Camaro5 Chevy Camaro Forum / Camaro ZL1, SS and V6 Forums - Camaro5.com
 
dave@hennessey
Go Back   Camaro5 Chevy Camaro Forum / Camaro ZL1, SS and V6 Forums - Camaro5.com > Members Area > General Automotive + Other Cars Discussion


Reply
 
Thread Tools
Old 04-17-2008, 12:29 AM   #1
Scotsman
Auto Pilot
 
Scotsman's Avatar
 
Drives: Gunmetal
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: L.A.
Posts: 1,307
Edmunds hangs with a Challenger SRT-8 for the weekend

Interesting story, too bad there's very little said about the car other than what we already know...



Quote:
72 Hours in So Cal Car Culture

By Erin Riches, Senior Editor Email

Date posted: 04-16-2008

"I'll never be able to face my muscle-car friends if I don't ask you for a ride around the block," Brooks reminds me.

"Sure, get in." It's not like I'm going to turn him down. This 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8 in all its Hemi Orange splendor has been illegally parked in front of motorhead bookstore Autobooks in Burbank, California, for an hour, so I'd be totally cold to just drive off without giving one of the guys a ride.

Dropping the keys into the cupholder, I press the start button. It's plastic rather than some kind of pretentious metal, yet it wakes up the 6.1-liter Hemi V8 all the same. It's a hot afternoon in Burbank, but I put the windows down so Brooks can get the full aural effect.

"It idles quieter than I thought it would," he says. "I was expecting it to grumble and snort like the old cars that my friends have."

I pull onto Magnolia Boulevard, take a quick right down a side street scanning for children and pets, and go for maybe two-thirds throttle.

"That's more like it," says Brooks, bracing himself a little. "The exhaust note gets all loud and old-school as the revs build, and even though it's an automatic, the car feels fast."

A minute later, we roll up to Autobooks and my only Challenger ride-along of the weekend seems to be over. But Brooks knows better.

"Wait here a second. I'm going to see if my manager Hiram wants to ride with you."

72-Hour Cruise


This is the first weekend that the production version of the 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8 has hit the public road, and we figure there are a dozen of them prowling the streets of Los Angeles. If I'm lucky, I have 72 hours to parade it through the Southern California car scene and collect opinions — the fresh, candid kind that you only get from people who have never before laid eyes on the car.

So I've planned a weekend cruise for the SRT8 that includes Ricky and Ronnie's in Torrance, Donut Derelicts in Huntington Beach, Cars and Coffee in Irvine, and finally Supercar Sunday in Woodland Hills.

If you've been to L.A., you know these places. They're famous weekend hangouts for car guys. Had it not been for the enthusiasm of this crowd, Chrysler might never have resurrected the Dodge Challenger.

Food 4 Less, Hidden Gem of Torrance

So I'm trying to hide the Challenger behind a Food 4 Less supermarket until the usual Friday-night crowd gathers down the street at Ricky and Ronnie's. But within 30 seconds of parking the 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8, my bright-orange cover is blown.

A black Cadillac CTS speeds down Vermont Avenue, and I hear the driver scream, "Oh, my god! It's the new Camaro!"

A very illegal U-turn ensues and the CTS pulls up alongside the Challenger. "I'm sorry!" says the neatly groomed driver, who's about 30 and out of breath. "We had to take a look at your car. I thought it was the new Camaro."

"Would you have come over here if you'd known it was the Challenger?" I ask.

"Maybe not, but he probably would have made me," he says, gesturing at his friend in the front passenger seat, evidently a Mopar guy. "So is it an automatic or stick?"

With that in mind, here is our own Inside Line list of the top three questions asked about the 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8:

1. "When does it go on sale?" (This spring, but you'll have to order one and wait.)

2. "How much does it cost?" (That would be just over $40K with the gas-guzzler tax included.)

3. "Is it an automatic or a stick? (The 2008 Challenger SRT8 is an automatic, but if our experience is representative, Chrysler better build plenty of 2009 Dodge Challengers with the six-speed manual and an authentically cool pistol-grip shift lever. The people want it.)

Hanging Out at Ricky and Ronnie's


We're getting ready to roll down the street to Ricky and Ronnie's when a 20-year-old Toyota Corolla carrying a full complement of guys of similar vintage cruises by. "You know you look good in that car!" the front passenger shouts as the Corolla sputters past. And from the backseat, "Hey, is that the new Camaro?"

