Challenger SRT8 is 21st-century muscle
Dodge updates 1970s styling, performance

BY STEVEN COLE SMITH
The Orlando Sentinel
Sunday, May 25, 2008


Dodge will introduce new Challenger models with a V-6 and less powerful V-8 engine and at lower prices this fall to go along with the SRT8 performance edition.
'08 Dodge Challenger SRT8
Type: Sports car-coupe.

Price: $37,995 (base V-6 model due out later at $23,000).

Engine: 6.1 liter, 425-horsepower Hemi V-8 with five-speed transmission.

EPA-rated GAS economy: 13 miles per gallon city, 18 mpg highway.

Fuel: Premium.

tank capacity: 19 gallon.

FEATURES: Front bucket seats, large trunk, roomy interior.

Weight: 4,140 pounds.

Wheels: 20-inch tires and alloy rims.

Options: Power sunroof, upgraded stereo with navigation system, Goodyear Supercar F1 radial tires.
Let's get this out of the way first: an EPA-rated 13 mpg in the city, 18 mpg on the highway and an optimistic 15 mpg overall.

Yes, that's on premium gasoline, not regular.

Yes, there's a federal "gas-guzzler" tax: $2,100.

The EPA's consumer Web site, Fuel- economy.gov, breaks it all down for us: At $3.73 a gallon, it says filling the 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8's 19-gallon tank costs $63.78. That it costs $6.22 to drive 25 miles. That it costs $3,732 a year to drive a national-average 15,000 miles. Which would cost $1,143 in a Toyota Prius, Fueleconomy.gov gently lectures, noting that the Prius would use 7.4 barrels of oil a year, compared with the Challenger's 22.8 barrels.

Don't even get Fueleconomy.gov started on the SRT8's "carbon footprint," which measures "a vehicle's impact on climate change in tons of carbon dioxide emitted annually." The SRT8's carbon footprint is a size-18 clodhopper, at 12.2 tons of carbon dioxide a year. The Prius' dainty footprint: 4 tons.

So consider us chastised over how much we like the 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8, and not all of that appreciation is directed at the sinful 6.1-liter, 425-hp Hemi V-8, though a lot of it is.

No, that appreciation is based largely on how this is a far, far better car than many of us were expecting, with killer styling that looks marvelous on the street and an interior that is very un-Chrysler-like, and we mean that in the best possible way. Taken as an overall package, this car works.

What may be the most important part of this: Lots of what appeals with this flagship Challenger SRT8 also should apply to the lesser models, which hit the market later this year as 2009s.

The fact that Dodge is launching only the ultimate SRT8 model as a 2008 is smart marketing: When the V-6 and less powerful V-8 models arrive this fall, the public perception of the Challenger will be based only on the fire-breathing SRT8, which lists for $37,995. This should benefit only the $23,000 base V-6 Challenger, which still should be basking in the glow of the SRT8. That's the idea, anyway. Go look at the SRT8 now, and if you can't afford it, come back in five or six months for its less sinister sibling.

The Challenger is, as you would suspect, styled in homage to the original, which lasted only from 1970 to 1974 and was never that big of a hit even then. Until the Challenger arrived, Chrysler relied on Plymouth to carry the pony-car banner with the Barracuda. The Challenger was, pretty much, a rebadged 'Cuda, but bringing back a Plymouth now would mean reviving the entire brand.

It's easier, then, to take the proven rear-wheel-drive platform found under the Chrysler 300, Dodge Charger and Dodge Magnum, which is a platform developed when Mercedes-Benz was involved in the design, and tweak it to fit under a Challenger body.

As that platform would suggest, the Challenger SRT8 is a big car, weighing in at a porky 4,140 pounds. With this engine, that weight is a factor only when cramming the car into a

 

I bought the 5/25 back issue of Orlando sentinal. It came today. NO CHALLENGER.

Has anybody seen the article in print to know which day it ran?

Steve

 

I did lots of phone calling to Orlando Sentinel. Author Steve Smith is, in my opinion, rude, to not return a single of the dozen phone messages I left. Another wrtier in the Sentinel automotive section researche the archives of print editions, and the 5/25 article here is online only, with no print date expected.

Steve