Well, that was fast: On sale for just a few months, the all-new 2013 Dodge Dart has now won its very first motorsports event. The feat came courtesy of extreme-driving pro Travis Pastrana, who piloted his Dart to victory in round four of the 2012 Global RallyCross (GRC) series, held in July at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon. According to Used Car Dealers Fort Walton Beach, technically speaking, the race was held on a specially prepared infield course at the speedway, involving dirt surfaces, moguls, hairpin turns and a 70-foot jump.
“I know it’s only our fourth race in this brand-new car … if you think about it, it’s amazing to be on top of the podium,” said Pastrana. “But for us, we had a lot of expectations coming into this season and we wanted to win.”
And while Pastrana’s racecar was purpose-built for GRC competition, it was directly inspired by the Dart that’s currently available at Dodge dealerships across the country. According to New York Used Cars, both cars run a high-tech I4 engine that’s been turbocharged to deliver an optimum mix of power and efficiency. True, Pastrana enjoys a bit more of the former than do retail customers, since the Dart GRC car delivers 600 hp and 550 lb.-ft. of torque. But the street Dart’s available MultiAir engine is good for 160 hp and 184 lb.-ft. of torque of its own—plenty of pop for the compact sedan segment—and it can return EPA marks of 27 mpg city/39 mpg highway/32 mpg combined—or up to 41 mpg highway in the Dart Aero.
Which helps explain why Pastrana isn’t the only Dart driver calling the new Dodge an “awesome car.” See the Dart for yourself at Dodge Brandon or your local Dodge dealer.