Is this true?? RMX http://www.challengerblog.com/blog/1021140_ceo-of-fiat-marchionne-says-hemi-v-8s-are-not-needed Fiat, the Italian car giant who employs some 200,000 workers and owns Ferrari and Maserati will soon take a 20% share of Chrysler when it comes out of bankruptcy court. With such a big share in Chrysler the CEO of Fiat Sergio Marchionne has already decided to throw his weight around saying he has plans to keep Chrysler's plants in southern Ontario running although changes might be on the horizon. On a recent tour of the Ontario plants Fiat officials said operations are run efficiently and the product they turn out is high quality leaving them no reason to shutter the plants. What may have many owners and enthusiasts up in arms are the comments Marchionne made about Chrysler's tried and true HEMI V-8 engine, "You just cannot afford to go around with 5.7-liter V-8's - you don't need them" Marchionne says. Comments like that send chills down the spine of HEMI fans as we really don't know what his full intentions are just yet. His plans for Chrysler may include adding new fuel-efficient, cleaner burning engines which are currently under development at Fiat to the mix while phasing out less fuel efficient engines like the 5.7-liter HEMI V-8's found in the Dodge Challenger and Chrysler 300. What does all this mean you may ask, well not much as we really don't know how much power and control Fiat will actually have after Chrysler comes out of bankruptcy.
Wow... no HEMIs.... Well, I guess it is what it is.... and a reflection of the world we live in today.... Mike in Kuwait
It's happened before. They can compensate with technology developing an engine that drops cylinders at cruise etc..........................It's not dead for ever. I'm sure they have plenty of crate engines to sell.
It's a prototype and called SRT10 Hmmmm no hemi's Will they fit the Challenger fir a 4 cyl Grande Punto engine :-s
Gasoline has a maximum deficiency capability that doesn't equate to this; particularly for such heavily gov. DOT regulated cars (Crash safety, ped. safety, cost of light weight materials etc.) sad
This figures bout right for me since I own a 300C..............Guess I'll have to go back to a Caddy!
Not really. From Wikipedia: "By the end of the 1970s, development of engines utilizing true hemispherical chambers had ceased around the world; it has been supplanted and dramatically improved upon by newer designs. Today, "hemi" is little more than a trademark that bears little meaning, descriptively, for the engines designated as such."
I am with you. Hemi's was a waste of time, putting them in a brick called a car. 425hp will get you nowhere when the car weighs almost 5000pounds.
Umm almost all DOHC engines are Hemis or "Pent u" designs..so to say all Hemi design has stopped since 1971 is pretty much as wrong as you can get. If you want to get real "nit-picky" the 1960s Chrysler Hemi was not a true hemi becasue the head had a few degree lean on it inward so the engine could fit the shock towers...Thus the combustion was not a true hemisphere thus not a "real" hemi...
Do you think he plans on replacing them with the "fuel efficient" 4.2 / 4.3 / or 4.7 "hemi" from the Ferrari - Maserati lineup?
A guy I used to work with had a 5.7L Hemi and I used to say I wanted to put a "real Hemi" in my car, referring to the older ones. It bugged the hell out of him. Chrysler should keep the Hemi chamber and v8 design but make the engine smaller like the Modena. Just go for more Hp per Liter!
Chrysler make passenger cars, nothing more nothing less. If you took over a struggling company and kept producing inefficient and expensive to make cars you would be completely stupid. There is NO need for a simple passenger car to have more than a cheap and reliable 4 cylinder engine, and that is what the Japanese produce and why they are out selling the American cars. The number of car enthusiasts versus people who just want to move from A to B is like 1:1000000 ... thus a passenger car company should make MORE cars for the 1000000. FIAT has Ferrari and Maserati already for that 1 other person. It's only logical ... Pete
Actually, brainwashing... er, marketing is what did it. People honestly believe a modern Toyota is better than a Chevy and they pay more money for it (even though Toyota is no more reliable). When I try to get an explanation behind this "logic" they ramble on about some American car they owned 20 years ago that sucked. Yeah...
Yep that is what does it. This is where after sales service comes in, if 20 years ago they had sorted it with a smile they would have got over that issue ... but we all know they didn't. When Ford/GM (and Holden)/Chrysler keep turning out 1980's designs with huge v8/v6 engines you have no alternative than to believe that Toyota and Honda make better cars. Atleast their cars are current and not still dreaming of the old days. Believe it or not I don't want to own a v8 engine, and I'm a car enthusiast. I don't even want to own a massive v6 ... I want a simple road car. I already have my enthusiast car ... and that will never ever be something new. Pete BTW: When the NZ post office or something (can't remember the full story) converted from English cars to Japanese cars they had to sack half their car maintenance staff. Both English and American cars in the late 60's and 70's were definitely in the how cheaply can we make our cars mode, where the Japanese instead went down the how clever can we make our production processes so the end result is a cheap to make car that is not "cheap or unreliable" ... that is why most people like Japanese cars. Yes the English and Americans changed, but it was too late. Attitude was marketed.
Lol. Yes, it's pretty embarrassing... But - Volkswagen somehow manages to produce passenger cars that aren't a total bore. Ditto Audi. Non-car enthusiasts will pay for something that has a pulse. There is a market segment for passenger cars that are somewhere between the "boring appliance" level and the F430 or Gallardo.
Yes it is called Brand snobbery (ie. this weird perception that states that if the car is made overseas it must be better), and an American car in America is hardly going to succeed here is it. Plus Chrysler have positioned themselves as run of the mill production car for decades, except for Viper, etc. BTW: My Mum used to be an Audi service receptionist ... the number of Audis waiting to be fixed on flat bed trucks every Monday morning was always a good talking point ... Pete
You know that's a standard feature on the 5.7 "Hemi", right? It's not just a spark/fuel cut either, they do this cool thing with oil pressure to close the valves too. I like my Hemi Ram.
You are validating the fact that people are living in the past. American cars now beat Japanese cars.
