ORIGINAL: Axel
They will update the 5.7L in the cars I'm sure of it, but the question is, how long will it take to get to the cars. This is a different company mind you, but how long did it take to put the 5.7 in the cars from the trucks? I can't remember for sure, but I think about a year. Even then it lost ten hp from the truck to the car due to the exhaust being tighter or whatever the excuse. That won't be to impresive if that happens from the Ram to the Challenger. To me this engine doesn't really belong in a truck that's meant to two anyway. Maybe if you were racing it. RPMs for power and torque are just to high to tow with.
Very true, the lazy Daimler management is not in absolute control anymore. It took two years for them to get the Hemi into the cars; however, that could partly be blamed on the fact that there weren't any cars at that time that would use it as the LH cars (Intrepid, 300M, Concorde, etc.) were still in production and the LX cars were still being developed. If you want to go by the offical year offerings, it would be two years as the 2003 Ram was the first vehicle to get the 5.7L and the 2005 300C/Magnum R/T were the first "cars" to get the 5.7L. The engine hp output dropped by 5hp; however, the tq increased by 15 ft-lbs. The lower restriction exhaust the hp actually has a 5hp increase over the Ram. The truck spec 5.7L is tuned for truck duty, the car version is tuned for car duty.
Anyways, my point is that they are going to make some kind of update to the Hemi in the Ram and I believe it would be wise to offer this ASAP in the Challenger so then they can set a higher benchmark and keep fighting full effort in the muscle car wars. The upgrade that they are planning for the truck would also help the Challenger. A rumor holds it might be a form of VVT, which helps to make the power band be more consistent and helps the fuel economy as well. The way I see it, it couldn't hurt. What I would like to see more than anything else would be GDI (Gasoline Direct-Injection). That seems to be a popular new way to improve performance and it's supposed to help fuel economy.
On the other hand, it might be a good idea to wait a couple years into production to make this change over. Increasing the engine output in the middle of production can help make a model more interesting in the middle of its run.