLR mic’s in today and then we realized that we didn’t think to order XLR cables or mic stands or any of that. So a cool C-Note later we got everthing hooked up and now we get to record in high fidelity! So our suckiness is being beamed crystal clear throughout the interweb now!

Ok so this week we talk about a bunch of random newbits from the automotive world. Nothing to intresting as we didn’t spend a whole lot of time preparing for the podcast as we were running all over town trying to get the bits and peices we need to make the mixer and microphones work.

We’re killing off Muscles month a tad early. We’re bored with it and well we suck at old muscle cars. We love ‘em, but we just don’t know enough obscure facts to make good podcasts about them. So this week you get to listen to Nick moon over the Dodge Challenger and Charger, while I get to take a piss break. We also have some really good News Bits in the episode, so you don’t want to miss this one.

One last note, this will be the last podcast on the crappy desktop mics becuase our new XLR mics should be in before the next podcast so we’ll be using the new mixer board for the next episode. SWEET!

So this week we tackle a two of the biggest questions ever! And we introduce a new segement COOL CAR OF THE WEEK! Every wee Nick and I will be photographing the coolest cars we see, then we’ll decided which one of us has found the coolest car for that week, and then we’ll post the pic’s on our website www.performanceradionetwork.com. This week I won it with a Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera. After I finish gloating over my victory, we try to answer the two biggest questions ever on Burn Out Radio. One what nut is bigger than a walnut? And second and not quite so important, what’s the best Muscle Car Chevy’s ever produced?

Wow this one’s late! But it cool becuase I’ve got a load of excuses. First the spakin’ new site! Our RSS feed is still broken so we couldn’t post the new episodes until now. Then the first recording of Episode 10 turned out like crap, it was full of static, random glitches, and clicks and pops. On top of that Nick’s recitation of every engine Chevy’s ever produced was thrilling enough to put me to sleep, litterally, I actually fell asleep during the podcast.

 So…. we opted to scrap 10a and have another try at it with Episode 10b. I love me some Pontiac so instead of listen to Nicks boring rendition of 3 digit numbers from Chevy agian I decided 10b would be full of Pontiac goodness. But I failed to realize that while I do love me some Pontiac, we know absloutly nothing about their history are much more informed about their new models…

All apoligies for the static at the beginning of the podcast, I think Nick was chewing on his mic, it only lasts about 30 seconds so you can fast foward through it. Anway you’ll learn all you ever wanted to know about classic Ford Muscle cars, everything from the Mustang and the Torino to the Galaxy and the Thunderbolt.

This week we’re kicking off a 5 week tribute to the American Muscle Car. So for the next 5 weeks, it’s all about the straight line go fast goodies. These cars may cower in fear at a twisty bit of road, but they’ll eat a 1/4 mile of asphault for lunch and that’s why we love them. 

Note: We had some technical difficulties with our podcast software so we have a glitch ot two here and there.

So we were lazy this week, and didn’t bother to go test drive anything, I blame Nick. It’s always his fault. So instead you to listen to our wonderful opinions about things we’d like to drive and you’ll get to excersize that fast foward button on your mp3 players as we wonder randomly though auto land and talk about the new Lotus Elise SC, the Corvette, and other cars we wish wew could afford.

…forgot to hit the publish button agian.

We drive an American classic in the Ford Mustang GT, discuss some crazy German burning his BMW, and talk a little bit about the new 500+ horspower Cadillac CTS-V. Then we rip on Nicks favorite the over priced Dodge Challenger.

We’ll it’s time for Episode 5 and we’re in top form this week! We got a press kit in from Fisker, the makers of the Fisker Karma, which is the latest and greatest American hybrid! I have to say we love it. You can also see pictures of this beautiful car over here. Then we talk a little bit about the state of the dying V8 muscle car and where we think the future of performance is headed. We also geek out a little and talk about the Coates Sypherical Rotory Valve Engine, you can read more about it in my blog.

Ok change in plans from last week, we throw a curve ball and test drive some almost trucks like the Chevy Avalanche and Honda Ridgeline. Nick orders his Dodge Charger, and I admit my short commings and have a good cry on his shoulder… sorry not really maybe next week, but we do have some info on the NEW Chevy Malibu HYBRID!

We test drove the Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky, two American roadsters with enough get up and go to put a smile on your face and a stain in your seat. See what we think about them in this episode.

We’re still working out the bugs with the podcast so this one’s marginally better than the first.  We had to rerecord it 2 weeks after the test drive becuase of some technical issues. So we left alot of the review that was in the original recording becuase we forgot about it. Check out our written review under the articles section for something more indepth. You’ll also find our pictures from the Dallas Auto Show there as well.

Well here’s our first attempt at a podcast. I apologize in advance for our lack luster performance, but give us time and we’ll have a stellar performance every week. In the episode you get to meet us (Charlie and Nick) and learn a little bit about our lives and the cars we’ve owned. Then we get to the fun stuff… 3 concept cars that are already on the production line or will be very soon. First one out of the box is the Mitsubishi RA Concept, which should be the concept for the 5g Eclipse. Then we talk a llittle about the Dodge Challenger, which Nick is currently trying to put on order, after which we delve into the mysteries of hybrids with the Honda CR-Z.