 |
The lime green Challenger that gets shoved out of a cargo plane in Furious 7 is not a 2015 car at all. It is a 2011 Dodge Challenger SRT8, packing the returning 6.4-liter HEMI rated at 470 horsepower and 470 lb-ft, then fitted with push bars, a roof-mounted harpoon, and a parachute. Here is what Dodge built and what the stunt team bolted on top.
Dave Saruk’s 1971 Dodge Challenger R/T wears factory Hemi Orange paint over a genuine 426 Hemi engine, and according to viewers, its history traces back to a barn in Switzerland before making its way home. Dave’s search for the car started with sibling rivalry, after his brother-in-law bought a Hemi Challenger first. Filmed at the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals in Rosemont, Illinois, this is one more entry in Lou Costabile’s ongoing hunt for great car stories. Watch to hear the full story.
Blip the throttle on a Challenger R/T Shaker and the hood scoop visibly twitches, because it is bolted to the engine rather than the body. Dodge borrowed that trick straight from the 1970 Challenger R/T. The 2014 package cost around 5,000 dollars, added almost nothing on paper, and buyers kept ordering it anyway. Here is what came with it, and why the manual cars are the ones collectors now watch.
A one-minute trailer for Fate of the Furious sent shockwaves through the muscle car community in December 2016 — buried in the fast cuts was a widebody Dodge Challenger nobody had officially seen before, wearing a Hellcat-inspired face months ahead of its real reveal. Fans also spotted a modified Charger and a widebody Plymouth GTX sharing the frame with a Lamborghini and a Subaru WRX STI. Read on to find out what Dodge was quietly teasing before it was ready to talk about it.
Back in 2016, word started spreading that Dodge might drop the V8 from the Challenger and Charger in favor of a twin-turbo V6 — a rumor most Mopar fans, including this outlet, dismissed outright. Years later, the debate turned out to be an early preview of exactly where the industry was headed. Read on to see how a rumor once written off as internet noise ended up getting the last laugh.
Restomod builders spend years blending classic muscle car looks with modern reliability, and then Dodge handed shoppers a finished version of that dream on a new-car lot. The Challenger held its retro shape for its entire production run while Mustang and Camaro moved on. So what was actually still missing from it? Read on for the case enthusiasts made, the answers Dodge gave instead, and how the argument ended.
Mopar’s Crate HEMI Engine Kits let owners of any 1975-or-earlier Mopar bolt in genuine modern HEMI power — 383 horsepower from the 5.7-liter kit or 485 horsepower from the 6.4-liter version — without chasing down custom wiring or tuning. Each kit ships with an unlocked, pre-calibrated PCM that sidesteps the usual factory security headaches of a late-model engine swap. Debuted on two complete builds at the 2016 SEMA Show, the kits have owners of everything from Dusters to Aspens asking if their own project qualifies. Watch the full rundown of what’s included.
In 1987, this Dodge Challenger owner traded away his F8 Green 1970 R/T for a Plymouth Road Runner – a decision he’d spend the next twenty-three years thinking about. When he finally tracked down his old car, its new owner wouldn’t sell it back, so he special-ordered a 2010 Challenger R/T Classic in the same High Impact Plum Crazy paint instead. This video puts both Challengers side by side, four decades apart, driven by the same person. Watch to see how much – and how little – actually changed.
For the third January in a row, the Mustang outsold both the Camaro and the Challenger — even as all three pony cars posted some of their worst monthly numbers in years. The gap between first and third widened, not narrowed, during the slump. Here’s what the January 2017 numbers actually showed, and why a soft month didn’t tell the whole story.
To mark eighty years of the Mopar name, Dodge built a Challenger nobody could easily buy: 160 cars total, split evenly between two hand-applied two-tone paint schemes, based on the 485-horsepower T/A 392 and loaded with catalog performance parts. Each one carried a serialized badge and shipped with a signed original drawing of that specific car. Read on for what the anniversary edition actually included and why a parts brand built it at all.
Two Dodge Challengers, a 1971 and a 1973, line up on a public street in Lebanon for a race that surprised viewers who never expected E-body Mopars outside Europe. A lime-green car’s Brazilian flag hides a personal family story, and the uploader has strong words for anyone who underestimates American muscle. What actually happens when these two launch?
At sixteen, John C. paid $700 in paper-route savings for a 1971 Plymouth Satellite Sebring, then spent the next few years turning it into a Rallye Red, leopard-interior statement piece that eventually earned him a police citation for riding too high. His story, and the garage full of friends’ cars parked alongside his, capture a slice of 1970s car culture that never made it into any factory brochure. Read on for the full build, the ticket, and the friends who were building right alongside him.
Halfway through 2017, Detroit’s three pony cars were close enough that the sales race looked genuinely undecided from month to month. By the time December invoices were counted, the gap between first and third had stretched past seventeen thousand cars. One of the three actually grew that year while the other two slid backward. Read on to find out which nameplate took the crown and which one quietly gained ground.
The 2011 Ford Mustang GT, 2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS and 2010 Dodge Challenger SRT8 gave up horsepower to each other in almost every direction, yet the finishing order at the drag strip was never really in doubt once curb weights entered the picture. One of the three carried nearly 500 pounds more than another. Read on for the numbers, the chassis differences, and why the least powerful car kept winning.
Some cars are rare because a manufacturer decided to make them rare. The 1971 Challenger R/T with the 426 Hemi is rare because almost nobody would pay for it, and then the option vanished before anyone realized what was ending. Roughly 70 were built that year, all hardtops, all with the shaker hood as standard equipment. Finished in triple black, this is about as intimidating as the configuration gets. Read on to find out what actually killed the elephant motor.