”Live life a quarter mile at a time”, ring any bell? The 1970 Dodge Charger that appeared in The Fast & Furios movie not long ago has rekindled great interest in the old school American muscle cars.
Ford was the first in line with its latest Mustang (I Am Legend), the success of which was sufficient to spur Chevrolet into producing a remake of the Camaro (Transformers). Chrysler’s Dodge Challenger has now made it a threesome.
Like the other two, the Challenger apes the shape of its classic forefather; it’s big and brash enough to make a Porsche Boxster seem positively puny; and even pictures of it will prompt ‘Greenpeace’ to write letters of protest. So it should tick all the right boxes for most car enthusiasts.
What Dodge’s designers tried to do was recreate everyone’s memory of the original Challenger. They kept the hooded headlights, long bonnet (complete with vents) and what they call the character line that runs from front to rear.
The result is a handsome car that’s also rather imposing, but that’s simply because of its sheer size. The Challenger is based on the same running gear as Chrysler’s 300C and is only four inches shorter than its sister saloon. So although Chrysler bosses say there are currently no plans to make a right-hand drive version, it’ll be mighty easy for them to change their corporate mind.