Then a kid on a skateboard restores world order by correctly identifying our 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8 from 300 feet away. He's yelling so loudly into his cell phone it's as if he's standing next to me instead of across the street: "Giovanni, get down here now! The new Challenger is at Food 4 Less."

Just as I'm about to leave, a well-kept BMW 745i pulls up and an equally well-kept driver steps out. He knows what he's looking at. "Oh, the Challenger," he says, his eyes dancing the length of its 1970s silhouette. "This is the kind of car that men like. Can I see your engine?"

He studies the exposed iron-block V8 and properly appreciates the "Hemi 6.1" badge on the valve covers, then inquires about horsepower (425 hp at 6,200 rpm, thank you for asking). Finally, he says, "Come with me to Beverly Hills tonight," and I'm almost sure he's ogling the Dodge's orange flanks.

"Uh, I'm...I mean, we're on the clock right now," I say. If I stick with the Challenger, I might actually have a social life by the end of the weekend.

More Serious Than Fritters


It won't be happening at Donut Derelicts, though. These guys are highly skeptical of anything built after 1971. When we show up at 6:30 a.m. on Saturday morning, several of the regulars remember when we appeared in the Challenger concept two years ago.

A bearded guy in his 60s steps away from his mid 1960s Ford Ranchero to tell us, "This car is one of only a couple modern-day choices for us old muscle-car guys. The rest of 'em look like jelly beans with windows."

An owner of a 1967 Firebird is nursing a black coffee and concedes, "I like the look of it, but the stance is just too high, and those 21-inch wheels just can't force it into having the right proportions." We hear murmurs of agreement in the crowd.

We leave.

A Cup of Coffee or Two


About an hour later at Cars and Coffee, the owner of a 2005 Ford GT suggests the '08 Challenger should be 8/10ths its current size. "It would look better," he says, "and it wouldn't weigh over 4,000 pounds."

Another man (possibly a distant relative of Don Garlits) insists that Dodge should have specified a 392-cubic-inch V8 for the SRT8. "It would have been so much more nostalgic, so much more of a performance advantage." Some of the SRT gearheads must be thinking the same thing, as Chrysler is actually studying the feasibility of a 6.4-liter V8 — and you'll recall the Challenger Super Stock concept had a 392-cid crate motor.

We park our '08 Challenger next to an equally orange '70 Challenger drag car. It has a blown 440 V8, and in its better days, was probably making somewhere in the neighborhood of 650 hp, says its owner, John Anderson, who found it in Biloxi, Mississippi, thanks to eBay.

Anderson occasionally takes the car to the drag strip, where it'll run low 10s for the quarter-mile, but he dials down the boost so he can drive it on the street. When the shredded rubber from drag-strip burnouts falls off the back bumper, he does a burnout in his shop to restore this badge of honor so people know it's a working drag car. This is the kind of guy Chrysler wants to own the 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8.

Probably Chrysler isn't looking for an owner like the woman who asks me, "Why doesn't it have real neon lighting in back? People really like that. Was Dodge concerned about proper storage of neon gas?"

Let's Settle This Outside


On a warm morning at Supercar Sunday, held at Village Coffee Roaster in Woodland Hills, I encounter Mr. Mopar.

It takes a couple minutes to get the Challenger backed into its space here, and I hear someone say impatiently, "Is the visibility really that bad? I've got a 40-year-old muscle car that can beat that car in a straight line."

I turn around to see an unassuming, black 1966 Plymouth Satellite optioned with the 426 Street Hemi V8. I doubt his claim, because the 2008 Challenger SRT8 shouldn't have much trouble matching the Charger SRT8's 13.6-second quarter-mile time, and the Satellite would have been hard-pressed to run a 13.6-second quarter-mile time 40 years ago, even with slicks.

Yet the Plymouth's white-haired owner persists. "This is a real Hemi. Jay Leno wants to buy my car."

I reply, "Maybe you assume that I don't know the difference between a big block and a small block."

"Well, women come here and they usually don't know anything about cars, so I like to educate them."

Nice guy. We drive away before he has a chance to put out a cigarette on one of the Challenger's hood scoops.

The Past Is the Past


Later that day I meet muscle-car owners who get what the 2008 Dodge Challenger is all about. It looks like an old car, but it's never going to be an old soul. It has too many modern conveniences and too many shared components for that. But that might be for the better.

