driver’s side wheel well

slotted rotor, Brembo brake caliper

brake caliper top view.. it’s a little dirty

compressed the pistons fully to get the new pads on which will be much thicker

I couldn’t find any ceramic brake pads for my car, so I went with Raybestos professional grade

in the event you need the Raybestos part number for a Dodge Magnum

the pads are shipped with decent packing material and showed up without any war wounds

I took a long time to clean the calipers well, they look much better this way

the new pads are in the calipers, the pistons were compressed far enough that the pads just slid in without any problems

definitely better than the stock brakes that come on most cars

the wheels were pretty dirty… yes, this is the inside of the wheel

the SRT looks good when it’s not caked with dirt on the wheel

now that the driver’s side was finished, it was time to work on the passenger side

really plan ahead.. the brake reservoir needed to be emptied before compressing the pistons

clean and dirty.. the wheels were in bad shape for regular cleaning and care

the Raybestos anti-noise shims were a nice surprise

while the wheel is off, take some time to check out the car and look for anything and everything

I spend a lot of time cleaning the brake calipers because they are visible through the wheel openings

the end result is a nice looking wheel, inside and out

getting this low car on jacks is NOT easy

taking off and putting on the wheel lugs is made much easier with a socket on the end of air tools

For family and friends, I’ll start posting up pictures more often on my kid’s site.  To the rest of you visitors, I’ll be doing a better job soon and hope that you find this site useful and informative, as well as worthy of being shared among your friends.

Here’s my car in a photo spread that I took a while ago.  The pictures are available in their original version, just comment or email and I’ll make them available to you. 

All pictures were taken with my Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi.  I set the camera to auto but didn’t like the results, so I changed to manual settings and decided to not go nuts and take RAW images, but did leave the JPEG to max quality.

While I was on the 2 freeway driving a little above 65MPH (photographic evidence below) I realized that as the 35,0001 mark passed on my car, I would be driving this car for a long, long time.  I mean, like until the 200,000 mile mark or until the car dies.

Though I haven’t done any wrenching on the car myself, I have been the one that earned the money to pay for all of the maintenance that the car has received (I even keep the receipts as a merit badge that I’m doing well by keeping the car serviced regularly).  Not so recently Dodge announced that the 2008 Magnum would have a new front fascia and hood with a functional scoop.  There’s some interior changes also, but I don’t think that any of those made me think about making alterations to my car.  The hood scoop though, well it got my attention.

I’ll be upgrading my current hood to the hood with the scoop as soon as I find a dealership with a good price.  Since the front fascia is suppose to enhance front brake cooling, I might swap that out too.  Oh ya, when I say that “I might swap that out”, I do mean me.  Well, me and the help of friends and/or family.  (let this me early warning)

Well, I’m about to leave for Disneyland so I’ll chat about my car later, and I’ll include the “photo shoot” of my Magnum in that future post.  Yes, I actually took my car someplace to take pictures of it.  The best part is that afterwards we didn’t have any funny feelings about it and we are still friends.  Ya, that’s a little creepy but it’s all just joking around (and that’s the story I’m sticking to).

I was running out of gas, about a gallon left when I snapped this 35,000 mile picture.

While stopping off the freeway to get gas, I noticed this car with massive wheel diameter and…

Some really wimpy looking disc brakes.  Where’s the beef?

In this case, the question is “what goes in this spot”.  I have found in previous pictures that the dash mounted lack of a button is where an A/C control use to exist, but I don’t know why the second part of the dummy button exists.  Any help would be appreciated:

What use to be below the light control switch:

The Magnum has more power, greater looks, more comfortable ride, nicer creature comforts, and it’s the car that I own.

When I bought my 2006 Dodge Magnum SRT8 in June 2006, I actually intended on buying the Dodge Charger SRT8.  The reason for not buying the Charger was that it wasn’t available in silver.  The reason for buying the Magnum, yep, is because it was available in silver.

Of course I bought the SRT8 because I’m still interested in having a car with a lot of horsepower, 425HP. The torque is rated at 420, but I’m pretty sure that mine has more.  Not due to any upgrading, but because it’s mine! 

In the near future, when I see the 2008 Magnum SRT8 and the new grille and hood, I’ll be buying some new parts and making changes to my car.  The grille is not as important of a change to me as the hood, the hood scoop is a must have for looks.

As for comparing the power of the Prius with the Magnum SRT8:
 Prius has 78HP total; the Magnum SRT8 has 70HP per liter (and with 6.1 liters, it is a clear winner)

While my car does not get the incredible mileage of the Prius, I can drive very conservatively still get better mileage than any of the cars I’ve owned before: