Mopar Legends: 10 Most Significant Modern Dodge Muscle Cars
Dodge Challenger and Charger have risen to the top of their class, led by these legendary models.
Back in the 1960s and 1970s, the Dodge Challenger and Charger were two of the most dominating performance cars in America, but through the 1970s, both nameplates became far less muscular. The Charger got bigger and slower until it became a front-wheel-drive compact car in the 1980s. The Challenger that was so loved in the 1970s was discontinued and the Challenger of the late 1970s was a compact weakling built by Mitsubishi.
In other words, the Dodge muscle cars were gone by the 1980s. While there were some solid performance cars in that era, the company didn’t offer a V8-powered, rear-wheel-drive performance car to rival the Ford Mustang or Chevrolet Camaro after 1974. That all changed in the mid-2000s, when the Charger and Challenger both returned to the Dodge lineup. Those cars gave Mopar fans the rear-drive, Hemi-powered machines that they had been demanding for decades, with those two nameplates eventually becoming two of the most powerful production road cars in the world.
Today, we take a look at the most significant Dodge muscle cars from the modern era, including the Charger, America’s only four-door muscle car.
2006 Charger Lineup
The rest of the cars on this list are individual models, but we start this list of the 10 most significant modern Dodge muscle cars with the entire 2006 Charger lineup. While some will refute the suggestion that the modern Charger is a muscle car due to the fact that it is a four-door sedan, the 2006 R/T and SRT8 reintroduced the world to the Hemi-powered, rear-wheel-drive Dodge performance car.
In 2006, the Charger R/T offered 340 horsepower and 390 lb-ft of torque, making it an instant hit with the American performance crowd. Not only had there not been a Hemi-powered, rear-drive Dodge in decades, there was no sedan on the market that offered the combination of power and affordability. For comparison, the 2006 Ford Mustang GT in 2006 offered only 300 horsepower and 320 lb-ft of torque.
For those who wanted to spend a little more for bigger performance, the 2006 Charger also introduced the Dodge community to the 6.1-liter Hemi in the SRT8 models. Offering 425 horsepower and 420 lb-ft of torque, the first Charger SRT8 was considerably more powerful than the strongest Mustang at that time. In fact, the 2006 Charger SRT8 also delivered an advantage in power over the 2006 Corvette, which offered 400 horsepower and 400 lb-ft of torque.
These 2006 Chargers would lead to more, higher performance sedans over the years, but more importantly, the early success of the then-new Hemi V8 in the big sedan helped to bring about a rebirth of the Dodge Challenger.
2006 Challenger R/T Concept
The first official look at the modern Dodge Challenger came about at the 2006 North American International Auto Show in Detroit in the form of the R/T Concept.
This car introduced the world to the modern Challenger form, which is still in use today. It was powered by the same 6.1-liter Hemi as the 2006 Charger SRT8, so while it was only a concept, the first modern Challenger R/T was quite a bit more powerful than the Mustang GT at that time.
Best of all, many aspects of the 2006 Challenger R/T Concept would make it to production. The concept wheels with a 3D spoke design and the functional air openings on the hood did not become a production reality, nor did the unique headlights with LED trim, but the overall interior and exterior design of the 2006 Challenger R/T Concept would lead to the first production model a few years later.
In short, the 2006 Dodge Challenger R/T Concept was the first of what would be many beautiful modern Mopar muscle cars.
2008 Challenger SRT8
In late 2007, Dodge introduced the 2008 Challenger SRT8 as the first two-door, Hemi-powered, rear-wheel-drive Mopar production car since the early 1970s. In this first year of the modern Challenger, it was only offered in SRT8 form, with the rest of the lineup arriving in 2009.
The 6.1-liter Hemi that was introduced in the Charger SRT8 was standard in the 2008 Challenger SRT8, as was a 5-speed automatic transmission. This first modern Mopar muscle coupe offered the same 425 horsepower and 420 lb-ft of torque as the SRT Charger, making the Challenger considerably more powerful than the 2008 Mustang GT at 300 horsepower and 320 lb-ft of torque.
The 2008 GT500 Mustang had more power than that first Challenger SRT8, but the Challenger started roughly $5,000 less than the GT500 and when a Mustang owner added options, the 500-horsepower Shelby was right around $10,000 more than the Challenger.
By today’s standards, the 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8 isn’t very impressive, but when it was new, it was the Mopar muscle car that fans of the brand had been wanting for so long. At long last, there was a proper Dodge competitor to the Ford Mustang.
‘Mopar Legends: 10 Most Significant Modern Dodge Muscle Cars’ continued…
