With stiff competition coming from both Holden’s HSV sedans and the Ford Falcon FPV, Chrysler is looking to make the 300C SRT8 more competitive by offering a decontented version, that’s actually a bit quicker than the standard-spec car.

The SRT currently retails for $66,000 AUD, about $2,000AUD more than an equivalent HSV Clubsport. The stripped-out version would sell for around $60,000. Features like the adjustable suspension, forged wheels and radar-based cruise control would be absent, but ultimately would have no effect on the car’s performance.

According to the Brisbane Times, Australia is SRT’s largest market outside the United States – the base versions of the Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon may be sliding down the sales charts, but Australians are still buying the hottest V8 versions. Even Mercedes AMG division reports that Australia is one of its best markets.

Perhaps if we lean of Ralph Gilles hard enough, we’ll finally get an Aussie muscle car here, in the form of the fat-free SRT8. I’m sure there are plenty of customers who would be more than willing to settle for a slightly less opulent SRT8, if it saved them six grand and a couple tenths in acceleration times.

Pursuant to our continued discrediting of the “Jeeps built in China” lie, Donald Trump took to Twitter to further propagate that falsehood. And the Donald ended up getting a virtual earful from Ralph Gilles, head of Chrysler’s SRT Division.

The Trump tweet that launched a thousand shits reads as such

Obama is a terrible negotiator. He bails out Chrysler and now Chrysler wants to send all Jeep manufacturing to China–and will!

Gilles took a direct and concise course of action, one that may even qualify him for a Farley Award. Now, if I can find an auto exec willing to rebut a silly question from a journalist inquiring why their new product’s rear sway bar isn’t 2mm thicker, I will die a happy man.

Chrysler dealers hoping to sell the SRT Viper will have to pony up $25,000 – about the price of a loaded Dodge Dart – to be able to sell the supercar.

What does the $25 grand get you? The $25,000 fee is actually part of a two-tier system, outlined by Automotive News as such

“• For $5,000 each, any of the 2,347 Chrysler Group dealerships may buy a base agreement for tools, equipment, training, signs and, perhaps most important, preferential ordering and additional allocation of such vehicles as the Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8, says Ralph Gilles, head of the SRT brand.

• For an additional $20,000, the high-performance agreement also permits dealers to sell the Viper.”

SRT boss Ralph Gillies described the typical SRT buyer as “…much higher income, much higher education levels…”, which could be marketing speak for “we’re not selling them to office cleaning company founders anymore”. Of course, the bit about “additional allocation of SRT Jeeps”, is an interesting clause too, isn’t it?