Dodge Challenger Gets a Green Light
07-13-2006 | 10:40 AM
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Dodge Challenger Gets a Green Light
NY Times
July 2, 2006
WHAT'S NEW
Dodge Challenger Gets a Green Light
LAWRENCE ULRICH
Dodge will join the rush to take advantage of a booming market in new and vintage muscle cars by offering a revival of its street-racing Challenger for 2008.
The Chrysler Group plans to announce the Challenger's comeback at the Pepsi 400 Nascar race today in Daytona Beach, Fla. A design study for the car, styled as a pure homage to the original of 1970-74, was unveiled in January at the Detroit auto show.
"We haven't seen this kind of spontaneous, passionate response to a car since we unveiled the Dodge Viper concept in 1989," said Tom LaSorda, the Chrysler Group's president and chief executive. The original Challenger was a rival to pony cars like the Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro, and a close cousin to the Plymouth Barracuda. Its optional 426-cubic-inch Hemi V-8 made Chrysler's Mopar models among the most fearsome drag racers of the era.
Like the Dodge Charger, the Challenger will share its platform with the large Chrysler 300. Unlike the Charger, which purists criticized for its practical sedan layout, the Challenger satisfies demands for a two-door muscle car. It will offer the modernized Hemi engine that has been a hit in several Chrysler products.
Three plants will vie to produce the car: St. Louis; Brampton, Ontario; and Saltillo, Mexico.
The Challenger's go-ahead, following the success of retro-muscle cars like the Mustang, puts more pressure on General Motors to move quickly to revive its Camaro. While G.M. says it is only considering a reborn Camaro, it is expected to build a showroom version of the concept car that it also showed in Detroit, but not before 2009.
July 2, 2006
WHAT'S NEW
Dodge Challenger Gets a Green Light
LAWRENCE ULRICH
Dodge will join the rush to take advantage of a booming market in new and vintage muscle cars by offering a revival of its street-racing Challenger for 2008.
The Chrysler Group plans to announce the Challenger's comeback at the Pepsi 400 Nascar race today in Daytona Beach, Fla. A design study for the car, styled as a pure homage to the original of 1970-74, was unveiled in January at the Detroit auto show.
"We haven't seen this kind of spontaneous, passionate response to a car since we unveiled the Dodge Viper concept in 1989," said Tom LaSorda, the Chrysler Group's president and chief executive. The original Challenger was a rival to pony cars like the Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro, and a close cousin to the Plymouth Barracuda. Its optional 426-cubic-inch Hemi V-8 made Chrysler's Mopar models among the most fearsome drag racers of the era.
Like the Dodge Charger, the Challenger will share its platform with the large Chrysler 300. Unlike the Charger, which purists criticized for its practical sedan layout, the Challenger satisfies demands for a two-door muscle car. It will offer the modernized Hemi engine that has been a hit in several Chrysler products.
Three plants will vie to produce the car: St. Louis; Brampton, Ontario; and Saltillo, Mexico.
The Challenger's go-ahead, following the success of retro-muscle cars like the Mustang, puts more pressure on General Motors to move quickly to revive its Camaro. While G.M. says it is only considering a reborn Camaro, it is expected to build a showroom version of the concept car that it also showed in Detroit, but not before 2009.
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