The 2021 Dodge Durango Hellcat is the most powerful SUV in the country; well, most powerful in the world, I guess. Its supercharged 6.2-liter Hemi Hellcat V-8 generates 710 horsepower and 645 lb.-ft. of torque. It will attain 180-miles-per-hour speeds and tow 8,700 pounds.

So, what was it doing in Estes Park on a Saturday afternoon in December?

It carried Jan and me west out of Greeley, through Loveland and into Big Thompson Canyon past the Dam Store. Oh, my gosh, the roar of the exhausts between the rock walls of the Narrows, even at the relatively tame miles-per-hour pace, was awesome (in my opinion). On up the canyon I drove, paddle-shifting between 4^th, 5^th and 6^th gears to keep pace in the busy line of automobiles.

The silver-colored Durango, with the under-hood valve covers of orange hue, a favorite for Hemis 60 years ago, rolled into a somewhat nostalgic scene along Estes Park’s Main Street, almost defying the facts of the country’s pandemic. Happy shoppers, it seemed, some masked, some not, in and out of the stores and filling the sidewalks; lots of packages and shopping bags.

Our only departure of the Hellcat was a couple miles above the village, long enough for a photo of the Durango, then slowly back through Main Street and eventually, back home.

In a setting far from downtown shoppers on another day, I clocked a 4.2-seconds 0-to-60 time in the Durango. This was a blink-of-an-eye slower than a 3.9-seconds time I recorded with an ’18 Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk with a 707-hp Hellcat engine.

For the ’21 Durango, this is the year of the Hellcat, and the only year; it won’t be available in the Dodge SUV after the 2021 model year. Hellcat engines were originally offered only in the Dodge Charger and Challenger models, later added to the Grand Cherokee Trackhawk and this fall to the Ram TRX and Durango.

While base price on the Durango Hellcat is $80,995, sticker price soared to $93,150 with optional Laguna leather seats, full-speed forward-collision warning, adaptive cruise control, rear DVD, suede headliner, Harman Kardon sound and red seat belts.

The week preceding the Hellcat testing, I drove the ’21 Dodge Durango R/T AWD model, sticker priced at $66,650. Since the R/T was equipped with the 360-hp Hemi V-8, this indicates a sizable chunk of the $27,000 difference in price from the Hellcat is the 710-hp engine.

One of the toughest of Land Rovers, after a 23-year absence from the U.S., is back.

The Land Rover Defender 110, for which roots date to the original LR in1950, fits the role of terrain tamer and is pitted against Jeep Wrangler, Toyota Land Cruiser, Mercedes Gelaendewagen and a couple others as super offroaders.

Built on Land Rover’s new all-aluminum D7x platform, the Defender is equipped with a powerful turbocharged, inline-6-cylinder of 395 horsepower and 408 lb.-ft. of torque, mated to an 8-speed automatic transmission with selectable driving and offroad modes. In Sport, tap shifter up or down for manual-mode swiftness. A direct-front camera aids its 4X4 prowess.

The Defender is built on a lengthy, 119-inch wheelbase; yet, in overall length it is the shortest of the six Land Rover/Range Rover models. From shortest to lengthiest overall are the Defender at 170.2 inches, the Range Rover Evoque at 172.1, the Land Rover Discovery Sport 181, Range Rover Sport 192.1, Land Rover Discovery 195.1 and the flagship Range Rover 196.9.

The five-passenger Defender sent my way was finished in tasman blue, a color particularly well-suited to the structurally tough-looking sport ute, with white top. The classic blue color was used on Range Rovers from 1982 to ’87. In restyling, the square body of old has given way to a new grille and softening along the sides. The back end is chopped off at the rear corners as though to retain a bit of the traditional squared-off appearance.

With Jan, Bill and Kathy Allen aboard, I headed the Land Rover out northeast on a Saturday afternoon on a smooth drive (air suspension) 75 miles along Colo.  392 and 14. We slowed only on arrival at our destination, Stoneham and Dewey’s Bar and Grill, where we joined Jon and Nancy Weaver and Will and Jody Kulp of Greeley for dinner. On leaving a couple hours later, I visited with two other couples from our area who had driven to the “prime-rib specialty house,” Ron and Madge Randell of Greeley and Darrel and Debbie Dilley of LaSalle.

