Muscle And Fitness Dodge Challenger SRT Review (Part 2)

Muscle And Fitness Dodge Challenger SRT Review (Part 2)

Driving it

Starting the car is an occasion, and you get the impression Dodge’s engine development team went into its back catalogue and called up their collective greatest hits. There’s the pitch of the starter motor turning the engine over, the percussive initial turnover as the engine explodes into life and a muted drawl as the engine then settles into a low idle.

The gooseneck shifter isn’t the most comfortable to grip but the car is fitted with the Grand Cherokee’s five-speed auto gearbox, so you don’t need to deal with it that much. The paddle shifters on the steering wheel just seem wrong - though not through any fault in design or construction - but simply because they’re fitted to a muscle car. It’s not a comfortable mix.

Dodge Challenger SRT interior

It’s perfect to gurgling through town, and really, there’s not much more you need to do on the motorway either. If you like to self select but don’t want to use the paddles, then you can knock the gear lever towards the passenger for every upshift and back towards you for every down-cog shift you want to make.

There are three driving modes you can select, and these have an effect on the transmission’s behaviour and the car’s adaptive damper rates. Sport dials up a firm ride for better handling, and Track mode adds a faster shift between gears, and will hold gears without jumping to the next one. If you’ve cornering on the limits of adhesion, the last thing you want is an upset in balance of the car caused by the transmission grabbing for the next cog up.

Starting the car is an occasion, it’s like Dodge’s engine bods called up their greatest hits

Despite its near two ton mass, the car will launch to 100 km/h from standing in 5.6 seconds and run the quarter mile in 14.1 seconds. The dashtop timer suggests we managed the 100 km/h sprint in 5.1 seconds but the GPS data logging system we use is probably closer to the truth. Top speed is an estimated 270 km/h. That’s not bad for a coupe that is longer and wider than a Range Rover Vogue [1923mm] and far less refined. Launch control makes things easy and consistent - and will have to searching out stretches of grippy tarmac to try it. Where other systems hold the engine speed at around 3-4000 rpm, launch control in the Challenger is set to 1750 rpm. It will allow a little rear wheel spin to launch the car over the first 10-15 metres, but it all hooks up pretty quickly and dispatches the sprint without a cloud of smoke. If you do want to fumigate your mates, then you can switch everything off and do so.

A front weight bias of 54.4 percent helps keep the front planted under braking. That bias also helps initial turn-in and allows you to carry more speed into and through a corner as you balance the throttle.

Dodge Challenger SRT front view

Third and fourth gears haul the car up hills and out of corners rapidly. Throttle aggression is metered out by the traction control but, if you’ve taken your brave pills and switched it off, you’ll need to be quick with the tiller and judicious with your right foot.

With all of your attention focused ahead it’s easy to lose sight of the fact the car’s visibility isn’t the best. That widescreen cinema vista out the front is tremendous, but the narrow rear glass, thick C-pillars and raised waistline mean you’ve got to constantly monitor your mirrors to make sure you’re not going to drive into any fellow road users as you switch lanes. It’s good driving practice anyway, so is no barrier to safe driving.

Dodge Challenger SRT back view

We may be saying goodbye to the current SRT soon and welcoming in a worthy replacement, and it’s difficult to feel sad about that. The new car is going to be better in almost every regard because Dodge people are real car enthusiasts who value what they do. Many of the team restore their own classics in their spare time, so getting to work on a new project is tremendously exciting for them.

But the current SRT is good. It launches well, is both a comfortable road car and a capable driver’s car, and it stops abruptly.

Dodge Challenger SRT wheel detail

And if you’re looking for the kind of American muscle that’ll make you get up at 3am and head out to roar about the place, then the Challenger SRT is one of the most engaging cars you can buy. The V-8 has one of the best exhaust notes available, and has a road presence matched only by the Camaro ZL1.

The only gripes we have are with that boot-invading spare wheel and the interior, which is sparse and dated. It’s something Dodge has addressed with the new car, with a vasly better driver centris cockpit. There is a solid feel to everything in the current SRT, and you get the impression that it’d take a hammer and crowbar to dent the interior materials.

The Dodge Challenger SRT doesn’t do subtle but it does handle everyday driving without threatening to throw you off the road. And with the 2015 models writing new headlines, now seems the perfect time to pick up a run-out bargain. We’ll bring you more on the new Challenger next month.