New management revives SRT performance division that developed Hellcat V8 engine
Antonio Filosa, who took charge of the French-Italian-American automotive conglomerate in late June, has been slowly announcing his executive and senior management team.
He has promoted Tim Kuniskis, currently head of Ram, to oversee all of its North American brands, which also include Dodge, Jeep and Chrysler. 2016 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Credit: CarExpert
Mr Kuniskis will also head up the revived Street and Racing Technology (SRT) division that was shuttered in 2021 not long after Fiat Chrysler merged with the PSA Group — parent of Peugeot, Citroen, DS, Opel and Vauxhall — to form Stellantis.
SRT will once again be put in charge of engineering performance models for all four North American marques. It will also take over Stellantis North America's racing operations, which include drag racing and, starting next year, the NASCAR Truck Series.
In its past life SRT made vehicles like the Dodge Neon SRT-4, as well as the V10-powered Dodge Viper. Its most recent efforts were concentrated around the 6.2-litre supercharged Hellcat V8 engine, which was installed in the Dodge Charger sedan and Challenger coupe, Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk, and Ram 1500 TRX.
The division also worked its magic on less fire-breathing V8 models, including those used in the Chrysler 300. Supplied Credit: CarExpert
Although the SRT division was disbanded in 2021, the company continued to develop the Hellcat engine up until the demise of the third-generation Dodge Challenger and seventh-generation Dodge Charger. The Hellcat soldiers on to this day under the bonnet of the Dodge Durango Hellcat.
No plans for SRT have been announced so far, but it's widely hoped it will try to find a way to insert V8 Hellcat engine into the new Charger coupe and sedan, which are currently only available with electric drivetrains and turbocharged 3.0-litre straight-six Hurricane petrol engine.
Hopes have been raised since Mr Kuniskis returned to run Ram in late 2024. In June he announced the 5.7-litre Hemi V8 would return the 1500 ute range after year-or-so away.
'Everyone makes mistakes, but how you handle them defines you. Ram screwed up when we dropped the Hemi — we own it and we fixed it,' he said at announcement.
This week announcement of SRT's revival and the elevation of Mr Kuniskis to oversee Dodge, Ram, Jeep and Chrysler is a real back-to-the-future moment. Mr Kuniskis held a similar role in 2014 when these brands were part of Fiat Chrysler, and is widely credited with championing the Hellcat V8 project.
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The Age
4 hours ago
- The Age
‘Going to be a reckoning': The ticking time bomb in Trump's big beautiful bill
New York: Celebrated historian Sir Niall Ferguson calls it 'Ferguson's Law' – a rule of thumb under which 'any great power that spends more on debt servicing than on defence risks ceasing to be a great power'. In a February paper for the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, where he is a senior fellow, Ferguson explained that in 2024, for the first time in nearly a century, the United States spent a bigger share of gross domestic product paying interest on its debt (3.1 per cent) than it did on defence (3 per cent). And on present assumptions, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects net interest payments will account for nearly double the defence budget by 2050. 'This unpleasant fiscal arithmetic poses a clear and present danger not merely to the US economy, but also to the position of the United States as the world's dominant military power,' Ferguson says. 'It must be a matter of urgent concern for American policymakers to restore an appropriate relationship between spending on debt service and spending on national security.' Enter Donald Trump and his One Big Beautiful Bill. A grab bag of Trump's policy priorities, the bill bounced its way through Congress this week to arrive at the president's desk for signing on Friday, Independence Day (Saturday AEST), in a highly symbolic display of his sway over the Republican Party and indeed the country. Loading It caps an extraordinary two weeks in which Trump bombed Iran, dominated a NATO summit, shepherded a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, won a significant and highly consequential victory in the US Supreme Court, opened a detention centre nicknamed 'Alligator Alcatraz' and, now, will ink his signature piece of legislation. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB), which is its official title, has at its centre the permanent extension of Trump's 2017 tax cuts for individuals and businesses, which were due to expire at the end of this year. According to the nonpartisan CBO, those tax cuts contribute the lion's share to a total increase in the budget deficit of $US3.25 trillion ($4.95 trillion) over the next 10 years – $US3.94 trillion including interest. The libertarian Cato Institute think tank, which advocates limited government, said that under what it called 'realistic assumptions' about economic growth, extensions of tax giveaways or delays to spending reform, the bill could actually add more than $US6 trillion to the national debt. Big, beautiful, bonkers? 