Overall fuel-mileage average for the Defender was 20.3 mpg; its EPA estimate is 17/22. Premium fuel is recommended. Its 360-mile test included another drive – to Denver – and lots of stop-and-go city maneuvering.

Added to that was some offroading to get a feel for the Defender’s Terrain Response system, which is engaged by touching a button on the center stack, then pushing in the driver-side heater temperature control knob (yes, that is correct) and dialing in the proper terrain setting among normal, rock crawl, mud and ruts, grass/gravel/snow, sand and wade, for traversing low-spot water in roadways or small streams.

The turbocharged 3.0-liter V-6 is very responsive, plenty strong; yet, for the 2022 model year, Land Rover will add a 518-horsepower, supercharged 5.0-liter V-8 engine to both the 110 and the 90 two-door.

From a base price of $63,275, the 2020 Defender 110 SE climbed to sticker of $71,025 by adding adaptive cruise with stop-and-go, heated steering wheel and washer jets, configurable terrain response, electronic active differential, Goodyear Wrangler 255/60R20 tires, satellite radio and premium cabin lighting.

British-based, the Defender is built in Slovakia.

As the 2021 Buick Envision showed up in my driveway, after I’d cleared the snow, I was impressed with its appearance – lower and wider than last year, finished in cinnabar metallic, with dark 20-inch wheels and dark-gloss grille and chrome inserts.

I’d not seen any of the redesigned Envisions on the roads and I was looking forward to one after this e-mail:

“We’d love to give you access for a week in one of our upscale 2021 Buick Envision models,” sent to me from Shauna Sichi of General Motors Communications West Coast in Los Angeles.

It is the 2021 Buick Envision Essence, a luxury compact SUV crossover, with new design, interior and powertrain. But, heck, the one delivered was of front-wheel-drive configuration (all-wheel drive is an $1,800 option). Why send a FWD crossover into Colorado in the middle of the winter?

No matter, though, I said I would drive it and I was happy to do so – 350 miles during the week.

The Envision is built in China, at a General Motors’ plant in Yantail, southeast of Beijing. Buick in the early days of the 20^th century established its legacy in China as a prestigious automobile, and as recent as 2013 sold more than 800,000 vehicles over there.

Highlighting the new Envision is a more fuel-efficient 2.0-liter, turbocharged 4-cylinder of direct-injection and stop/start technology. Mated to a 9-speed automatic transmission, it develops 228 horsepower and 258 lb.-ft. of torque; somewhat slow off the line, it performs with good thrust midrange, and earns an EPA estimate of 24/31 in FWD form. I averaged 26.8 miles per gallon overall; two years ago with a ’19 Envision, my overall average was 20.5. Fuel tank capacity is 16.1 gallons; premium unleaded is recommended.

Builders of the Buick see the major competitors of the Envision here at home as domestic rival Lincoln Corsair and Japanese-based compacts Acura RDX and Infiniti QX50. Three quality compacts from Germany, the Audi Q5, BMW X3 and Mercedes GLC, are higher-priced.

The new Envision is an inch longer in wheelbase, 2 inches wider and overall height is 3 inches lower than last year. Inside, its center stack is tilted toward the driver, features a 10.2 infotainment center and below that the electronic shifter with push and pull buttons.

The Envision’s rear cargo space of 25 cubic feet tightens somewhat when compared with the three designated rivals – Infiniti with 31.4 feet, Acura with 29.5 and Lincoln 27.6.

The Essence is the middle of three trim levels for Envision; its sticker price reached $41,315 with addition of a technical package of head-up display, Bose audio, navigation and sport touring package of the dark wheels and grille and black roof rails.

Among standard safety features are automatic emergency braking, lane-keep assist, rear cross-traffic alert, forward-collision alert and auto high beams.