Imagine sitting at home on the worst weather day you can think of. You were supposed to join a few friends and head to the canyons, track, off-road park or your favorite spot to enjoy your Dodge of choice. But Mother Nature had other plans. Relax. There is another way to get behind the wheel and enjoy the drive without leaving your house. Bonus! There are metric tons of choices and you may already have some or all of what you need to jump in your favorite Dodge while sitting on your couch! The fun starts with a Playstation 4 or 5 and a copy of Gran Turismo 7. It doesn’t matter whether you bought one of those systems for your kids, grandkids or yourself. I’m 53. I have… all of the above. Yes, I know I’m 53 going on 24-ish.
Suppose you’re looking for the easiest way to enjoy a handful of laps in your Dodge of choice around Laguna Seca, Le Mans, Road Atlanta or dozens of other tracks, roads and off-road events from around the world while never leaving the recliner. In that case, Gran Turismo 7 is a solid place to start. All you need to jump in is a Playstation 4 or 5 and the stock Playstation controller. Gran Turismo 7 is visually stunning, vehicles handle quite realistically compared to their real-world counterparts and there are plenty of real-world/fantasy race tracks to keep you engaged for months/years on end.
Have I piqued your interest? Great! Let’s explore the Dodge vehicles in Gran Turismo 7 a bit more.
Officially Licensed Dodge Vehicles in Gran Turismo 7:
There’s a certain charm to the old school, isn’t there? It’s like stepping back in time, feeling the raw power of classic Dodge Muscle! Whether you’re hugging those corners or unleashing them in a straight line, these hot rods will surely bring a HUGE smile to your face! The classic lineup includes the 1968 Charger R/T 426, the 1970 Challenger R/T and the 1970 Super Bee. Whether using a hand controller or a high-end simulator with a steering wheel and pedal set, you can feel the nostalgia. If customization is your thing, you will NEVER get bored here! Custom paint jobs, including a wide array of factory Dodge paint colors, are just the tip of the iceberg. A community of millions creating stunning designs on your favorite machines will keep you busy for a long time. Jump in and start creating/sharing your designs, which becomes an entirely new game inside the game. There is something here for everyone.
Moving into the modern era, there are a handful of Chargers, Challengers and Vipers to choose from.
This one doesn’t need an introduction, but… I like typing out unhinged performance figures. So… here goes! 6.2 liters of HEMI® engine goodness with 2.7 liters of blower on top. 840 horsepower. 770 lb.-ft. of torque. Bolt-on the drag radials/skinnies and warp space/time with 0-60 runs in the 2.3-second range. Don’t forget that official quarter-mile time at an astonishing 9.65 seconds! Did someone say “Wheelies”? Yes… Yes, they did. The 2018 Dodge SRT® Demon is truly remarkable in the real world, or anywhere you care to put your foot to the floor in GT7. You may ask yourself, “How does the GT7 version of the Demon stack up to the real-world car?” The answer? Quite well. Insert your right foot and experience tire-melting fun and all the smoke that comes with it! This car is easy to drive at 6 or 7 tenths. But, when you ask for 8-10 tenths, it gets a bit… SPICEY! Drifts, burnouts and donuts are on tap whenever and wherever you decide the tires need to weigh a bit less. Check out the attached video; you’ll see me sliding pretty much all the way through turn 6 at Daytona. Moments like that make me giggle like a 5-year-old, and I cannot get enough of them!
This next car is an absolute legend. It’s where the 6.2L HEMI engine was introduced to the world. And the world had no choice but to be impressed. 707 HP and the ZF8 Speed allowed the SRT Hellcat Charger to click off sub-4-second 0-60 runs at will and roll through the finish line at the end of the quarter-mile in 11.8 seconds at over 120 MPH. Grab your SRT Hellcat and give it a fresh coat of paint in whichever factory color floats your boat. I gravitate toward B5, but F8, Sublime and Plum Crazy are sitting in my garage and ready to go whenever I need a fresh look. The 2015 Charger SRT Hellcat is ready and willing to cruise with your friends or lay waste to the Nurburgring. And that is the beauty of driving/racing games. Not many of us have the chance to experience our favorite Dodge on tracks and roads outside of our home country. Suppose you could teleport yourself and this SRT Hellcat Charger from Daytona to Le Mans to Suzuka over two or three hours. Would you sign up for that experience? I would bet most of us would.
Welcome to the wonderful world of V10 power! You are in luck if you love the sound a Dodge V10 makes at wide-open throttle. The sound team at Polyphony Digital must have taken a bit longer to dial in the Viper engine noises because they nailed the BIG V10’s trumpeting thunder. When you fire any of these snakes up and roll out of pit lane until you run out of fuel, these cars will pull you in and put a slightly evil grin on your face. I used the 2013 Viper GTS to illustrate another reason driving simulation and games are so much fun. Have you ever wondered how much fun taking a Viper off-road would be? In GT7, it is as easy as heading over to the tuning shop, grabbing a set of off-road tires and heading out to Full SendVille. As you can see, the Viper slides and flies quite well. It also looks incredible doing it!
Available Vipers: 2002 Dodge Viper GTS, 2006 Dodge Viper SRT-10, 2013 Dodge Viper GTS, 2013 Dodge Viper GT4, 2015 Viper SRT GT3-R
Do you enjoy really exciting prototypes? Well, jump into any Vision Gran Turismo SRT Tomahawk and prepare your brain to melt. All Tomahawks are powered by a 7-liter V10. The S starts the party with 1,000 HP, while the X steps up to a combined 2,500 HP when deploying the pneumatic wheel drive system for the front wheels. Have you ever wondered what traveling 400 mph feels like? Grab the X. Head to the Nurburgring and let all those horses out of the barn. Add VR to the mix, and you will get a sense of speed, actually being in the car you truly have to experience and believe. The Tomahawk is not for the faint of heart! If outright speed, slot car-level handling and brutally quick lap times are what you’re looking for… this is the digital Dodge for you! Handing the engineers at SRT a blank sheet of paper and telling them to have at it is a surefire way to bring something unique to life.
If you already have GT7, you know. If you don’t have it, it is well worth picking up. You can find me on Playstation at JediSRT. Shoot me a friend request, and let’s hit the track!
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