{"id":18330,"date":"2018-08-04T08:00:04","date_gmt":"2018-08-04T12:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=18330"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:24:48","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:24:48","slug":"its-the-most-wonderful-time-of-the-year-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/showcase\/2018\/08\/its-the-most-wonderful-time-of-the-year-part-1.html","title":{"rendered":"It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year – Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the lead-up to Roadkill Nights and the Dream Cruise, the excitement building on Woodward Avenue, and in the surrounding metro Detroit, can hardly be contained. I think there were four Cars & Coffees this past Saturday? I\u2019m gonna do what I can to get to as many as I can over the next month; these meets have such a cool mix of rides and there\u2019s always a show of force from the Brotherhood of Muscle.<\/p>\n

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I was able to hit two this week: first up was the gathering featuring Dodge Challenger SRT\u00ae<\/sup> Demons and SRT Hellcats at High Octane Cafe and Bakery<\/a> in Bloomfield Township. After spending some quality time there, I jetted up to FCA HQ for a show hosted by their Young Professionals Network.<\/p>\n

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They had a food truck, live music and lots of coffee and doughnuts for the small group of mostly employees with some friends and family mixed in.<\/p>\n

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It was cool to meet Nicho Vardis, who headed up the exterior design of the SRT Demon, and to see his Tor-Red car. The plate on that car ROCKS!!! ADR (American Drag Racer) was the \u201cnot so top secret\u201d name of the project, which ended up being the SRT Demon. After the five SRT Demons at High Octane, that made six for the day and mine wasn\u2019t included! I opted for driving the good ol\u2019 Ram R\/T to the show. FCA designer Ren Stone helped me with the new look of the Ram, but hadn\u2019t seen it yet; I loved showing it to him after he pulled up next to it in his Charger SRT Hellcat.<\/p>\n

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Following that theme, to me there\u2019s something inspiring in a designer or an engineer having the opportunity to enjoy what they work on, and that was a neat thing about this employee-heavy show. Tome Jovanovski, who headed up the interior design of the 5th Gen Viper, had his unique grey-hued car lined up across from the band.<\/p>\n