An Infiniti service technician taps on the driver window while I'm refueling with 91 octane. He's as excited to see the new Challenger in the metal as everyone else. "It's a good translation of the original," he says. "I prefer it to the new Camaro, because I think GM messed up its front end."

It turns out his personal car isn't a G35 or Z car, but instead a '69 Camaro. He tells me, "I grew up during the '60s so I will always have an old muscle car in my garage.

"But I'm going to replace my Camaro's 327-cid V8 with a fuel-injected 6.0-liter V8 crate motor, because I want to be able to drive the car every day and I want it to start reliably out in the desert. I'm also putting in a four-speed automatic and I might even add power steering and brakes. This is a realistic restoration."

This Is What Dodge Needs


On Sunday afternoon, I get a chance to hustle the 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8 through the corners of Old Topanga Canyon Road. The black fuzzy dice on the rearview mirror swing wildly, but everything must look OK from outside the car because kids are always trying to hail a ride.

Later I'm traveling south on the freeway, and a current-generation Mustang GT convertible speeds by in the carpool lane with its top down. In the passenger seat, a small boy has turned around to face the Hemi Orange Challenger, his arms folded on the door sill, an expression of pure bliss on his face.

The 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8? Kids get it.

The manufacturer provided Edmunds this vehicle for the purposes of evaluation.
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do...hotopanel..1.*
__________________
"Let the rest of the world dream of Ferraris, Lamborghinis and dinky little British two-seaters. In this country speed doesn't look like that." Got SS?
Scotsman is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-17-2008, 12:50 AM   #2
stovt001


 
stovt001's Avatar
 
Drives: 2006 Cobalt, 2004 Taurus wagon
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: California
Posts: 3,812
Hey that's all my neighborhood. Too bad I'm away from home right now, though aside from its looks this otherwise generic land-yacht really doesn't do it for me.

Notice the part in the beginning where she leaves the keys aside and still starts it? That's why I want a good push button system.
stovt001 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-17-2008, 09:23 AM   #3
Dan
 
Dan's Avatar
 
Drives: 2004 GTO
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Montgomery, AL
Posts: 448
Quote:
A black Cadillac CTS speeds down Vermont Avenue, and I hear the driver scream, "Oh, my god! It's the new Camaro!"

A very illegal U-turn ensues and the CTS pulls up alongside the Challenger. "I'm sorry!" says the neatly groomed driver, who's about 30 and out of breath. "We had to take a look at your car. I thought it was the new Camaro."

"Would you have come over here if you'd known it was the Challenger?" I ask.

"Not a chance"
Fixed
Dan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-17-2008, 09:48 AM   #4
DGthe3
Moderator.ca
 
DGthe3's Avatar
 
Drives: 05 Grand Am GT
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Niagara, Canada
Posts: 25,372
Send a message via MSN to DGthe3
nice read. I think that a similar drive in the Camaro would have yeilded similar results
__________________
Note, if I've gotten any facts wrong in the above, just ignore any points I made with them
__________________
Originally Posted by FbodFather
My sister's dentist's brother's cousin's housekeeper's dog-breeder's nephew sells coffee filters to the company that provides coffee to General Motors......
........and HE WOULD KNOW!!!!
__________________

Camaro Fest sub-forum
DGthe3 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-17-2008, 10:08 AM   #5
GothamCamaro
Then you're gonna love me
 
GothamCamaro's Avatar
 
Drives: 2010 Black Camaro Tumbler RS
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: NW Gotham, IL
Posts: 1,599
I was laughing through that read, at two different times... "Is that the new Camaro?" Poor Challenger. I'm telling you the hype for the Camaro is off the charts.

This story makes me want to get the Camaro the first week it's out so I can just park somewhere and have people ask me, "Is that the new Camaro?!?!?" and I can smirk and say, "Why yes it is, it kicks a$$."
__________________
Own- "Does it come in Black?" Exterior/ Grey Interior 2LT/RS Automatic
_____________________________________
The Batman would only drive a 2010 Camaro and buy from Camaro Scotty. 'Nuff said.

Anyone that knows of a place that is making the Concept Shifter for the new Camaro. (Auto specifically) Please let me know.

