While this is not official, I would think that there must be some validity to the Car and Driver news.
Enjoy!


2008 Dodge Challenger

Dodge Challenger and Chrysler Imperial, but not ’Cuda, are slated for production.



BY ALISA PRIDDLE, PHOTOGRAPHY BY PATRICK CARRAHER FOR BRENDA PRIDDY & COMPANY
June 2007


That thing has a Hemi—making it hard for our spy photographer to get anything but a rear shot of the speeding 2008 Dodge Challenger caught testing.

Camo aside, we didn’t expect to see much deviation from the Challenger concept that first bowed at the 2006 North American International Auto Show. Chrysler then kept us hanging until the announcement a year ago confirming it would make the retro muscle car, but we’re supposed to wait until February 6—next year’s Chicago auto show—for the production car’s public debut.



Word on the street is that the R/T versions already are spoken for. We’re not surprised. Last July’s news the car had the green light caused a traffic jam on the Chrysler website, with a spokesman reporting 268,000 web clicks on the Challenger the day of the announcement.

Chrysler will build the muscle car at its Brampton, Ontario, Canada, plant as the two-door muscle car shares the rear-wheel-drive LX platform that underpins the Chrysler 300, Dodge Charger, and Dodge Magnum. The Challenger is to launch in April 2008 as an ’08 model—not an ’09—for reasons the automaker has not yet disclosed. That might mean it technically will ride on the next-gen LY rear-drive architecture.

The Canadian plant also is expected to build a production model of the frighteningly styled Chrysler Imperial, also shown at the 2006 Detroit auto show, which some called a poor-mans’ Rolls-Royce Phantom. The low-volume Imperial would be positioned as a premium vehicle above the Chrysler 300 and serve as the brand flagship.

Canadian Auto Union workers agreed to workplace concessions earlier this year to secure the Imperial contract and the automaker plans to spend about $660 million prior to the start of production in summer 2009. The Imperial would ride on a stretched version of the LX/LY architecture—as opposed to the modifications for the 300C Walter P. Chrysler Executive Series long-wheelbase livery vehicle.


Meanwhile, the Challenger likely will be offered with a choice of three powertrains: a V-6 (current generation at least initially as the new Phoenix V-6 family does not go into production until 2009), as well as a choice of the 5.7-liter or 6.1-liter Hemi V-8. That roughly mimics the mix of V-6 and V-8 power offered by its competitors, the Ford Mustang and the 2009 Chevy Camaro.

Chrysler has not said if the Challenger will be offered with a manual transmission, and Eric Ridenour, Chrysler chief operating officer, has said no convertible is planned.

But a Street and Racing Technology version of the Challenger is very possible, and the automaker could decide to launch a Challenger SRT-8 simultaneously with the conventional version.

The business case for the Challenger pegs it as a niche vehicle with a short lifecycle, but Chrysler officials have said they are open to the possibility of a mid-cycle refresh or second generation, if warranted.

As for rumors of the return of the ’Cuda from the same platform (presumably as a Chrysler now that Plymouth is defunct), Ralph Gilles, vice president of Jeep, truck, and component design, was not hot on the idea in a recent conversation with Car and Driver.

“I can see it being done as aftermarket, but not something we would do lightly as a production model,” Gilles says, for a number of reasons. One: You don’t mess with history. Secondly, the hot designer thinks, in many ways, that the Challenger was a better design than the ’Cuda. Third, and probably most importantly, he wants the new Challenger to have its day in the sun—unfettered.