The minivan is the ultimate mommy-mobile, it’s a perfect utilitarian vehicle designed for people who have kids and need to transport lots of stuff but also need good gas mileage and a lower loading height than an SUV. Being the ultimate mommy-mobile, the minivan is also not very manly, and has become a symbol of a man who’s life has been resigned to boring PTA meetings on Friday nights and trips to Whole Foods for kale instead of tire-melting burnouts and burger eating contests. Dodge has set out to change that with the 2012 Dodge Grand Caravan R/T.

The 2012 Dodge Grand Caravan R/T is a more masculine minivan. Upgrades include brakes straight out of a Dodge Viper, a 3.6-liter V6 engine, aggressive looking wheels, a performance suspension, brushed aluminum interior accents instead of wood grain, and a nine speaker sound system with subwoofers.

Don’t expect to impress many late night parking lot car meets with the Grand Caravan R/T, but do expect it to be everything you need for a family plus a little bit of sportiness mixed in to keep things interesting. Ralph Gilles, Chrysler’s Head Designer, told AOL Autos that the Grand Caravan R/T has been designed to “appeal to a father that has responsibilities, but still has a sporty side deep down in his heart.”

This isn’t the first attempt to make the Grand Caravan more manly. There is a semi-famous modified turbocharged 1989 Grand Caravan that can be seen here beating a Camaro in a drag race.

At the 2002 SEMA show, aftermarket accessory giant APC built a supercharged Grand Caravan with a 350-horsepower supercharged engine.

2012 Dodge Grand Caravan R/T picture via AOL Autos.

APC Dodge Grand Caravan Extreme picture via SRTforums.com