The Spring Festival, held annually in Southern California, has become a sort of mecca for late model Mopar owners, bringing together hundreds of owners of Chrysler’s LX platform cars – Challenger, Charger, Magnumand 300. The event was initially started by a small group of passionate forum members, but it has recently grown enough to garner official support from Chrysler. This year, the Pentastar had a special treat planned for its passionate followers, the debut of the company’s new Challenger Rallye Redline.

Based on the Challenger SXT Plus, the Rallye Redline features the same 3.6-liter V6 with 305 horsepower and 268 lb-ft torque as the standard model, but it gets a host of visual, interior and handling upgrades. For starters, the exterior gets a triple red stripe and new 20-inch wheels with subtle red stripes around the rims. Inside, the theme continues with available Radar Red leather seats.

Don’t think that Chrysler has ignored the Rallye Redline’s performance, though. A Super Sport Group handling package has been added that includes firmer front and rear shocks, larger front and rear sway bars, slightly wider tires and 25-percent quicker steering. Stopping power is also improved with larger brakes included in the package.

Pricing for the 2012 Dodge Challenger Rallye Redline is listed at $28,745 (excluding $925 destination) with availability beginning next month. Click past the break to read the full details in the press release from Chrysler.

While the top brass gets their minds made up as to whether there will be a next-generation Dodge Avenger, the folks at Dodge have gone ahead and added a new top trim to the current model. The 2012 Dodge AvengerSE V6 gets the Pentastar V6 tuned to 283 horsepower and 260 pound-feet of torque mated to a six-speed automatic, along with 18-inch alloys, dual exhaust, and a rear spoiler.

This makes five trims for the Avenger line, with this model starting at $21,495 before destination. That puts it $2,500 over the current range topper, the Avenger SE, which starts at $18,995 and comes with a 173-hp, 2.4-liter four-cylinder shifting through an ancient four-speed auto. The four-cylinder SE is rated at 30 mpg highway, while the Pentastar engine only drops that a fraction to 29 mpg highway.

Stacked against the competitive set Dodge has in mind, like the Chevrolet Malibu, Ford Fusion and Nissan Altima, the current SE is in the ballpark regarding specs while being less expensive. With the SE V6 and six-speed tranny to update refinement and give it a 110-hp boost, Avenger sales – which are already up 112 percent this year – could rise even further. Follow the jump for the press release on the newest addition to the family.

Getting rid of the Grand Caravan is apparently part of Chrysler’s move to eliminate dealership duplication, a plan that was started under the company’s previous owners, Cerberus Capital Management. In addition to theDodge van, the Avenger sedan will also be killed off when the Chrysler 200 replacement arrives in 2013. (Like the Grand Caravan and Town & Country, the Avenger and 200 are nearly identical underneath the skin.)

Automotive News suggests that the Grand Caravan and Avenger will be replaced by a single future Dodge crossover that will be based on a Fiat platform. The next-generation Town & Country is expected to arrive sometime in 2014.

But now, the Detroit carmaker it also considering giving the Durango the SRT8 treatment in 2013. This would be an easy task, since both models are based on the same platform.

Therefore Dodge should have no problem shoehorning the 6.4-liter Hemi V8 under the Durango’s bonnet, as well as use the Jeep’s lowered active suspension and proceed to some bodywork and interior upgrades befitting the SRT badge.

The only obstacle is that the most powerful model in the Durango line-up, the370HP R/T, has sold only 2,418 units since it launched in March – a meager 7% of the model’s total sales.

As a result, Chrysler’s executives are still understandably cagey about producing a model that would sell in even smaller numbers and wouldn’t justify its development costs.

South African Chrysler fans has a new special edition vehicle coming their way. Described by Chrysler as a way to “satisfy the boy racer in all of us,” the Dodge Caliber Mopar Edition is a blacked-out hatchback rolling on 18-inch powdercoated alloy wheels.

Under the hood sits a 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine that’s been juiced up courtesy of a cold-air induction kit and an upgraded manifold and exhaust system, and the mill is paired with a manual transmission. The Caliber Mopar Edition is dropped two inches, wears Mopar decals and gets a unique hood as well.

Priced at 259,990.00 Rand, the Dodge Caliber Mopar Edition will set you back a bit over $37,000 at current exchange rates. We understand that car cost is a hard thing to directly translate, and if you ditch the stripes it’s not half bad looking, but that’s still a ton of money for a tarted up Caliber… and it’s a far cry from the long-lost turbocharged SRT4. Check out the South African press release after the break.