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2008 DODGE CHALLENGER SRT: Smokin’ Hot
Nothing’s hotter right now than Dodge’s new 425-horsepower 2008 Challenger SRT. Howard Walker takes it for a spin.
Howard Walker  | http://www.racer.com  |  Posted April 30, 2008   Los Angeles, Calif.
Striking a pose and delivering on its promises, the Challenger SRT is finally here.

Yeah, you’d want one. Maybe even sell a vital organ for experimental medicine for one. Certainly cash-in your kids’ college fund to put one in your garage.

Don’t worry, you’re not alone. When Dodge announced there’d be an initial, limited run of 6,400 Challenger SRT8s for the ’08 model year, they sold out before you could say “Eat My Mustang.”

And why wouldn’t you lust after this piece of throbbing, tire-fricasseeing, Hemi-powered American muscle? Especially when it comes with a 6.1-liter pushrod V8 up front delivering 425 horses and a whole hunka burnin’ torque.

The concept Challenger you saw a couple of years back is essentially what you’ll get when the first cars get delivered to eager Mopar addicts next month.

See this new Challenger in the metal and it’s 1970 Vanishing Point all over again. Open the door and you can almost hear Kowalski’s dulcet tones talking to his DJ buddy Super Soul – before he inserts the car into the blunt end of a Caterpillar bulldozer.
Design cues hit all the right notes, even down to the original grille.

There are some lovely design cues going on here. That kicked-up, Coke-bottle waistline, the hooded headlights, the tucked-under lower front end. The Dodge suits even OK’d the original grille design instead of the present trademark Dodge cross-hairs that was on the concept.

The exterior design of the production version is the work of Jeff Gale, son of legendary Chrysler design guru, Tom Gale. Jeff has all of his dad’s muscle car passion, having a 1970 Road Runner in his garage.

He’s an enormous fan of the ’70 Challenger so incorporated as many of its design cues into the new car as he could. Like those big, post-mounted door mirrors, which were created from moulds taken from an original Challenger.
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Howard Walker

RACER Magazine

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