1 Bad Mirada

the weight of the DETCHA concept car is 4160lbs, and you are right that a Mustang GT may very well beat a 5.7 powered challenger...based on the power to weight ratios, but let me run this by you...figure that a stock RT charger with the 340hp engine (345 with the performance exhaust that comes on the charger daytona) and that charger weighs 4300lbs with a driver, and the Mustang GT weighs 3700lbs with the driver. the power to weight ratio of the mustang is 12.3, and the power to weight ratio of the charger would be 12.46. based on those numbers, it comes down to a matter of who gets off the line better, but you also have to consider the fact that the charger has an automatic trans, so less whp than the mustang with a manual trans.

the real world numbers are that the Mustang Gt 5-speed runs a mid 13 second quarter mile, and the charger RT runs in the low 14s...so the Mustang GT has about a half second advantage over the charger...but thanks to the auto trans taking some of the difficulty of drag racing away, the mustang driver would need to be skilled, as the charger has the easier launch. keep in mind that racers use the equation that on the strip 100 lbs is equal to a tenth of a second in the quarter mile, so 500 pounds would be a half second difference.

however, keep in mind that DCX has confirmed that there will be a manual trans option, and if that is mated to the 5.7L hemi, it would allow the challenger to have a better whp than the charger RT, thus making it a more capable opponent for the mustang GT. however, the gearing of the challenger will have alot to do with it...if they go with the 6-spee tranny, it would allow them to offer a much steeper 1,2,and 3 gear...and gearing could close a .3 difference...