'The debt burdens in this bill are unwelcome and dangerous,' says Judge Block, a senior fellow at the New York-based Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank. 'It's one of the more expensive pieces of legislation in modern memory.' The Trump administration, and many Republicans, see it differently. In their view, the bill actually reduces debt as it contains savings measures while mostly rolling over existing tax policy. Otherwise, Americans would be hit with an enormous tax increase. The CBO, on the other hand, bases its calculations off existing law, under which taxes revert to their pre-2017 levels. Block said Republicans could largely justify the 2017 Trump tax cuts because they were paired with significant simplifications of the tax code. That is not the case this time, he said, though there were positive aspects to the OBBB, such as immediate tax write-offs for research and development. 'To a large extent, most of the debt here is coming from giveaways such as the overtime credit, the tax on tips deduction,' he said. 'Those can't really be justified as tax simplification or a means toward economic growth, which makes their deficit-increasing aspect all the more worrying.' Introducing tax deductions for tips and overtime was a major Trump election promise, one he advertised with much fanfare in cities such as Las Vegas. There's a major catch, though: the policy expires at the end of 2028, when Trump leaves office. As Block points out, there are fairly substantial spending cuts in the bill, which Republicans have not always dared reach for in the past. The biggest is a record $US1 trillion cut to Medicaid, which provides health coverage for low-income adults and families. The CBO estimates this will lead to 11.8 million more people living without health insurance by 2034. The White House maintains there are no 'cuts' to Medicaid in the OBBB. Rather, it says the savings come from removing illegal aliens from the program, enforcing work requirements and protecting Medicaid 'for the truly vulnerable'. Medicaid was a focus of a record-breaking speech by the Democrats' leader in the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, who began before dawn on Thursday local time and spoke for nearly nine hours. Languishing without the numbers in either chamber of Congress, and with Trump stamping his authority on every aspect of American life, the listless Democratic Party was hoping to send a signal to angry voters, even if it was only able to delay the inevitable, with the OBBB passing quickly after Jeffries finally sat down. '[Seventeen] million people just lost healthcare,' posted the Democratic governor of California, Gavin Newsom, within minutes of the bill's passage. '[Eighteen] million kids just lost school meals. Three million Americans just lost food assistance. And $US3.5 trillion was added to the deficit. All for a tax cut for Trump's billionaire donors.' Newsom called it 'the ultimate betrayal'. In New York, young hedge fund manager Spencer Hakimian was also aghast. The 26-year-old, who has built an online following of 150,000 criticising Trump over tariffs, said history had shown debt accumulation is the ruin of empires. 'You can't keep adding debt with no limit. Both parties are wrong about this, it's a complete fallacy,' he said. And it was facetious for the administration to argue that the tax cuts didn't really contribute to debt, Hakimian said. The bill lifts the debt ceiling by another $US5 trillion. 'Why would they be raising the debt limit if they weren't adding to the debt?' The feeling on Wall Street is mixed, Hakimian says, but most people are agnostic. Markets are already at all-time highs, with the US economy defying expectations, unemployment staying low and Trump's tariff threats largely petering out. That matches the assessment of The Economist 's British editor-in-chief Zanny Minton Beddoes, who said the mood among New York financiers at the Aspen Ideas Festival was insouciant, and ambivalent about the debt. 'Call me a European grinch, but I felt I had arrived on planet Pangloss,' she told subscribers in a note after the 'big, beautiful, bonkers' bill passed. 'I worry that Trumponomics 2.0 is eroding the foundations of America's economy in more fundamental ways than many people are willing to admit.' Ticking time bomb Steven Hamilton, an Australian assistant professor of economics at George Washington University, says the debate over how to measure the One Big Beautiful Bill's impact on debt is moot. The point, he says, is that it presumes current policy can go on forever, and 'letting current policy go on forever is nuts'. 'Within 10 years, US debt to GDP will be approaching 130 per cent, which is well above any time in US history, well above World War II and beyond the level anyone really thinks is sustainable,' Hamilton says. 