Dodge and Pirelli go hunting for bad guys… or at least a win
It's a typical American scene: a fleet of lumbering cop cars hunting down the bad guys with sirens howling and lights blazing. They normally get their man after a lengthy pursuit: sometimes embellished for the purposes of Hollywood. In real life though, it's Dodge that regularly comes up with the most powerful cop cars for those who serve and protect.
Recently, the American manufacturer produced another exclusive and unique variant of the car that's widely used by US police forces: the new Dodge Durango SRT Pursuit, which is actually an SUV.
While it looks exactly like a police car, complete with siren, the Durango SRT Pursuit is in fact just a concept, created by Dodge's engineers to take part in the One Lap of America challenge: a competition that crosses a significant chunk of the United States in a week and involves around 80 drivers taking on 18 timed tests on circuits and private roads; covering 3379 miles (more than 5000 kilometres) in total. The mission for this particular Dodge Durango SRT Pursuit is not to arrest people, but instead defend the Best Truck/SUV title that the standard Durango SRT won on the same odyssey last year.
This new one-off car relies on a monstrous supercharged V8, borrowed from the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye. The unit, shoehorned under the bonnet, puts out a cool 797 horsepower. No wonder the new car has been nicknamed ‘speed trap'. Among the other things that make the Dodge Durango SRT Pursuit unique is lowered suspension and 20-inch Pirelli P Zero tyres.
Tyres actually play an important part in the One Lap of America competition. The rules say that competitors can use only one set of tyres for the whole event, with just one change permitted in case of emergency. The cop cars may be constantly on the hunt for the bad guys, but for Pirelli, it's all about the next victory.
