TriShield
04-30-2008, 11:55 AM
http://www.motivemag.com/Content/uploads/1/chalgt_splash.jpg
http://www.motivemag.com/Content/uploads/1/chalgt2_center.jpg
words: Eddie Alterman
The definition of a muscle car has been lost to the fogginess of memory and the gaps between generations, but since we're in the midst of a retro-muscle revival, it's probably a good thing to revisit. Though this term — not even coined until the fuel crises had killed off the category — is one of the most hotly debated in all of autodom, a muscle car can safely be said to be any intermediate (read: two-door sedan) or sport compact with a seriously oversized V-8 and special trim. (Some allowance is also made for full-size cars like big-engined Ford Galaxies.) The Pontiac GTO is the first and best example, but there are many more: A Chevelle SS is undoubtedly a muscle car, by virtue of both its engine and body size, whereas a Corvette, even an L88, is always a sports car. The base '64.5 Ford Mustang is a pony car (it spawned and named the category), but in Boss or Shelby guise, it's a muscle car. Launched at the end of '69 as a competitor to the Camaro and Mustang, the Dodge Challenger was also a pony car, but Hemi- or 440-equipped models are firmly in the muscle-car pantheon.
The reason we're rehashing these taxonomies here is that the two cars we're driving back-to-back today — the 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8 and the 2008 Ford Shelby GT500 — are good examples of cars that have jumped categories. The GT500's Shelby stripes and supercharged V-8 are clear indicators of its muscle-car-ness, and the Challenger's SRT8 badge on the trunk signifies that this is something much more than a sporty coupe.
The Challenger also jumps classification for another reason, and that is because it is based off the corporate LX platform (Chrysler 300, Dodge Charger, parts of various Mercedes-Benzes). It is now a two-door sedan in the old mold, relieved of about four inches of floorpan versus the Charger. But most everything else is the same as the other SRT8 LXs. Same suspension, same engine, same transmission, same steering wheel.
And yet, the car reads as totally retro. According to lead designer Jeff Gale, it took a long time to get it that way, despite having an iconic shape (and the concept from the '06 Detroit show) to serve as inspiration: "The looks and the aerodynamics of the car had to work together," he says. "So in terms of proportions, that meant lowering the roof versus the LX cars, accelerating the rake of the windshield, and making the C-pillar identifiable as the Challenger's." Up front, he wanted to stay as faithful as possible to the concept's long, flat plateau of a hood, with its integrated snorkels and hallmark front grille and headlights. But Gale says that the first time the 3/8-scale model went into the wind tunnel, the first 1/3rd of its hood blew off due to its overhang. That hood overhang is essential to the shark-like profile of the car, though, so Gale's crew had to tweak parts like the front grille surround endlessly, while also making sure the front air dam and the rear Trans-Am-style spoiler worked in aerodynamic harmony.
But the most important thing the designers did to make this thing a true muscle car is visible under the hood. No, not the Hemi engine, although this particular item is also essential for burnouts. On the plastic shroud covering the grille stanchions are little circular indentations. These, partiers, are your adult-beverage holders.
Unlike its exterior, the Challenger's interior isn't far off from the other LX cars' — at first glance it looks like an all black Chrysler 300 cabin. Though at launch there's no pistol-grip gear selector as on the original car and the concept, [B]the interior nods subtly to the original 1970 E-body Challenger with items like the four-bomb gauge cluster, trapezoidal door panels, slanted shifter (there's only an automatic at launch, a six-speed manual is coming for '09), and dark headliner. The quality of the materials here is better than in the 300/Magnum/Charger, part of a Chrysler-wide initiative to improve its interiors. Heavily bolstered front seats denote that this Challenger, unlike many muscle cars of the past, is capable of changing direction. The rear seats are sized appropriately for full-scale humans. A performance display in the gauge cluster gives 0-60, 60-0, g, and 1/4-mile numbers. The only options are the MyGIG entertainment system ($890), a sunroof ($950), 3-season Goodyear F1 supercar tires ($50), and paint — Hemi Orange, Brilliant Black, or Bright Silver (more colors are coming next year).
Taken together, then, the exterior and interior of the new car are something like a well-observed collection of styling cues that telegraph Challenger-ness, even though this '08 and the '70 look vastly different when you get the two side-by-side. The new car is all bulk whereas the old one is lissome and trim looking, which is how all these visual comparisons with cars of the pre-safety era play out.
Like the Challenger, if you were to park the '08 Mustang next to a '68, it would look nothing like its antecedent. The current Mustang was the first retro-muscle machine to deftly overlay an assemblage of "heritage cues" onto modern proportions, and there have been oceans of ink spilled on the visual significance of this car (most of them gushed by J Mays himself). We all know about the changes that turn a Mustang GT into a GT500, so we won't belabor them here, but suffice it to say that, with its splayed-out grille, lowered body, and Ford GT–inspired wheels, the GT500 is about 1000 times as kick-ass looking as the Mustang GT. Too bad the interior has been whipped into submission by the accounting department. There's enough cardboard, mood lighting, and cheap leather in here to fill a sex shop.
