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2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat [w/videos]

Darrell Waltrip once said, "If the lion didn't bite the tamer every once in a while, it wouldn't be exciting." The sentiment behind that aphorism is causing my adrenal gland to wake up as Dodge and SRT drivers and engineers - somber-faced to a man - give me the track talk that will precede my driving the 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT on the circuit at Portland International Raceway. PIR might not be Daytona, and the 707-horsepower Challenger Hellcat might seem tame to a legend like ol' Jaws, but there's a not-small part of me that's thinking about how hard Dodge's fire-breathing kitty might bite.
Just a few hours previous, I'd gotten behind the wheel of the Hellcat for the first time, letting its hyperbole-spitting, supercharged V8 Hemi pull me yieldingly through Portland's morning commuter traffic. Lulled into a cocky certainty by the Challenger's good manners at low speed, I drove the throttle just a hair too deep, too fast when I ran on to the highway ramp. For just an instant the rear tires were utterly drenched in torque, and the back end of the big Dodge loosened up like a drift car on a wet track. Throttle steer lives at the fleeting whim of your right foot in this car.
It was no big thing to lay off the gas and pull the Hellcat back in line as I entered the highway, but the incident did get me to thinking: What will this car do to me on a road course?

Dodge Challenger outsold Mustang, Camaro in third quarter of 2019

The Dodge Challenger is nearly old enough to start driver's ed in some states, and it doesn't have a firm grasp on the increasingly crucial concept of downsizing, yet it beat the odds to become the most popular American two-door model during the third quarter of 2019. Its ballooning sales figures suggest buyers don't always want the latest, most advanced car they can get their hands on. Dodge sold 18,031 examples of the Challenger during the third quarter of 2019, a shocking 21% increase over the same period in 2018. It's a true muscle car, normally sardined in the same can as the Chevrolet Camaro and the Ford Mustang, a pair of smaller, nimbler two-doors that are much closer to the historic definition of a pony car. Semantics aside, the Mustang finished on the second spot of the sales podium with 16,823 sales, a 12.3% drop compared to the third quarter of 2018, and the Camaro took third with 12,275 sales, a 15% dip that alarmingly comes in the wake of two redesigns. More specific sales figures aren't available. We don't know what percentage of the sales mix V8s represent, or whether buyers prefer manual or automatic transmissions. The scoreboard looks different when we examine 2019's year-to-date figures. The Mustang takes first place with 55,365 sales, followed by the Challenger at 46,699, and the Camaro at 36,791. While the Challenger's recent ascent is encouraging, it can't mask the fact that two-door models no longer enjoy a favorable tailwind, and the entire segment — not just the American entries — is declining. The aforementioned year-to-date figures are down by 10.1, 11, and 7.6 percent, respectively. The third-quarter statistics revealed a handful of other surprises unrelated to the world of performance. Dodge notably sold three examples of the Dart, a sedan it hasn't built since 2016. That's a 93% drop compared to the 45 units that found a home during the third quarter of 2018.

Junkyard Gem: 1994 Dodge Spirit

Under Lee Iacocca's watch, Chrysler began selling the first of the modern new K-Cars for the 1982 model year, and American sales of Ks and K-derived cars and minivans continued all the way through 1995. While these vehicles saved Chrysler from near-certain doom after the agony of a government bailout in 1979, the platform had become pretty outdated by the middle 1990s (though GM didn't hesitate to sell its similar-vintage J-Cars well into our current century). The Spirit replaced its aging Aries cousin starting in 1989, and has become very tough to find today. Here's a late Spirit with the optional Mitsubishi V6 engine, found in a Denver self-service yard recently. For the 1991 and 1992 model years, the Spirit R/T was the fastest new four-door car you could buy in the United States. With 224 horsepower from a very nervous turbocharged 2.2-liter engine, the Spirit R/T could run the quarter-mile in 14.5 seconds and hit a top speed of 141 mph. Today's Junkyard Gem isn't one of those cars, unfortunately. The base engine in the 1994 Spirit was a 2.5-liter Chrysler straight-four rated at 100 horsepower, but this car has the optional 142-horse Mitsubishi 6G72 V6 engine. The 6G7 family of engines remains in production to this day, 35 years after the first one went into a Galant, and members of this engine family have powered everything from the Diamante to the Sonata. On Chrysler vehicles of all-Mitsubishi design from this era, the engines tended to have big Mitsubishi emblems prominently displayed. For a Chrysler-designed car, though, it made more sense to badge the engine as a Chrysler. Note the British spelling of the unit of displacement here; GM and Ford started that trend back in the 1960s, with the "6.5 litre" Pontiac GTO and "7.0 litre" big Fords. With the big engine plus power windows, decklid luggage rack, and other luxurious (for a Spirit) options, I'm pretty sure this car didn't start life in a fleet. It drove more than 175,000 miles during its time on the road. The resale value of a 26-year-old Detroit sedan with high miles can't be much, even if the interior still looks nice enough, so any mechanical problem (or just a trade-in) spells doom for cars such as this one. The gold insets in the aluminum wheels look very stylish. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. 117 out of 200 Americans preferred the Spirit to the Honda Accord! This content is hosted by a third party.