'That's with the debt we have, and what we're planning to do is increase debt by another 25 per cent over the next 10 years. What we actually needed from the bill is a serious fiscal consolidation effort.' Likewise, Block says the bill's savings measures effectively concede Congress is not going to approve any such consolidation, and will simply leave the 'dire' state of US debt in place. Loading Many analysts believe a sovereign debt crisis is a matter of when, not if. About a month ago, JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon said a crack in the bond market was 'going to happen'. Hamilton believes it is coming sooner rather than later. 'At some point in the next 10 years, there is going to be a reckoning where the music stops and the markets say, 'well, we're not going to fund this any more',' he says. 'You cannot keep going along this pathway.' A devaluing of US debt would have dire consequences for the global financial market and for Australia that would eclipse, by far, the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. Even if such a collapse doesn't happen on its own, says Hamilton, the US debt burden leaves it in a precarious position to deal with a crisis, such as a future pandemic, war with China, or some sort of crisis arising from the advent of artificial intelligence technology. 'There are all sorts of things we don't know,' he says. 'We're exposing ourselves to enormous risk.' Much of that risk depends on what happens to interest rates in coming years. Low rates between the GFC and the COVID-19 pandemic made US debt more affordable. That era is now over. Loading Trump has been badgering Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell for months to lower interest rates, saying it is costing the US government hundreds of billions of dollars a year in interest payments on its debt. But it is the long-term trajectory that matters, and Block says the consequences could be disastrous. 'If those interest rates continue to go up, that could be by far the most drastic threat to the American economy and America writ large,' he says. More than the threat posed by Russia or China? 'I don't think that's an exaggeration.'
Perth Now
7 hours ago
- Perth Now
'Garlic was just in our engineering room all the time...' Lewis Hamilton reveals the one thing he doesn't miss since Ferrari Formula One switch
Sir Lewis Hamilton experienced a massive culture shock when he moved to Formula One team Ferrari - although he is happy he no longer has to endure the smell of curry on race days. The seven-time Formula One world champion got used to working with a largely British garage when driving for McLaren and Mercedes before making the switch to Ferrari in 2025, for which he now spends most of his time in Maranello, Italy. Lewis, 40, admits the culture is totally different with his Italian team making time for a lengthy lunch each day, but one thing he doesn't miss is the strong smell of spices and garlic on a Sunday morning, which was what would enter his nostrils because his British technical team and mechanics would always go for a curry on a Saturday night before race day. Ahead of the British Grand Prix this Sunday (06.07.25), Lewis made an appearance in London week to mark the grand opening of The House of Peroni Nastro Azzurro 0.0 and spilled about how his life has changed since becoming a Scuderia Ferrari HP driver to Nick Grimshaw. He said: "The Brits loved curry, my British team they would always have a curry so like on Sunday morning when they'd come into the race they'd literally stink, they all smelled of curry in the morning, garlic was just in our engineering room all the time. "They weren't passionate about food otherwise. Italians? Oh my God. There's literally a scheduled time in the day, lunch they can never, ever miss. "Sometimes I go into the garage to talk to my mechanics, I'm like, where is everyone? They're at lunch. "I think they're the only team that does that!" Lewis has won the British Grand Prix nine times and been on the race's podium 11 times throughout his illustrious career. And despite having zero podium places so far out of the 11 races this season, Lewis is hoping for a "strong result" at his beloved Silverstone track. Speaking at a media day on Thursday (03.07.25), he optimistically said: "There is always magic here at Silverstone. "It is a very, very special race, and I am hoping all sorts of things can help us. I am hoping and praying. 'I cannot wait for Friday. Driving a Ferrari at Silverstone for the first time will be special and unique in its own way. We have the best fans here, and for a British driver, they really do make a difference." Following Lewis launching The House of Peroni Nastro Azzurro 0.0, the attraction is open until July 5 and features a full schedule of immersive fan experiences with highlights including a pizza masterclass with 50 Top Pizza Europa no.1 Pizza Chef Michele Pascarella, and a cocktail-making workshop hosted by award-winning mixologist Federico Riezzo. Here, guests can learn to create pizzas and drinks inspired by Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. The House of Peroni Nastro Azzurro 0.0 is located at The Stables, Covent Garden. Free tickets are available via sign-up at Club Peroni.
The Advertiser
9 hours ago
- The Advertiser
Full Throttle Ranch goes the whole hog and brisket on opening weekend
After five long years of COVID setbacks, development applications and construction delays, Mick Tyrrell's long-held dream of bringing his love of southern American barbecue cuisine, music and culture to the Hunter is "running wild." On Friday afternoon, the Hunter Valley businessman's Full Throttle Ranch opened its doors at the site of the old Buttai Barn. The new venue hosts up to 500 people but is expected to be fully booked on its opening weekend. "Tomorrow morning it'll probably hit home a little harder," Mr Tyrrell told the Newcastle Herald two hours before opening. "Right now, I suppose when you're busy, the pressure and the stress of it takes hold. It's exciting." The Lings Road property was home to the Buttai Barn for 38 years, hosting country dances, music, and other entertainment. In January 2020 Mr Tyrrell and his partner, Sara Berg, purchased the property as they looked to expand their business portfolio, which includes Beresfield businesses Full Throttle Custom Garage, a high-end muscle car mechanic, and Full Throttle BBQ & Cafe, known for its brisket pies. Since then, the old Buttai Barn site has been expanded and transformed into an American-style restaurant and entertainment venue. The menu is carnivore heaven. It features southern fried chicken, two-kilogram tomahawk steaks, Texan brisket and pulled pork, deep south gumbo, burgers, and Mr Tyrrell's personal favourite, chicken fried catfish. Much of it is prepared in the slow-cooked smoker dubbed "The Undertaker," which is capable of barbecuing 1.2 tonnes of meat at a time. Full Throttle Ranch is expected to dish up 3.5 tonnes of brisket a week. "Chicken fried catfish was non-negotiable," he said. "It's a dish that I love from down in Tennessee and it's very rural Tennessee and so delicious." Full Throttle Ranch also promises to provide another option for the Hunter music scene. Next Friday the venue kicks off its music program with a sold-out show from Melbourne rock band Kingswood. "For a first event and for a venue that hasn't even opened yet to sell out is pretty spectacular," Mr Tyrrell said. "It's huge for us because it sends a message to all of the artists around that we can sell out a gig." Newcastle's country music star Catherine Britt is the venue's manager and booking agent. Britt's husband, Brad Bergen, fronts the host band, the Full Throttle Outlaws. "We've built this place for a number of reasons," Mr Tyrrell said. "Obviously the interactions with people, having good food and music, but also we wanted to build something for artists where they can feel appreciated and have a venue that is really going to work hard for them." There is a development application with Cessnock Shire Council for Full Throttle Ranch to host outdoor concerts capped at 5000 people. Full Throttle Ranch is situated in rural Buttai, a 20-minute drive from Maitland and Cessnock and more than 30 minutes from Newcastle. Mr Tyrrell said ensuring his patrons got home safely was a priority. Return coach services are available twice a night from Cessnock, Maitland and Newcastle. "A big concern for us was people drink-driving because we're out of town," he said. "We've gone to great lengths to do everything we physically can to give everybody the option." After five long years of COVID setbacks, development applications and construction delays, Mick Tyrrell's long-held dream of bringing his love of southern American barbecue cuisine, music and culture to the Hunter is "running wild." On Friday afternoon, the Hunter Valley businessman's Full Throttle Ranch opened its doors at the site of the old Buttai Barn. The new venue hosts up to 500 people but is expected to be fully booked on its opening weekend. "Tomorrow morning it'll probably hit home a little harder," Mr Tyrrell told the Newcastle Herald two hours before opening. "Right now, I suppose when you're busy, the pressure and the stress of it takes hold. It's exciting." The Lings Road property was home to the Buttai Barn for 38 years, hosting country dances, music, and other entertainment. In January 2020 Mr Tyrrell and his partner, Sara Berg, purchased the property as they looked to expand their business portfolio, which includes Beresfield businesses Full Throttle Custom Garage, a high-end