Under the hoods of both cars, nothing's really new. In the Challenger, you've got your standard-issue 6.1-liter Hemi pushrod V-8 with a 10.3:1 compression ratio making 425 hp and 420 lb-ft of torque. It's mated to a Tremec five-speed automatic with AutoStick. The Mustang's got the supercharged 5.4-liter V-8 with Ford GT piston rings, bearings, and four-valve aluminum heads for 500 horsepower and 480 pound-feet. It hooks up to a Tremec six-speed manual.
http://www.motivemag.com/Content/uploads/1/chalgt3_center.jpg
http://www.motivemag.com/Content/uploads/1/chalgt2_center.jpg
words: Eddie Alterman
The definition of a muscle car has been lost to the fogginess of memory and the gaps between generations, but since we're in the midst of a retro-muscle revival, it's probably a good thing to revisit. Though this term — not even coined until the fuel crises had killed off the category — is one of the most hotly debated in all of autodom, a muscle car can safely be said to be any intermediate (read: two-door sedan) or sport compact with a seriously oversized V-8 and special trim. (Some allowance is also made for full-size cars like big-engined Ford Galaxies.) The Pontiac GTO is the first and best example, but there are many more: A Chevelle SS is undoubtedly a muscle car, by virtue of both its engine and body size, whereas a Corvette, even an L88, is always a sports car. The base '64.5 Ford Mustang is a pony car (it spawned and named the category), but in Boss or Shelby guise, it's a muscle car. Launched at the end of '69 as a competitor to the Camaro and Mustang, the Dodge Challenger was also a pony car, but Hemi- or 440-equipped models are firmly in the muscle-car pantheon.
The reason we're rehashing these taxonomies here is that the two cars we're driving back-to-back today — the 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8 and the 2008 Ford Shelby GT500 — are good examples of cars that have jumped categories. The GT500's Shelby stripes and supercharged V-8 are clear indicators of its muscle-car-ness, and the Challenger's SRT8 badge on the trunk signifies that this is something much more than a sporty coupe.
The Challenger also jumps classification for another reason, and that is because it is based off the corporate LX platform (Chrysler 300, Dodge Charger, parts of various Mercedes-Benzes). It is now a two-door sedan in the old mold, relieved of about four inches of floorpan versus the Charger. But most everything else is the same as the other SRT8 LXs. Same suspension, same engine, same transmission, same steering wheel.
And yet, the car reads as totally retro. According to lead designer Jeff Gale, it took a long time to get it that way, despite having an iconic shape (and the concept from the '06 Detroit show) to serve as inspiration: "The looks and the aerodynamics of the car had to work together," he says. "So in terms of proportions, that meant lowering the roof versus the LX cars, accelerating the rake of the windshield, and making the C-pillar identifiable as the Challenger's." Up front, he wanted to stay as faithful as possible to the concept's long, flat plateau of a hood, with its integrated snorkels and hallmark front grille and headlights. But Gale says that the first time the 3/8-scale model went into the wind tunnel, the first 1/3rd of its hood blew off due to its overhang. That hood overhang is essential to the shark-like profile of the car, though, so Gale's crew had to tweak parts like the front grille surround endlessly, while also making sure the front air dam and the rear Trans-Am-style spoiler worked in aerodynamic harmony.
But the most important thing the designers did to make this thing a true muscle car is visible under the hood. No, not the Hemi engine, although this particular item is also essential for burnouts. On the plastic shroud covering the grille stanchions are little circular indentations. These, partiers, are your adult-beverage holders.
Unlike its exterior, the Challenger's interior isn't far off from the other LX cars' — at first glance it looks like an all black Chrysler 300 cabin. Though at launch there's no pistol-grip gear selector as on the original car and the concept, [B]the interior nods subtly to the original 1970 E-body Challenger with items like the four-bomb gauge cluster, trapezoidal door panels, slanted shifter (there's only an automatic at launch, a six-speed manual is coming for '09), and dark headliner. The quality of the materials here is better than in the 300/Magnum/Charger, part of a Chrysler-wide initiative to improve its interiors. Heavily bolstered front seats denote that this Challenger, unlike many muscle cars of the past, is capable of changing direction. The rear seats are sized appropriately for full-scale humans. A performance display in the gauge cluster gives 0-60, 60-0, g, and 1/4-mile numbers. The only options are the MyGIG entertainment system ($890), a sunroof ($950), 3-season Goodyear F1 supercar tires ($50), and paint — Hemi Orange, Brilliant Black, or Bright Silver (more colors are coming next year).
Taken together, then, the exterior and interior of the new car are something like a well-observed collection of styling cues that telegraph Challenger-ness, even though this '08 and the '70 look vastly different when you get the two side-by-side. The new car is all bulk whereas the old one is lissome and trim looking, which is how all these visual comparisons with cars of the pre-safety era play out.
Like the Challenger, if you were to park the '08 Mustang next to a '68, it would look nothing like its antecedent. The current Mustang was the first retro-muscle machine to deftly overlay an assemblage of "heritage cues" onto modern proportions, and there have been oceans of ink spilled on the visual significance of this car (most of them gushed by J Mays himself). We all know about the changes that turn a Mustang GT into a GT500, so we won't belabor them here, but suffice it to say that, with its splayed-out grille, lowered body, and Ford GT–inspired wheels, the GT500 is about 1000 times as kick-ass looking as the Mustang GT. Too bad the interior has been whipped into submission by the accounting department. There's enough cardboard, mood lighting, and cheap leather in here to fill a sex shop.
Under the hoods of both cars, nothing's really new. In the Challenger, you've got your standard-issue 6.1-liter Hemi pushrod V-8 with a 10.3:1 compression ratio making 425 hp and 420 lb-ft of torque. It's mated to a Tremec five-speed automatic with AutoStick. The Mustang's got the supercharged 5.4-liter V-8 with Ford GT piston rings, bearings, and four-valve aluminum heads for 500 horsepower and 480 pound-feet. It hooks up to a Tremec six-speed manual.
http://www.motivemag.com/Content/uploads/1/chalgt3_center.jpg