Want to learn to drag race the Dodge Demon? School is now in session

By Stephen Edelstein January 12, 2018

Bondurant Drag Race Program| Challenger SRT® Demon | Dodge

The Dodge Challenger SRT Demon was built for the drag strip, but that’s not a place many car buyers are comfortable with. Having 840 horsepower on tap can be intimidating enough, let alone learning the procedures for properly staging and launching a car at the strip. But Dodge has thought of that.

Recommended Videos

Dodge Demon owners can now get professional training through a new drag-race course at the Bob Bondurant School of High-Performance Driving. It’s an extension of a previous partnership between Dodge parent Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Bondurant that already offers classes for owners of various other FCA performance cars. But perhaps best of all, people who don’t own Demons can sign up for the drag-racing course as well.

The course is free for Demon owners, anyone can pay their way in for $1,999. Owners of non-Demon Dodge performance models, who get a free day of road-course instruction, can add the drag-racing class for $999. It includes a full day of instruction at the NHRA drag strip at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park in Chandler, Arizona, with about two hours of classroom instruction and 22 drag-strip passes. In addition to the Demon, students get seat time in the Challenger SRT Hellcat, Hellcat Widebody, and SRT 392.

“With great power comes great responsibility, so we want our enthusiasts to respect the full capability of their machines,” FCA passenger-car boss Tim Kuniskis said regarding the rationale for the Bondurant classes, adding, “Where else can you drive a Demon without having to buy one?”

Classes like this can help owners get the most out of their performance cars, or least help keep them from crashing. A person may have the money and the desire to buy a fast car, but they may not have the skills to simply hop in and turn quick lap times. Dodge and other automakers have caught on to his, and driving classes aimed at owners have become more common over the past few years.

Preregistration for the Dodge/Bondurant drag-racing school is now open, with the first class scheduled for March 9. Dodge owners can register through a special concierge line at 800-998-1110 that requires a vehicle identification number. All other can register through the Bondurant website.

Topics

Stephen Edelstein

Contributing Editor

Stephen is a freelance automotive journalist covering all things cars. He likes anything with four wheels, from classic cars…

Cars

Tesla posts exaggerate self-driving capacity, safety regulators say

Beta of Tesla's FSD in a car.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is concerned that Tesla’s use of social media and its website makes false promises about the automaker’s full-self driving (FSD) software.
The warning dates back from May, but was made public in an email to Tesla released on November 8.
The NHTSA opened an investigation in October into 2.4 million Tesla vehicles equipped with the FSD software, following three reported collisions and a fatal crash. The investigation centers on FSD’s ability to perform in “relatively common” reduced visibility conditions, such as sun glare, fog, and airborne dust.
In these instances, it appears that “the driver may not be aware that he or she is responsible” to make appropriate operational selections, or “fully understand” the nuances of the system, NHTSA said.
Meanwhile, “Tesla’s X (Twitter) account has reposted or endorsed postings that exhibit disengaged driver behavior,” Gregory Magno, the NHTSA’s vehicle defects chief investigator, wrote to Tesla in an email.
The postings, which included reposted YouTube videos, may encourage viewers to see FSD-supervised as a “Robotaxi” instead of a partially automated, driver-assist system that requires “persistent attention and intermittent intervention by the driver,” Magno said.
In one of a number of Tesla posts on X, the social media platform owned by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a driver was seen using FSD to reach a hospital while undergoing a heart attack. In another post, a driver said he had used FSD for a 50-minute ride home. Meanwhile, third-party comments on the posts promoted the advantages of using FSD while under the influence of alcohol or when tired, NHTSA said.
Tesla’s official website also promotes conflicting messaging on the capabilities of the FSD software, the regulator said.
NHTSA has requested that Tesla revisit its communications to ensure its messaging remains consistent with FSD’s approved instructions, namely that the software provides only a driver assist/support system requiring drivers to remain vigilant and maintain constant readiness to intervene in driving.
Tesla last month unveiled the Cybercab, an autonomous-driving EV with no steering wheel or pedals. The vehicle has been promoted as a robotaxi, a self-driving vehicle operated as part of a ride-paying service, such as the one already offered by Alphabet-owned Waymo.
But Tesla’s self-driving technology has remained under the scrutiny of regulators. FSD relies on multiple onboard cameras to feed machine-learning models that, in turn, help the car make decisions based on what it sees.
Meanwhile, Waymo’s technology relies on premapped roads, sensors, cameras, radar, and lidar (a laser-light radar), which might be very costly, but has met the approval of safety regulators.

Cars

Scout Traveler SUV vs. Rivian R1S: modern electric SUVs compared

Scout Motors Traveler SUV in a forest

Scout Motors has made a big comeback, now under the guidance of Volkswagen Group. Not only is the Scout brand being reinvigorated but it has already announced two new models in the form of the Scout Terra truck and the Scout Traveler SUV. The Scout Traveler SUV in particular is an interesting vehicle, but it has an uphill battle ahead of it thanks to competition from the likes of Rivian.

The Rivian R1S is often considered to be the best electric SUV out there right now, and while it's not cheap, it offers an excellent set of tech features, a long range, and more. So how does the Scout Traveler SUV compare with the R1S? We put the two vehicles head to head to find out.
Design
The exterior designs of the Scout Traveler and the Rivian R1S are similar in many ways, though there are some major differences. Both vehicles offer a relatively blocky shape characteristic of a traditional SUV. The Traveler is a little more traditional than the Rivian in that it has a spare tire on the back, which is both practical and gives it a rugged vibe.

Cars

Waymo, Nexar present AI-based study to protect ‘vulnerable’ road users

waymo data vulnerable road users ml still 1 ea18c3

Robotaxi operator Waymo says its partnership with Nexar, a machine-learning tech firm dedicated to improving road safety, has yielded the largest dataset of its kind in the U.S., which will help inform the driving of its own automated vehicles.

As part of its latest research with Nexar, Waymo has reconstructed hundreds of crashes involving what it calls ‘vulnerable road users’ (VRUs), such as pedestrians walking through crosswalks, biyclists in city streets, or high-speed motorcycle riders on highways.