What a great weekend at the Mopar Nats. 2009 was my 19th year attending the event, and the weather was perfect!
I am fortunate to live only 9 miles from the track, and have worked there for 10 years also. I was event director for the racing program on Saturday. Working the event for that long has allowed me to get to know certain people that have an inside scoop at Chrysler as well. I learned ALOT this weekend about all the stuff that happens behind the scenes when making a car, naturally I asked 1000 questions about the new challenger.
Anyway, the first 2 2009 Challenger R/T's were there, and ironically number 2 is optioned EXACTLY like mine, absolutely an identical car. I was fortunate to score a test drive in car #2, and it was surreal to finally get to drive the car I have dreamed about since the concept car we all fell in love with. What a tease to look at, crawl over, and drive “my car”, and then go back into waiting mode…
A few observations/tidbits.
1. The seats are pretty good, definitely not the side bolsters from the SRT8, but acceptable.
2. An R/T gets a prop rod for the hood, not the hydraulic lifts like an SRT8 (cost cutter?). The good news is the mounting hole is in the fender, and the ball end is on the hood hinges, so just buying the hydraulic cylinders could eliminate the prop rod.
3. The tremec is amazing. I am soooo glad I waited. The throws are very short, and the shifter is very smooth. Clutch travel & effort is perfect.
4. The “base” sound system is better than expected. The Boston Acoustics speakers are impressive.
5. The R/T emblem on the trunk spoiler has been eliminated for production. A ’70 Challenger R/T emblem fits perfectly.
6. No 6 speed cars will be built until August 24th. See below.
7. The rear-end (differential) has been changed due to a bearing redesign. The 6 speed feedback cars had a few failures that never showed up on automatics.
8. Do not put an open element air filter under the hood. They are working on redesigning the front of the car to get more fresh air under the hood. Right now, it is basically sealed and retains a lot of heat under the hood.
9. The stripes you see in the pictures are not released for production yet, those are the first sets to be on an actual car. What you have seen in pictures has been “photoshopped”.
10. The “get-in-the-back” lever will be added to the driver’s side.
11. The front spoiler is about half the size of an SRT, and will likely live longer.
12. The engine growl is very good, the standard trans really makes the 5.7 come to life.
13. A support will be added to the inside of the rear bumper. If you have an ’08, go push on the license plate and you will understand. At speed it actually will “flap”.
14. All R/T’s will need lowered an inch. (my opinion)
The super stock car made 3 passes, but I promised not to disclose the et numbers. Let’s just say it was way faster than I thought it would be.
It was great to see about 30 new challengers there…