I've always been a fan of the Challenger, but the new SRT8 392 left me feeling like I'd been hit in the head with a 10-lb hammer. This car gives you a stupid grin and a mind full of wild schemes to scrape together a down payment like none of its predecessors have. Dodge has been constantly at work on its Challenger since its (re)introduction for the 2008 model year, and with the 392 it looks like they've finally got it dialed in. Exactly perfect. Continue reading...

The SRT8 392 is on the one hand a Mopar enthusiasts' package, with an all-new 6.4L HEMI that references one of the milestones in early HEMI history: the formidable 392 of 1957, a fortified and bigger-valved upgrade from the original 354 HEMI. But at the same time, it's simply a perfect Challenger for anyone, Mopar buff or not. Yesterday I got to romp one through the California countryside north of San Francisco, and I came away from the drive with a serious love buzz. Packed with wicked power yet unfailingly well-behaved, the 392 remains squarely planted despite some fairly rigorous thrashing. Roasting tires off the line, it fishtails sideways with a small flourish but then corrects itself back to center in no time. It thundered through the twisties of ragged coast and redwood forest with absolute sure-footedness, yet traction and stability nannies banished roll and slip with zero intrusiveness.  Also, Dodge has revised suspension geometry so that the car no longer has that slightly porky, cushioned feel that  made the old Challenger more highway cream-puff than true muscle car: a combination of stiffened suspension components and increased negative camber helps the car feel vastly more stable, and responsive without being twitchy. Interestingly, the refinement in this area makes the Challenger feel actually smaller, leaner, and more lithe, even though dimensions haven't changed. Rather than the bloaty attitude that pushed it up over the Mustang into behemoth territory, the Challenger now feels like a pared-down mean machine that's sized appropriately to its task.

Also notably vanished from the 392 is any delay when you floor the gas: throttle response is instantaneous, guaranteeing that when you drop the hammer, your heart freefalls into your stomach at the exact moment that that brain-pulverizing roar dumps out of the Challenger's two dual tips.

Numbers aren't supercar hyperbolic, but they're more than adequate for a street beast: the 392 puts down 470 hp and 470 lb-ft of torque, and the real-life feel of that low-end power is monstrous. The car I tested was an automatic, and though I would've loved to have put the new powerplant through its paces with the 6-speed, the auto was crisp, intuitively geared, and easily the most awesome of any Dodge-branded slushbox I've sampled thus far. It also included the clutchless stick-o-matic that lets you bump up or down through the gears using the automatic shift; however, this feature was the main gripe I had with the car. While it was great to drop a gear or two for pulling off high-pucker-factor two-lane passes, or to blow out your eardrums while screaming through a tunnel, the matter of whether or not you were in self-shift mode wasn't always apparent: sometimes the car would kick in and shift for you, others it'd let you cruise indefinitely at over 4000 RPM without any intervention. In fairness to the Challenger, I've always been a manual-shift kind of gal and I didn't spend a lot of time trying to figure the feature out, but it seemed a little gimmicky: if you wanna shift, just get the damn manual already.

The only other things I'd change are cosmetic and minor: I realize the screaming embroidered blue-on-white seats are historically appropriate, but without any visual tie-in with much else inside the car, they seem garish and out of place. And besides, have you ever known any hands-on car guy or gal who does well with white leather and embroidery? Make mine black cloth, please. Also, the rental-carlike gauges look as clean and unfussy as they always have, but Challenger can't sit out the disco-gauge arms race forever: it's really time to upgrade them to something a little more spanky, like maybe the new Charger's hottie-hot retro dials (pics soon). Last of all, the 392 is initially being issued in only two color schemes: your choice of blue on white or white on blue nose-to-tail double stripes. While Dodge will inevitably claim rights to this color scheme (hey! Shelby did stuff with us too you know!), I can't think of the combo as anything other than iconic vintage Ford: Cobra, Mustang, Ford GT. Sorry, but the 392 very much needs color and striping options that are unambiguously its own.

Still, cosmetic quibbles are immaterial, because this is a Challenger that has been revised for performance over appearance. And despite the big jump in power, up from 425 hp in the previous SRT8, fuel mileage hasn't suffered because the new HEMI drops cylinders at highway speeds (assuming you're not fiddling with the stick-o-matic... never mind, you won't be able to stop yourself). In any case, I've always been a fan of the Challenger in all its iterations, but it's a love that's always ultimately been qualified in some way or another. (It's gorgeous but it's just a bit too porky. I'd get one if it didn't cost so much. It's a badass car but I think I'd like a Mustang GT even more). All that's now out the window: this is a Challenger, for the first time, that's 100% worth it, no ifs, ands, or buts. And it'll be especially worth it once they're past the first year's worth of production, which will consist of only 1492 units (392 slated for Canada) that dealers will certainly gouge the piss out of you for. Oh well: get ready to suck it up, because the 392 is the Challenger that's going to show the world that Dodge's flagship muscle car has arrived.