Hot Wheels made a 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T model. It seemed large and kind of blocky next to Mattel's Ford Mustang and Chevy Camaro. The real Challenger was a conveyance for the emerging decade that transformed the ponycar into a musclecar, sharing its platform with the smaller Plymouth Barracuda, not with any compact sedan.
A modern musclecar, the 2009 Dodge Challenger R/T has 6.4 inches more wheelbase and six inches more overall length than the 1970, making it full-size by almost any measure. Because it shares the Chrysler 300/Dodge Charger's tall firewall, the Challenger is longer than those two sedans, despite a four-inch cut in its wheelbase. The Challenger had to be long to maintain its elegant, retro-futuristic proportions, right down to its long overbite/underbite grille and serious blind-spot C-pillars. If you're one of the purists who complained the Charger shouldn't have four doors, your coupe has arrived.
Reasonable purists will like the optional Tremec T6060 six-speed manual, adapted from the Viper, but with light, smooth clutch-pedal action. The six-speed is available on the R/T and SRT only; the V-6 SE comes with a four-speed automatic. The manual has triple-cone synchros in first and second, double-cones in the remaining gears. It's a satisfying gearbox, worth selecting over the automatic (five-speed in SRTs and R/Ts) just for its modern, ergonomic take on the original's pistol-grip shifter.
Being a coupe, the Challenger's shocks and springs befit its sportier intentions. Being 39 years newer than the original, it has a more sophisticated suspension, better NVH, "plus a couple of gears and a pair of new Hemis," says product chief Larry Lyons. "Like me, it's gained a few pounds."
You're familiar with the SRT and its 6.1-liter Hemi, rated 425 horsepower and 425 pound-feet. The R/T's 5.7-liter V-8 is rated 370 horsepower and 398 pound-feet with the five-speed automatic, 375 horsepower and 404 pound-feet when equipped with the stick and fueled with recommended premium. City economy drops 1 mpg with the stick, but the manual-unique exhaust system optimizes backpressure, composing an especially burbly soundtrack, particularly for the 1-2 upshift.
The R/T forgoes the SRT's high-backs in favor of low-back buckets. The popular equipment package gets you such SRT standards as leather interior, Boston Acoustics six-speaker, 276-watt amp, satellite radio, heated front seats and Keyless Go. A "Classic R/T" package adds functional hood scoop, Challenger script badge, body-side stripe, and 20-inch wheels (up from 18s). The R/T shares two color options with the SRT, Hemi Orange and, available "later," B5 Blue. R/Ts get body-colored rear lip spoilers; SRTs have black spoilers.
For a cappuccino short of $30K, the Challenger R/T is a bargain next to its quicker sibling, competing in price with Mustang GTs, Pontiac G8 GTs, and probably the Camaro SS instead of $40,000-plus BMWs, Audis, and Corvettes. It's also in the same price range as the John Cooper Works Mini. Enthusiasts won't cross-shop the R/T and JCW-their performance "philosophies" are polar opposites. Yet both have a propensity for understeer. The R/T's just too big and heavy to get around a tight track (like the Englishtown, New Jersey, circuit Dodge provided), without scrubbing front tires. Unlike the front-drive Mini, you can steer the rear-drive Challenger out of a turn with the throttle if stability control is off and correct resulting oversteer with a quick opposite-lock snap. The R/T's understeer is much more controlled than the Mustang GT's.
As far as American cars have come in four decades, the Challenger R/T's ride and handling flavor is much like the original's and like former Chrysler patron Mercedes' cars. It's more Interstate/autobahn cruiser than mountain-road slalom champ. If the SRT has even stiffer shocks and springs, they didn't make noticeable difference in back-to-back SRT-R/T laps at Englishtown. Like most Mercedes, the suspension is controlled and compliant enough to make the R/T comfortable for anyone used to big performance sedans. This is a refined car, a much quieter and better ride than the live-rear-axle Mustang.
The Challenger R/T is a car for threading through heavy Interstate traffic, where you can leave the six-speed in long-legged third, fourth, or fifth gears to power on and off. The car's presence alone makes fellow motorists gawk, and then make way. With its design updated into a sort of 11/10ths-scale cartoon of the original, the 2009 Challenger R/T is an adult's toy for the middle-aged boy who refuses to grow up. For that kid, gas prices won't matter any more than they did when he let gravity power his first Challenger R/T down a Hot Wheels track.
[source:MotorTrend]
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