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2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8 – Driving Impressions

The first thing anybody does when they get in a Challenger SRT8 is mash the throttle just to hear the engine rev. It's OK, really. Like turning up the stereo when your favorite song comes on, it's a reflex action and you can't help it.

The second thing they do once underway is goose it from a stoplight. The traction control has a half-second of hesitation before kicking in, allowing the Challenger's rear tires to chirp very audibly before electronics kill the fun.

The third thing they do is find an open straight and unleash all the power and torque and sound the engine can muster. It's a lot of all three: Dodge estimates 0-60 mph times of around 4.9 seconds, the quarter-mile in 13.3 seconds and a top speed of 170 mph. All the while, the driver is accompanied by one of the best V-8 tunes in existence. It's at this point that the nostalgia for the good ol' days is at its strongest: The V-8 in full song, the rear tires scrabbling for traction (or just smoking away if you prefer) and the rest of the world looking on thinking you're either the coolest person in the world, a juvenile delinquent, or both.

The transmission is a mixed bag. On one hand the shifts in Drive are quick and smooth, and easy to summon with a tickle of your right foot. However, the Hemi is a peaky engine, meaning most of its power and torque is delivered high in the rev range. It makes us wish for an extra gear in the Challenger's transmission, so we could stay in the meat of the power band more often. The other problem is that we don't like the way the automatic insists on upshifting when in manual mode. It's irritating when pushing the car on a track or on a mountain road; you have to downshift to get into the gear you want, but it happily changes gears before redline all on its own, and always exactly when you don't want it to. The transmission also upshifts precisely when your burnout is getting good and smoky, which is a total buzzkill. Dodge's SRT engineers insist that customers want it that way, and if this weren't the performance edition we could buy that, but we want it to stay in the gear we select. Luckily, a regular six-speed manual transmission will be available next year, solving both problems at once.

The nostalgia fades in a good way when you bend the Challenger into a corner. The multi-link suspension is capable of feats no 70s production car could approach, and the big sticky Goodyear F1 tires have nearly four decades of chemistry advances behind them. The result is surprisingly good handling for such a big and heavy vehicle. The tail rotates nicely when you want it to, and if you're so inclined lurid powerslides are also available once you shut off traction and stability control. The car's weight is well controlled, only becoming noticeable on quick side-to-side transitions; it never gets away from you, but the feeling of mass moving is unmistakable. Otherwise the Challenger is planted and secure, and a lot of fun on a twisty mountain road or a race track. The same story is true of the big Brembo brakes, with the giant discs hauling the massive Challenger down from speeds quickly and without fuss. Even from the triple-digit speeds we attained on the racetrack, the brakes never faded or complained, even later in the day after quite a bit of abuse.

When it's time to leave the fun behind and just cruise back home on the highway, the Challenger washes away all of the bad memories of muscle cars. The ride is comfortable and compliant. Wind noise is muted and well controlled. Even the engine is silenced into a subdued, barely noticeable burble at speed. It could be any big rear-drive American sedan on the highway, ready to soak up the miles without beating up its driver.