Thanks to a couple of reliable sources (Allpar.com and Al Fresco, who never puts his convertible top up), there’ll be a Dodge Challenger Convertible coming to your local Dodge store. Allpar reports that the new drop-top Dodge (the first Challenger convertible since the ’71 E-Body) will enter production early in 2009 as a 2010 model, offered in base and R/T versions only at that time. That means it’ll probably start showing up at your Dodge dealer around the time the snow’s off the drag strips.

Other info that Allpar has gleaned from its sources:

-Production of 2009 Challenger coupe models gets underway this coming June, with the first ones reaching the dealers starting in late June/early July.

-The base Challenger will have a 3.5-liter V6 (set for replacement by an all-new 4.0L V6 for 2010), and the Challenger R/T’s engine bay will be the home of an all-new 5.7L Hemi with variable camshaft timing (VCT). Five-speed R/T’s will also get the fuel-saving multiple displacement system (MDS), while R/T’s with the six-speed option won’t have it.

-The optional six-speed in the Challenger R/T and SRT8 will be a Tremec gearbox, by the way.

-Also, for ’09, Dodge might do some special-edition Challenger models, like what they’ve done with other vehicles in the recent past (i.e. the “Rumble Bee” Ram pickup and “Daytona” Charger sedan).

-Speaking of the newest Hemi, a 6.4L version of that, producing as much as 500 horsepower, may be on its way into the SRT8 for 2010. That big-power number will come from a powerplant that’ll likely have VCT, MDS, and any other new-tech feature that improves efficiency all around (i.e. more power and fewer emissions from less fuel).