Chrysler to produce Dodge Challenger muscle car
Chrysler Group (DCXGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) on Saturday said it will resume production of the Dodge Challenger in 2008 after more than three decades as it takes aim at nostalgia for the U.S. muscle car era.
The Challenger would join the Dodge Charger in the brewing stable of modern U.S. muscle cars such as Ford Motor Co.’s (F.N: Quote, Profile, Research) redesigned iconic Mustang — homages to 1960s and 1970s designs built on up-to-date platforms.
“It’s a modern take on one of the most iconic muscle cars,” Chrysler Group President and Chief Executive Tom LaSorda said.
Muscle cars, typically two-doored with massive eight-cylinder engines, bring back memories of a U.S. era of cheap gas, drive-in theaters and cruising main street.
However, the Challenger comes along when $3 per gallon gasoline has the broad market increasingly looking for less thirsty compact cars.
The car had a 425-horsepower Hemi engine, six-speed manual transmission and a listed top speed of 174 miles per hour.
Hemis back in the day are a totally different thing than what they’re calling Hemis today.
“Chrysler introduced a modern Hemi in 2002. This engine is not a true hemispherical head engine; it has a poly-spherical combustion chamber, but retains the Hemi’s traditional in-line perpendicular valves.” — From the hated and much maligned Wikipedia.
Nothing like the good old American auto makers to know what the public wants. Gas $3+ a gallon, concerns over global warming, but hey, lets put out some new good old fashion gas burners. Way to Go!
You can’t deny it’s beautiful, though.
If it had a flex-fuel electro-hybrid system with a big bank of aftermarket ultracapacitors to enable aggressive acceleration, it could be green and mean.
These were the cars when I was in high school. My best friend worked all summer to buy a set of headers and competition cams for his Chevy SS. One kids Dad bought him one of the early Hondas, it think it had a 2 cylinder engine. I remember us all laughing at it. I think you could buy high test for about $.50/gal then.
I’m just glad the dark time of the pinto-stang is over
Nothing wrong with a live rear axle. It just takes some time to get used to it. Same as my Selectrac Jeep Cherokee that I owned that would hug corners on mountain roads in WV as well as any AWD Subaru. And the kicker with the Jeep is that it had TWO solid axles.
And this car is designed to lure NASCAR fans into Dodge dealers and the last time I read the spec on a NASCAR Stock car, they all run solid rear axles.
So, it is just a matter of preference. And if you traction device in the rear differential with rear coil springs, it does not make a diddle-damn as to whether you a solid rear axle or IRS, they both will “rear-steer” with the accelerator action.
Sure, it looks hot, but its a pointless extravagance. Make me a Civic that looks like that, then we’re talking 🙂
Oh great, more penile extensions for middle aged men.
Muscle car? Is that a muscle car?
My car does 0-100 Km/h in 5.1 secs and uses between 6.7 and 7.5 L/100 Km. (My personal figures, not the manufacturer ones.)
And for the metrically challenged: That’s 0-60 mph in 5.0 secs and a fuel efficiency of 40 mpg.
It helps that it only weighs about 800 Kg (1600 Pounds)… 🙂
Fabrizio
Great idea! But are those wimpy narrow-sidewall tires standard issue? Can they stand up to high-speed interstate driving, let alone donuts in the high school parking lot?
“And this car is designed to lure NASCAR fans into Dodge dealers”
Which is ironic as NASCAR essentially banned the use of the original HEMI engines back in the 70s.
Kind of ironic when you consider that a NASCAR “stock car” today has virtually nothing stock in it. I doubt you could find one part on a Dodge (or Ford or Chevy) stock car that came from its brethern… Engine, transmission, suspension, etc.; they are all purpose build and identical from car to car regardless of make.
And anyone who thinks that a live axle handles as well as a IRS has been sucking too much exhaust fumes. The only things that a live axle have going for it i are cost (cheap) and that is is at least decent for straight line acceleration. Otherwise, it suffers from bump steer, bad roll height, high unsprung weight, cross wheel coupling, etc.
“And this car is designed to lure NASCAR fans into Dodge dealers and the last time I read the spec on a NASCAR Stock car, they all run solid rear axles.”
I had a two live axle jeep cherokee. What a horrid handling and riding creature that was! Perhaps good for off-roading but terrible for the 99% of us who do most of our dirving on road.
Once again, gq and I agree on something.
I don’t want to be an arbitrator on taste, but some things just beg the question WHY. It won’t be comfortable to ride in with a solid axle, it won’t be cheap to run, at $3 + per gallon, it won’t be easy to maintain, with all that hardware under the hood, and it won’t get to stretch its legs much at 75 MPH max speed on the interstates. In fact, it will probably be a rolling police target.
The problem is in the set of idiots both at the American Car makers management and (what is less obvious) at the automotive related media centers. “Car enthusiasts” typically find their way up in these institutions. This car is perfect for them as they go ga-ga over any unneccessary hp or the car concept made obsolete by the decades past. But, they have no clue that ordinary person couldn’t care less or finds this car useless or butt-ugly. Unfortunatly, particularly the media branch of this”elite” knows their propaganda well and is able to sucker a good bunch of buyers into these (or in the SUVs in the recent past).
As for dear UAW workers, what about the strike – not as usual to increase your wages but to protect your livelyhood by refusing to build this junk? No? Don’t come back crying “buy American” when nobody buys what you make…
I don’t know, I see a quite a few Mustangs driving around these days. Especially since the new “retro” body style came out last year. So, the price of gas obviously isn’t everything when it comes to people’s buying choices.
Detroit may be onto something here, or they may just be on something. Personally, I would love to see Chevy pull out the molds for the ’63 split-window Stingray Vet and hang those body panels on a modern chassis with a solid medium-MPG engine.
It should be a no-brainer to build a screaming, sexy pseudo-rod for the aging boomers that can finally afford one!
Nostalgia has a limited time frame. Typically people in there 40’s to early 60’s will buy items reminiscent of youth. They have the disposable income during this period, and many aren’t facing chronic illness, fixed income, and end of life issues. Collectable sellers are very much aware of this. This is why a mint 1960’s GI Joe may sell for $300 today, but in another ten years may be almost worthless.
When musicians stop being relevant with the public they go on the oldies circuit where they play songs from their past glories. This is essentially where American automakers are right now. We won’t have an automobile industry in 10 years folks. God, who’d have thought that we’d sink so damn fast!