Tagged: Dodge

Small or medium rare cars

Rarity on four (or even three) wheels isn’t always the result of a purposely-planned creation from a bespoke source. Sometimes it happens because a child can’t make “vroom vroom” noises with a toy.

That’s how the pink Hot Wheels “Beach Bomb” rear-loader of 1969 became so rare, that only 2 are known to exist. It was made in the image of a VW Kombi, with 2 surfboards poking out the back. And it was pink, which wasn’t seen as a popular colour.

credit: Volkswagen US

The Beach Bomb prototypes were found to be too top-heavy and prone to falling over while kids were letting them roll across the ground. Hot Wheels fixed this problem by going into production with a weighted model VW that carried the surfboards on its side.

The rear-loader prototypes were left with Hot Wheels employees – and one of the pink models ended up with a collector. It’s now valued at over $150,000.

I currently have a rare car in my driveway – but it’s bigger than a toy, planted well on the road and it’s black. Only 1,284 Smart ForFour Brabus were made in the Netherlands in the production years of 2005 and 2006. I believe only 50 of them made it to Australia. In 2006, they cost an eye-watering $39,990.

I only became aware of this sporty Smart through a friend’s enthusiasm for the model. This 2006 Smart ForFour Brabus manual turbo had 200,000 kilometres on the clock, plus a few minor hail dents on the very small area of the car that’s made of metal, not plastic.

It was a bit of a fixer-upper that also came with a damaged ForFour, so it wasn’t suitable for his garage. I felt it was worth buying, for the car’s rarity and its 177 horsepower.

Oh yes – it packs 130 kW. That’s because it’s based on the ’00s Mitsubishi Colt Ralliart, with some extra tuning by Brabus to get an extra 17 kW out of the 4G15T engine. It’ll hit 100km/h in around 6.9 seconds.

So I negotiated a price with the seller, had the wreck delivered on a trailer and awaited the delivery of the Brabus, with its plates taken off on arrival.

It has a passable exterior, but a nice interior. Leather seats have headrests embossed with the letter ‘B’. It’s equipped with air conditioning and an Alpine audio unit. The car has a clear plastic roof on the front half, and a glass roof on the back half. Interior blinds take the bite out of the sun.

After spending quite a bit of money on a new timing belt, gaskets and suspension, the Brabus was back on the road – albeit on ‘regular’ rims, with the damaged Brabus rims on the wreck.

It’s great to drive, with 2nd and 3rd gears building up a head of turbo steam in a jaw-dropping way. It’s only carrying 1,090kg so the power-to-weight ratio is 8.4kg per kW.

I will be looking to sell it in 2026, so watch this space if you’re a bizarre Brabus fan.

My motoring history has a few rare beasts. It started with a Spanish SEAT Ibiza ..then a Polish FSM Niki ..a Daihatsu Copen ..a Ford Ka ..a Hyundai Grandeur ..a Ford Taurus ..a Ford Laser Lynx ..a Suzuki X-90 ..a Dodge Avenger ..and my ’85 Subaru Vortex XT

Just like that Hot Wheels Beach Bomb, this scrappy sports car from Brabus gives me the vroom-vrooms – but no surfboards needed.

Dodge Avenger not on the level

What have the Romans ever done for us? Apart from the aqueduct, sanitation, etc etc, the Romans used water-filled tanks as an early type of spirit level. This method ruled until around 1661 when Frenchman Melchisédech Thévenot had a thought bubble and came up with what we know as the spirit level, featuring a bubble.

I’m thinking Dodge could have used either as a consultant on the dashboard decoration of my Avenger.

I bought the 2.4 litre 4-cylinder at auction, only inspecting it online, for a relatively small price. It had low kilometres for its age and seemingly only one owner. But I’ll level with you: it needed work.

Auction listing for the Dodge Avenger

After picking it up and seeing a “check engine” light, plus hearing a noisy alternator, I popped the bonnet (on the passenger side, because America) and discovered a rust spot in the passenger door frame.

Ready for rust repair

However once those issues were fixed, the Dodge was a decent drive.

With the ignition key barrel towards the middle of the dash, my eyes were often fixed on the very 2000s grey plastic expanse that fronted the cabin.

On the very left of the dash, around where an American driver would place their hand to use the indicator, there’s a double Dodge.

Double the Dodge

The previous owner had stuck a large Dodge badge below a slightly raised Dodge brand stamp, part of a panel to cover what is a small oddments bin in left-hand-drive Avengers.

Look at the double Dodge closely.

They’re not aligned!

See how the original Dodge has a slightly different font, but also sits slightly higher to the right, than the larger badge?

I’d like to imagine the alignment is on purpose: to counter the ever-so-slight curvature of the dash towards the middle audio stack. Had the extra badge not been added, lining up so nicely with the bottom of the panel, I might never have noticed the angle.

If you’re reading this in the US, I know what you’re wondering: is there the same alignment on the left-hand-drive Avenger dash? Well, after spending minutes looking for Chrysler corporate imagery, I may have an answer.

Source: Chrysler

Looks pretty well lined up, to me! And those drinks in the Chill Zone™ also look good lined up – just chillin’

Let’s get a virtual ruler with a spirit level on this. “Enhance”.

“Enhance”.

If anything, perhaps the “Dodge” is a millimetre lower on the left, whereas on my RHD car it’s higher towards the centre of the dashboard.

Did someone at Dodge have a bad day when they drew up the dashboard for RHD Avengers? Was an Avenger team assembled for the task? Did they knock off early?

It would be great to have someone with a LHD Avenger confirm whether it’s just RHD Avengers that are dodgy with the dash branding. Maybe someone in my Dodge’s birthplace of Michigan, Melchisédech’s Paris.. or even Rome?