muscle car mechanic, and Full Throttle BBQ & Cafe, known for its brisket pies. Since then, the old Buttai Barn site has been expanded and transformed into an American-style restaurant and entertainment venue. The menu is carnivore heaven. It features southern fried chicken, two-kilogram tomahawk steaks, Texan brisket and pulled pork, deep south gumbo, burgers, and Mr Tyrrell's personal favourite, chicken fried catfish. Much of it is prepared in the slow-cooked smoker dubbed "The Undertaker," which is capable of barbecuing 1.2 tonnes of meat at a time. Full Throttle Ranch is expected to dish up 3.5 tonnes of brisket a week. "Chicken fried catfish was non-negotiable," he said. "It's a dish that I love from down in Tennessee and it's very rural Tennessee and so delicious." Full Throttle Ranch also promises to provide another option for the Hunter music scene. Next Friday the venue kicks off its music program with a sold-out show from Melbourne rock band Kingswood. "For a first event and for a venue that hasn't even opened yet to sell out is pretty spectacular," Mr Tyrrell said. "It's huge for us because it sends a message to all of the artists around that we can sell out a gig." Newcastle's country music star Catherine Britt is the venue's manager and booking agent. Britt's husband, Brad Bergen, fronts the host band, the Full Throttle Outlaws. "We've built this place for a number of reasons," Mr Tyrrell said. "Obviously the interactions with people, having good food and music, but also we wanted to build something for artists where they can feel appreciated and have a venue that is really going to work hard for them." There is a development application with Cessnock Shire Council for Full Throttle Ranch to host outdoor concerts capped at 5000 people. Full Throttle Ranch is situated in rural Buttai, a 20-minute drive from Maitland and Cessnock and more than 30 minutes from Newcastle. Mr Tyrrell said ensuring his patrons got home safely was a priority. Return coach services are available twice a night from Cessnock, Maitland and Newcastle. "A big concern for us was people drink-driving because we're out of town," he said. "We've gone to great lengths to do everything we physically can to give everybody the option." After five long years of COVID setbacks, development applications and construction delays, Mick Tyrrell's long-held dream of bringing his love of southern American barbecue cuisine, music and culture to the Hunter is "running wild." On Friday afternoon, the Hunter Valley businessman's Full Throttle Ranch opened its doors at the site of the old Buttai Barn. The new venue hosts up to 500 people but is expected to be fully booked on its opening weekend. "Tomorrow morning it'll probably hit home a little harder," Mr Tyrrell told the Newcastle Herald two hours before opening. "Right now, I suppose when you're busy, the pressure and the stress of it takes hold. It's exciting." The Lings Road property was home to the Buttai Barn for 38 years, hosting country dances, music, and other entertainment. In January 2020 Mr Tyrrell and his partner, Sara Berg, purchased the property as they looked to expand their business portfolio, which includes Beresfield businesses Full Throttle Custom Garage, a high-end muscle car mechanic, and Full Throttle BBQ & Cafe, known for its brisket pies. Since then, the old Buttai Barn site has been expanded and transformed into an American-style restaurant and entertainment venue. The menu is carnivore heaven. It features southern fried chicken, two-kilogram tomahawk steaks, Texan brisket and pulled pork, deep south gumbo, burgers, and Mr Tyrrell's personal favourite, chicken fried catfish. Much of it is prepared in the slow-cooked smoker dubbed "The Undertaker," which is capable of barbecuing 1.2 tonnes of meat at a time. Full Throttle Ranch is expected to dish up 3.5 tonnes of brisket a week. "Chicken fried catfish was non-negotiable," he said. "It's a dish that I love from down in Tennessee and it's very rural Tennessee and so delicious." Full Throttle Ranch also promises to provide another option for the Hunter music scene. Next Friday the venue kicks off its music program with a sold-out show from Melbourne rock band Kingswood. "For a first event and for a venue that hasn't even opened yet to sell out is pretty spectacular," Mr Tyrrell said. "It's huge for us because it sends