Want one? It’s supposed to have 707 HP from the 6.2L hemi called the Hellcat. Yikes! I bet it comes with launch control. Still, I wonder if you can put all that power on the road even with launch control. It even comes with 2 keys. The black one is for you and limits the car to a mere 500 HP. The red one is for your wife and let’s all 707 of those screaming ponies out of the barn. It’s a little early for a test drive, but I’m anxious to see what the automotive press thinks about it after a “spin” around the track. No word on price, either, but It wouldn’t surprise me if it is over $100,000.
These always turn out to be very limited production magazine test cars the purpose of which is to get a lot of publicity for a new model…This is way over the horsepower to weight limits that insurance companies are comfortable with…This car will certainly be priced way beyond the means its likely buyers…
I think the likely buyers are going to have enough money that high initial cost and high insurance costs won’t mean much. Sports stars and other ultra rich celebrities will be able to easily afford it. The Viper is not far behind at 640 HP, nor is the C7 Z06 at 650 HP. The Shelby GT500 is likely to have a better power to weight ratio than the new aChallenger SRT according to at least one source.
Thats why my wifew needs one.
She is always late…like now!!!
We’re all waiting on her so we all can go to dinner. Two other couples have arrived and we were supposed to leave 5 miunutes ago.
The horsepower these days I swear is measured differently or at least hits the wheels more computer controlled. It’s so refined. Yes it’s faster at the track and a faster 0-60, but it’s still less fun. I haven’t driven that hellcat but I have driven 400-500hp cars that just weren’t as raw/fun as my 225hp mustang was. Don’t get me wrong they’re all great, but a modern muscle car is really a different machine all together.
I think the operative word might be “civilized” and a fair number of people (me included) prefer a bit more unrefined thuggishness in a muscle car.
Not many years ago I think it was Mopar Muscle that did a story in which they asked current owners of the older and comparatively crude Challengers to drive a new generation Challenger for a few days and offer opinions about which they prefer. Every single one liked the old Challengers better.
If they’re going after the Corvette Z06 market/Shelby mustang then closer to $100K wouldn’t suprise but the Viper isn’t exactly flying out the door at $100,000+ All depends on how many are available and how much over msrp the dealer wants.
Sounds like a fun car–if you can get all that horsepower to the ground without melting the tires or constantly bumping up against the traction control. I think a lot of the “fun” factor disappearing is due to electronic throttles and traction control. I miss how responsive old, ridiculously polluting carburetors were compared to some modern drive by wire systems.
To put it in computing terms, you were a lot closer to the “bare metal” with old cars.
I think if you had 600-700hp in a car without electronic throttle and traction . . . really bad things would probably happen
Unless you were a professional race car driver
Which most of us aren’t
Tanner Foust reviewed the CTS-V. One of the first things he said is that every owner should take a race driving course like Bondurant so that they didn’t kill themselves. I think the same applies here.
my old 75 ford super cab, the one with the 390 galaxy motor, took 40 acres to turn around, but I always had the option of hitting the gas and she would spin around on a dime, does traction control prevent that?
Yes, but you can turn the traction control off if you want to…If 200 HP will break the tires loose, then 700 HP becomes meaningless because traction control keeps power output just below the limit of traction…Now for magazine comparison tests on the skid pad, the one with the stickiest tires wins…
Can you actually buy these cars? Only if Daddy has lots of money and knows the owner of a dealership who can supply one…Buy the time the magazine publishes the comparison test, the car is no longer in production…
@Caddyman It will be a limited production car, Like the Ford GT or Shelby GT 500, or Viper, or ZR1 Corvette. Dodge will sell every one they make. But they’ll make it for at least a few years, probably until a redesigned Challenger comes out.
You’ll be able to buy one, but prepare to get into a bidding war at grossly inflated prices for one, they aren’t going to make a lot of them. When the then-new 2007 Shelby GT 500 came out, one of the local dealerships had one on the lot; they promptly added a $16k “Market Adjustment” sticker to it, and then proceeded to basically auction it off between a couple interested parties. I imagine a similar situation will occur with the SRT Challengers.
I have absolutely zero interest in this type of car. I prefer something that carves corners over something with 700+hp.
I think you’re right about the typical buyer, however. I also think the real value in these cars is to get “wanna-be’s” to buy the much lesser powered and much lower cost versions of the Challenger. This game has been played by manufacturers for eons.
you can buy drag-pack cars with more horse power from the factory, but you can’t take them on the road.
At the end of the day, it’s STILL a dodge
I’m sure with the 700 HP there will also be brake, suspension, and steering upgrades. Stability control will keep a lot of people from killing themselves. And yeah, it’s still a Dodge at the end of the day. You say that like it’s a bad thing. And a Mustang is still a Ford and a Camaro is still a Chevy, so what? Cars like the Miata for example that “carve up roads” are fun and I’m not knocking them, but if you’ve ever driven a high-horsepower car, the effortless power is pretty intoxicating too, albeit in a different way. If Fiat-Chrysler manages to get everything dialed in, it will be a very attractive budget “supercar”, though I admit I’m not holding my breath.
At the end of the day, it’s still an enormous Dodge closely related to mundane full-size family cars. They did a good job evoking period proportions and details, but it works best in photos. In person you realize just how enormous the Challenger is. The only rwd platform they had around was from the big Chrysler 300 and Dodge Charger sedans. And they needed to fit in those big hemi engines, too. Big, big, big! And heavy. I’m sure 700 he will give impressive performance, but I don’t think the competition are losing sleep. The Corvette will still handle better and look like a proper sports car, and it’s top variants aren’t exactly slow. The Mustangs probably won’t match that power, but it’s smaller, lighter, and most variants will be far cheaper, even the fast ones. And they’ll sell in far greater numbers. The Challenger is still a modest seller because it costs too much and is too big. Pretty, though.
All of this nostalgia for the old Dodge Challengers somehow manages to overlook the reality that they were really, really badly-assembled cars. My brother’s first wife bought a fully-optioned 1970 Plymouth Barracuda–which was identical to the Challenger (except for minor cosmetic details), and was built on the same assembly line.
I can truthfully say that I never saw–either before or since–a car that was as badly-made as that Barracuda. Aside from paint that looked like it had been applied with a broom, it came from the factory with so many interior parts either loose or misaligned that it was almost impossible to count the defects. Some of these loose parts were so obvious that the pre-delivery inspection by the dealership should have caught–and corrected–the problems, but apparently the pre-delivery inspection at that dealership consisted of washing the car.
Additionally, the car was extremely uncomfortable to ride in, as a result of a very badly-designed interior, including terrible seats.
And, it wasn’t even pleasant to drive. The handling was…ponderous…and the brakes were just so-so.
The assembly problems with that car were not necessarily a company-wide problem, however, as I bought a '71 Charger SE about a year later, and it was very well-assembled. Apparently, quality control at the Barracuda/Challenger assembly plant was just…bad.
In my opinion, there is no comparing the Challenger from the 1970s to the modern Challenger
The Challenger which was released several years ago was based on an outdated Benz platform. So was the 300 and the Charger. They used a Mopar engine, but the tried and true 722.6 Benz auto trans.
I want to see it race the c7 Z06