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Flesh and flesh, physical prowess, bits and pieces that will knock you down in one swift move. No, we’re not talking about Vin Diesel from the Fast and the Furious movies. The 2011 Dodge Challenger wants some serious blood against similar muscle cars from Detroit like the Ford Mustang and Chevy Camaro.
Driving the all-white V8 model for a week, we found a few amenities that impressed us beyond what even the Mustang 302 and Camaro SS offer (we’ve tested both facelifted versions of those cars over the past six months, including closed-track tests). The Challenger’s styling is arguably more of a throwback to the days when Starsky and Hutch were household names, but it still offers fun digital conveniences, like in-car options for a braking distance calculator and a 0-to-60 timer.
However, the Challenger has strong competition whose price is a hair’s breadth lower. The 470-horsepower V8 Hemi model we tested costs $44,000, but even the base V6 version costs $24,895. Meanwhile, the base model Ford Mustang, which still has the 305-horsepower V6 engine, costs $22,310. The 2012 Camaro Coupe costs $23,200. Dodge, you have some work to do to convince us.
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One early victory point for the Challenger: We definitely prefer the opening block shot. In testing the Challenger V8 against the 302 and SS, Dodge has some immediate urgency. There’s real excitement in hitting the sport mode button, squealing the tires and gobbling up the open road. In our tests, we achieved a best time of 4.6 seconds using the paddle shifters in Sport mode with traction control off. In the quarter mile we clocked 13.28 seconds at the flag and ran eighth in 8.80 seconds. These times are slightly below the nominal specifications which are only milliseconds lower. (Times often depend on the tires you’re using, the road you’re on, and the person driving.)
The reason the Challenger felt more muscular off the block is because it has a 470-horsepower engine that makes 470 lb-ft of torque, compared to the Camaro SS (420 lb-ft) and Boss 302 (380 lb-ft). The Challenger has a wobbly, chunky drivetrain – you feel every piston. This is not a German racing machine, so gear changes are more pronounced and even a bit jerky. The Challenger’s cornering should be boxy and road-heavy in a good way, not at all like a Corvette that slides around corners.
Another big difference with the Challenger compared to the Mustang and Camaro: The styling is more like what you might remember from the ’70s. The front end has a very classic look, with a smooth angular slope towards the rear. Fortunately, even with this more-reminiscent appearance, it was easy to see out of the Challenger, and we had plenty of headroom even with the sunroof closed.
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Our test model was equipped with a powerful 900 W amplifier and an 18-speaker Boston Acoustics stereo system. With that much audio power, you can turn up the subwoofer to the point where the whole car shakes with every beat. Unfortunately, the sound quality wasn’t great – the stereo system lacked the clear tones of luxury cars like the Audi A8, where you can pick up certain parts of a song. Instead, you get volume and a bit too much distortion. We ended up thinking that most of the music we played had power but lacked tonal distinction.
Our test car was also equipped with an efficient suspension. At $44,000, all the extras put it in a class where we had to directly compare the Challenger to other performance cars, including the Boss 302 and Camaro SS. In the end, we preferred those cars, but for completely different reasons. The Camaro has a hungrier growl, especially at idle and also when you upshift. On a lonely country road, we Camaro SS blasted through third and fourth gears with more power.
The Boss 302 is a racing machine that is (barely) street legal. We remember going through corners at incredibly high speeds and noticing that the car hardly flinched. The Challenger may be equipped with racing suspension, but in our experience the car was a bit shaky in tight corners. This means that against a Boss, you might get to the first marker before everyone else, but you’ll lose on the first turn.
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In terms of fuel economy, the Challenger does use gas, but not as much as we expected. The 22 MPG highway rating for the V8 is respectable, but in the city we noticed a 16 MPG rating which meant we had to fill up twice in one week. The base Mustang gets 31 MPG and the 302 gets 23 MPG. The entry level Camaro gets 30 MPG and the SS gets around 24 MPG.
The Challenger is quite cramped in the rear seats – passengers complained almost constantly during the test drive. There were also a few other complaints: the trunk is unusually heavy, so children who tried to open it had to struggle. We also had problems playing music – the iPhone 4 stopped working with the stereo on one trip and we had to turn the car off, sit down for a bit and turn it back on.
When the Challenger just doesn’t perform as well as its Ford or Chevy competitors, but costs more, you might wonder – who is the target market? For starters, it’s anyone who appreciates classic design. Maybe it’s a car you used to drive. Another main customer: those who want to use measuring tools located in close proximity to the speedometer. We had a lot of fun using them to test 0-60 acceleration, braking distance, and the quarter mile test. And then there is the raw engine specification. The Challenger has more power and more torque, and if you want to make a statement in your neighborhood about who has the most muscle, this is the muscle car for you.
Also check out our 2011 Dodge Challenger STR8 photo gallery.
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Categories: GAMING
Source: newstars.edu.vn