I'll be honest with you, I'm not really a muscle car fan by any means. So, when I was asked to do a review on the Dodge Challenger SRT8, I wasn't terribly excited as a schoolboy seeing his first porn film. However, when I finally got this vehicle on the road I have to say I am impressed by the power this thing has under the hood.
Like most of the muscle cars today, the Dodge Challenger went with a more retro-style look like the Ford Mustang and the Chevy Camaro did. It's big, heavy and overall not very streamline like I normally like in cars. However we are talking about a muscle car, so things like that don't really matter as much with these. However, from the bold nose to the wonderful bodylines it really looks great. Then you add the graphics, a rear spoiler, and larger wheels and tires it looks even better.
Inside the Challenger has a very sporty and modern look compared to your 1970's editions. It has the gauges in a 4 pod setup and is very easy to read, even for the old geezers who want something to replace their old beat up car from way back when. The stitched leather bucket seats are very comfortable and look great as you can expect. There is even rear seats, but there isn't really a ton of room, and don't expect to be able to get back there from the drivers side because the seat doesn't move to do that.
Under the hood is the 6.1L Hemi V8 that roars out a impressive 425hp and 420lb.ft. torque. It also has a six speed manual transmission and a limited slip differential. All that power, and it still gets 14 mpg in the city and 22 on the highway. Very impressive for a muscle car.
Taking it on the road through the city, I have to admit it's quite comfortable. You barely feel any bumps in the road and the engine is not overly loud by any means. It also has driven in quite a lot of attention from a lot of people, which surprised me quite a bit. One guy even came up to me when I was getting off the cell phone in a parking lot and talked about his old 1974 Dodge Challenger that he still has in his garage at home and how the engine doesn't run in it anymore. Kind of a neat conversation in the middle of a review.
I then proceeded to the highway and that's when I saw what this car can really do! I could not believe how fast this car accelerates and how great the HEMI engine sounds. I didn't want to stop going faster, but ended up doing that when I saw a cop sitting in the median (maybe their reading these reviews now). I then got on the off-ramp and proceeded to the country roads. Overall again it's very comfortable, until I tried cornering at a high speed.
I have to say, that is my only complaint. It's got a lot of over-steer going around corners that I thought the back-end would slide out and put me into a ditch. I know muscle cars do have this problem, but you'd think they would have fixed that with the SRT8 model.
So, overall I have to say I like this car a lot. It looks great, has great power and handles overall pretty well. The starting price on 2009 Dodge Challenger SRT8 is $42,645. If you're not looking for something this powerful, they have 5 other models available that has a price range of $22,945 - $34,405 on the SE and R/T models.
Source : http://ezinearticles.com/?Car-Review---2009-Dodge-Challenger-SRT8&id=3062439
