I need to preface this by saying that I love and respect fine cars. Muscle cars, Ferraris, the Subaru WRX…etc. I respect a wide range and long history of automobiles. I am 36 years old, grew up loving big V-8’s and drive one myself. (Greenies: we commute in a Jetta). I can appreciate the Hemi’s place in history, and even the revival.
The Hemi ad campaing has gone from cute…to catchy…to disgusting…to way overdone. “Hey, that thing got a Hemi?”. Okay, that’s cute for a while. Catch phrases born from ads are fine. It was probably covered here already. But they keep taking the Hemi nonsense up a notch, and they are now at the completely ‘ridiculous notch’ level. It’s so bad, that I can’t even think of shopping for a Hemi, because people will think I am a weenie trying to compensate for certain ‘shortcomings’.
Today I heard an ad that encouraged you to buy a Hemi to intimidate. The word intimidate was used at least 30 times as it overlayed the entire commercial as background singers and the narrator used it repeatedly.
I love my current Dodge truck, and just started to consider a new one. Heck, I could treat myself and go for broke with the Hemi. It’s to the point of embarrassing now, so I can’t even enjoy the idea of buying one.
I guess I just want to toss out a big **Fuck You ** to the brand and image fuck- ups at Chrysler. You are getting some short term rewards from your fuckin’ Hemi ads, but your inability to put a lid on the stupidity will help ensure that you actually destroy the brand in the process. Then what will you dig up? Maybe a *Dukes of Hazzard * edition of the Dodge Neon?
I bought a Chevy Avalanche 2500 a year ago…however, I agree that dumbass Dodge ad has gone waaaay too far. I will admit I like the new hood design of the dodge…but I’m one of the ones who actually like the design of the Avalanche. You either love’em or you hate’em, thats what I always say. Oh and I do commute in the Lanche, but on weekends my we drive my wife’s 03’ benz…
p.s. she upgraded from a Jetta…I like the Jet better…
Yup. And I saw this coming with the first Hemi commercials ~a year ago.
They were neat but they should have cut them out already. They didn’t advertise (or even make?) the thing for 30 years and it’s still got a great reputation. Now they’re going to ruin it in a few months with bad marketing.
Hemi: It’s a pushrod V-8 (pushrods play second fiddle to overhead cams). At roughly 1hp per cubic inch, it rates very well. It’s not world class, but still a fine engine. It’s got the hemispherical combustion chamber and two plugs per cylinder to brag about.
Still, the marketing folks have beat a good thing to death.
Well to be honest I’m not much of a gearhead, but I read an article about the hemi, saying due to tighter emission standards and such, they aren’t the same muscle engines they were back in the day.
That’s just a bit overstated, don’t you think? The Corvette is a pushrod V-8 and the Viper is a pushrod V-10, and both are world-class bang for the buck performance cars.
There are advantages (and disadvantages) to both engines. Neither is any better than the other, but they do excel at different applications.
pushrods: let’s not debate pushrods here. It’s generally accepted that progress would be to move from pushrods to overhead cams.
Pushrods are in Vettes and Vipers who have engines with deep roots in old design.
The point of the comment was to make sure non-gearheads understood that in the world of engines, just having hemispherical combustion chamber doesn’t make you king of all engines.
If we’re talking about a truck here, it’s moot. I don’t care if you’ve got the Space Shuttle engine in there, it’s too fucking heavy to ever be fast. These wieners in their pickups, driving around like they think they’re fast, crack me up.
Commentary on the author of the article you wrote:
Well pardon me, but duh. Whoever wrote that article is an idiot. Anyone who knows anything about the mechanics of today and yesterday should know that. Dodge began installing smog-equipped big blocks in their musclecars in about 1971, went full force with air pumps and shit in 1972, and by about 1974, you could hardly find a big block available without getting a special build.
Most of the early-mid 70’s Dodges had the smallblock V8 318. Gone were the days of the 383/400 and 440, and LONG gone were the days of the factory-installed Hemi.
The Hemi is arguably the most powerful V8 ever factory produced in America. It’s place in history was enhanced by its position in the NHRA of yesteryear, and in the limitations of customization they have been put through since their advent in the late 50’s(?). It may have been a gas-guzzling bastion of inefficiency, but it still to this day strikes fear in the heart of a racer going head to head with a hemi-powered vehicle on the strip.