a message to all of the artists around that we can sell out a gig." Newcastle's country music star Catherine Britt is the venue's manager and booking agent. Britt's husband, Brad Bergen, fronts the host band, the Full Throttle Outlaws. "We've built this place for a number of reasons," Mr Tyrrell said. "Obviously the interactions with people, having good food and music, but also we wanted to build something for artists where they can feel appreciated and have a venue that is really going to work hard for them." There is a development application with Cessnock Shire Council for Full Throttle Ranch to host outdoor concerts capped at 5000 people. Full Throttle Ranch is situated in rural Buttai, a 20-minute drive from Maitland and Cessnock and more than 30 minutes from Newcastle. Mr Tyrrell said ensuring his patrons got home safely was a priority. Return coach services are available twice a night from Cessnock, Maitland and Newcastle. "A big concern for us was people drink-driving because we're out of town," he said. "We've gone to great lengths to do everything we physically can to give everybody the option." After five long years of COVID setbacks, development applications and construction delays, Mick Tyrrell's long-held dream of bringing his love of southern American barbecue cuisine, music and culture to the Hunter is "running wild." On Friday afternoon, the Hunter Valley businessman's Full Throttle Ranch opened its doors at the site of the old Buttai Barn. The new venue hosts up to 500 people but is expected to be fully booked on its opening weekend. "Tomorrow morning it'll probably hit home a little harder," Mr Tyrrell told the Newcastle Herald two hours before opening. "Right now, I suppose when you're busy, the pressure and the stress of it takes hold. It's exciting." The Lings Road property was home to the Buttai Barn for 38 years, hosting country dances, music, and other entertainment. In January 2020 Mr Tyrrell and his partner, Sara Berg, purchased the property as they looked to expand their business portfolio, which includes Beresfield businesses Full Throttle Custom Garage, a high-end muscle car mechanic, and Full Throttle BBQ & Cafe, known for its brisket pies. Since then, the old Buttai Barn site has been expanded and transformed into an American-style restaurant and entertainment venue. The menu is carnivore heaven. It features southern fried chicken, two-kilogram tomahawk steaks, Texan brisket and pulled pork, deep south gumbo, burgers, and Mr Tyrrell's personal favourite, chicken fried catfish. Much of it is prepared in the slow-cooked smoker dubbed "The Undertaker," which is capable of barbecuing 1.2 tonnes of meat at a time. Full Throttle Ranch is expected to dish up 3.5 tonnes of brisket a week. "Chicken fried catfish was non-negotiable," he said. "It's a dish that I love from down in Tennessee and it's very rural Tennessee and so delicious." Full Throttle Ranch also promises to provide another option for the Hunter music scene. Next Friday the venue kicks off its music program with a sold-out show from Melbourne rock band Kingswood. "For a first event and for a venue that hasn't even opened yet to sell out is pretty spectacular," Mr Tyrrell said. "It's huge for us because it sends a message to all of the artists around that we can sell out a gig." Newcastle's country music star Catherine Britt is the venue's manager and booking agent. Britt's husband, Brad Bergen, fronts the host band, the Full Throttle Outlaws. "We've built this place for a number of reasons," Mr Tyrrell said. "Obviously the interactions with people, having good food and music, but also we wanted to build something for artists where they can feel appreciated and have a venue that is really going to work hard for them." There is a development application with Cessnock Shire Council for Full Throttle Ranch to host outdoor concerts capped at 5000 people. Full Throttle Ranch is situated in rural Buttai, a 20-minute drive from Maitland and Cessnock and more than 30 minutes from Newcastle. Mr Tyrrell said ensuring his patrons got home safely was a priority. Return coach services are available twice a night from Cessnock, Maitland and Newcastle. "A big concern for us was people drink-driving because we're out of town," he said. "We've gone to great lengths to do everything we physically can to give everybody the option."
