Challenger SRT8 powers Dodge to future-retro peak
PASADENA, CALIF. — The Dodge Challenger won’t be officially reborn until late this summer when it reaches showrooms. But trust me, it will be the biggest hit Chrysler Corporation has enjoyed since the minivan.
If you want the new “future-retro†Challenger, you would have to plunk down $38,000. Correct that. You would have HAD to plunk down $38,000 already, because the first-year’s allotment of Challengers lnumber 6,400, and all of them are bought and paid for. So you could queue up in line for one of next year’s expanded crop.
It appears to be a clever bit of marketing by Dodge, and everything has fallen into place very neatly. First, the only Challengers for its first year 2008 run will be SRT models, which means that Dodge’s Street and Racing Technology (SRT) high-performance gang is building the first batch. Having SRT build your car is a lot like having Ford’s SVT redo your Mustang, or Mercedes turning its coupes and sedans over the its AMG arm.
The difference is that Dodge decided to let SRT build the hot, high-performance Challenger version before the mainstream, everyday-performance model comes along, which undoubtedly will come with a V6 and be about not much more than half the price of the hot one. The best news there is that when Dodge puts, say, its 3.5 V6 into the car, and takes away the costly Brembo brakes, high-end suspension goodies, and maybe backs off a little on the interior, it still will be an outstanding car, because nobody is about to sabotage the car’s great balance, and, above all, its killer looks.
Extensive wind-tunnel testing and design engineering kept finding revisions tto make to the popular auto show-circuit concept car for production. And each time they made a revision, for technical reasons, the car took on less of the concept car’s look, and more of the original Challenger’s resemblance.
That should be seen as a good thing by most potential consumers, because the original Dodge Challenger is one of those rare cars that was great looking, and moderately popular, but has enjoyed increased popularity among car restorers, street rodders, and classic car fanciers. It could be argued that it is more popular now than it ever was when it had to slug it out against the original Mustang, Camaro, Firebird, Javelin, AMX, and its cousin, the Plymouth Barracuda.
The concept car Dodge designed three years ago was a hit of the Detroit and Chicago auto shows, and got such favorable reaction that there was no doubt Chrysler would follow along and build it as a production vehicle. Ford had done as much with the Mustang, recreating it more as a retro-styled copy of the 1970 car and revitalizing its popularity. Chevrolet did a similar design exercise as a retro Camaro, and it, too, met with considerable reaction, but its supposedly inevitable production is not yet determined.
So the new Challenger has the retro classic stage to itself, even in this era of $4 gasoline. Its looks are stunning, and its availability in red, black or silver further narrows the focus. At this point, there is no “plum crazy,†as in the original Challenger, which was its best in 1970, ’71 and ’72, and it came with numerous engines, from the everyday Slant 6 to a hot 340 V8, the venerable 383 V8, and the potent 440 V8, with special editions fitted with the 426 HEMI. The original HEMI was a 425-horsepower fire-breather that became more popular than the cars when it dominated NASCAR stock car racing and NHRA Pro-category drag-racing.
When the first emission-control standards of the 1970s ended performance among production cars, thanks to motorsports, the HEMI engines lived on. That engine’s basic design still dominates Top Fuel and Funny Car NHRA racers, where engine-building specialists start out with that block and wrench over 1,000 horsepower out of supercharged, nitro-burning versions. That was during and after the time that stock car racers like Richard Petty drove Plymouths and Dodges to NASCAR stardom. In those days, stock car mechanics and engine builders didn’t need much modification to make those HEMIs howl, because after being first built in 1966 it grew into the most powerful engine ever built by the corporation, when the stock 7-liter 426 produced 425 horsepower.
Modern technology smooths out the brutish potential of 30 years ago in the new Challenger. The 6.1-liter SRT8’s engine is a full liter of displacement less than the one that was stashed under the hood of the 1970 Challenger, but it develops the same 425 horsepower at 6,200 RPMs, and even more torque, with 420 foot-pounds peaking at 4,800 RPMs. Electronically limited to 6,400 RPMs, the new 6.1-liter HEMI has 69.8 horsepower per liter, which exceeds even the legendary old powerplant.
That engine and platform allowed the SRT fellows to make a couple of shortcuts, because they already had proven it in the Charger SRT8 and the Chrysler 300 SRT8, so laying it out with updated revisions and then plunking that sensuous Challenger two-door coupe body on it created a ready-made potent package. Stomp the gas at a stop and the Challenger SRT8 lunges from 0-60 in only 4.9 seconds. It takes 11.5 seconds to go from 0-100 mph, and a quarter-mile can be covered in 13.3 seconds. Top speed is 170 mph.
When the new Challenger was introduced to the media, we got a chance to drive it from Pasadena out to Willow Springs, a legendary old road-racing circuit with some twisting curves and a few hilly parts, and a couple decent straightaways. The great thing about that experience is that despite the fame the HEMI engine has gained from stock car and drag racing, the Challenger itself became famous in the heyday of the Sports Car Club of America’s Trans-Am road-racing series.
Sam Posey drove a lime green Challenger against the Mustangs of Parnelli Jones and George Follmer, Mark Donohue drove a Roger Penske Camaro, Swede Savage drove a Barracuda, and Jerry Titus drove a Firebird. I used to write about those races, which were among the most exciting motorsports events in the country. SRT has made sure that the Challenger’s legacy also would be translated into modern, real-world performance. A sophisticated suspension holds the car stable as it records 0.88 g on a skid pad, and its giant Brembo brakes stop it from 60-0 in only 110 feet. Test-cars have gone 0-100-0 in just under 17 seconds.
It was a fun day, overall, and Willow Springs offered a good chance to be impressed with how tight and solid the Challenger SRT8 is. But being on the highways, particularly the curving, mountainous highways between Pasadena and the track, was maybe more fun, and being in the car in city traffic was better yet, just because of all the waves, nods, smiles, and thumbs-up that the car inspired from everybody you went past.
The actual price is $37,995, which is a lot, but is a better deal when you realize that every facet – suspension, aerodynamics, interior, brakes, wheels, tires, and driveability – are revised and tuned to optimum to make sure the car works on everyday roads as well as when you push it all-out on a race track.
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Statistically, the Challenger is Overall length is – four inches shorter than the Charger sedan, at 197.7 inches, on a 116-inch wheelbase. Width is 75.7 inches, it stands only 57 inches tall. Ground clearance is 5.5 inches, and be careful not to roll up to a curb too eagerly with that chin spoiler. Curb weight is 4,140 pounds, with 55.6 percent on the front and 44.4 at the rear.
The coefficient of drag is an unspectacular 0.353, but partly because the spoilers front and rear are coordinated with anti-lift characteristics in mind, besides just drag. The concept car had a very different front end, but the production car resembles the 1970’s manner of having the upper leading edge of the grille protrude a bit. Wind tunnel testing divulged a problem with front lift with the original, to the point it threatened to tear off the front edge of the hood until designers stretched it out into a graceful beak.
From the side, the Challenger has the long hood/short rear deck of the ’70, as well as a similar rear pillar and the stdylish contours of the side of the body. Unique 20-inch Alcoa aluminum wheels are fully-forged, which eliminated about 6 pounds per wheel.
Antilock brakes and traction-control are standard, and Electronic Stability Control maintains directional stability in all conditions by deploying selective braking and throttle input to assure the car goes in the direction the steering wheel is suggesting. Those are safety features beyond the safety cage body structure, with crumple zones, side-guard door beams, and supplemental side-curtain airbags.
Limited room for two – preferably kids – make the back seat workable as a 2-plus-2, and trunk space is decent. Under normal conditions, I’d say the knockout design is the car’s strong point, but thanks to SRT, there might be an equal argument that its performance is the Challenger SRT8’s prime asset. Even if you never wanted to go faster than the freeway’s 70 mph, What goes unsaid is the extra thrill whenever you step on the gas, because the deep-throated rumble of the HEMI resonates to put your whole being on red alert.
By the time you’re able to buy one, the Challenger will have more models to choose from than the SRT8. But until more come along, the SRT8 is more than capable of standing alone.
About the Author
John Gilbert is a lifetime Minnesotan and career journalist, specializing in cars and sports during and since spending 30 years at the Minneapolis Tribune, now the Star Tribune. More recently, he has continued translating the high-tech world of autos and sharing his passionate insights as a freelance writer/photographer/broadcaster. A member of the prestigious North American Car and Truck of the Year jury since 1993. John can be heard Monday-Friday from 9-11am on 610 KDAL(www.kdal610.com) on the "John Gilbert Show," and writes a column in the Duluth Reader.
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