Order# NDTMVP Ordered 10/23/08.
2000 on 5/21/09... It begins.....
4B00 on 6/26/09... In transit to the Cave
5000 on 7/6/09 it waits for my arrival!
1000000 on 7/10/09 The Tumbler is in the Cave!
GothamCamaro is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-17-2008, 11:00 AM   #6
Emher
Pillaging Viking
 
Emher's Avatar
 
Drives: Saab 9-5 '99 (Hey it's a GM!)
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Sweden
Posts: 1,189
Send a message via MSN to Emher Send a message via Yahoo to Emher Send a message via Skype™ to Emher
Ah this makes me wish I had the money to buy the Camaro when it comes out. Would kick so much ass to be recognised and also to have people ask "what is that?" with wide eyes.
__________________
"Fifty years from now, when you're looking back at your life, don't you want to be able to say you had the guts to get in the car?"
Emher is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-17-2008, 11:22 AM   #7
wild_weasel
Ombudsman
 
wild_weasel's Avatar
 
Drives: Black 03 Jeep Liberty Renegade
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: United States
Posts: 90
I love this article simply because close to no one cares about Dodge's crap enough to know what the hell it is. "Is that the new Camaro?" 'Nuff said.
__________________
YGBSM

Eagles may soar, but weasels never get sucked into jet engines.

I want my 2010 Z28, and I want it now. Black Graphite Metallic please.

(Thanks to Mindz and Jinx for the avatar/sig pic respectively)

wild_weasel is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-17-2008, 04:10 PM   #8
TAG UR IT
www.Camaro5store.com
 
TAG UR IT's Avatar
 
Drives: 2014 ZL1 #705
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: SA, Texas
Posts: 26,558
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dan View Post
Fixed

Quote:
Originally Posted by DGthe3 View Post
nice read. I think that a similar drive in the Camaro would have yeilded similar results
Would have been off the charts!

Love the two comments about them thinking it was the Camaro. Good for the Challenger, though. I'm glad it's getting the recognition it's getting so far. Makes me feel good that the musclecar wars are returning!!!

And who's talkin' bout my baby's front end?!?! It isn't out yet....save those judgements!
TAG UR IT is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-17-2008, 05:51 PM   #9
TheMadHatter99
Kept the Faith
 
TheMadHatter99's Avatar
 
Drives: '10 Camaro 2SS/RS CGM
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Jacksonville, FL
Posts: 721
Also loving the fact that Dodge can't even release this car w/o it being constantly compared to the Camaro.

I too wish I could buy the 'maro as soon as it comes out...that'd be so cool.
__________________
TheMadHatter99 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-17-2008, 05:53 PM   #10
Scotsman
Auto Pilot
 
Scotsman's Avatar
 
Drives: Gunmetal
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: L.A.
Posts: 1,307
Turns out the Challenger is good publicity for the Camaro! Really! Folks will be just that much more excited to see the Camaro when they realize how much better looking it is than the car they sadly mistook it for.
__________________
"Let the rest of the world dream of Ferraris, Lamborghinis and dinky little British two-seaters. In this country speed doesn't look like that." Got SS?
Scotsman is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-18-2008, 10:26 AM   #11
rray200
 
Drives: 2018 Camaro 2SS 1LE
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Ottawa, Canada
Posts: 307
Looks like the late release date isn't hurting the 5th gen at all, except testing the patience of Camaro die hards. And no one can really get their hands on a Challenger outside of the rich baby boomers until 2009 anyways. So it really won't pose much of a competitive challenge to the Camaro in the beginning.
rray200 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-21-2008, 12:04 PM   #12
GothamCamaro
Then you're gonna love me
 
GothamCamaro's Avatar
 
Drives: 2010 Black Camaro Tumbler RS
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: NW Gotham, IL
Posts: 1,599
Quote:
Originally Posted by rray200 View Post
Looks like the late release date isn't hurting the 5th gen at all, except testing the patience of Camaro die hards. And no one can really get their hands on a Challenger outside of the rich baby boomers until 2009 anyways. So it really won't pose much of a competitive challenge to the Camaro in the beginning.
There's been a few comments about Camaro being late to the game, that is sooooo dead wrong. I wasn't a Camaro die hard until I saw the concept, so I'm one of the folks that GM hoped to catch my attention. They dropped a moon on my head with this Camaro. Now I'm one of the assimilated Camaro lovers. I've always thought the Mustangs were ugly so I guess I was meant to be a Camaro lover.

Had the 5th Gen never existed, I would have probably been looking at the Chargers and small interest in the Challenger. These are such exciting times! Man I want my Camaro so badly it hurts everyday!
__________________
Own- "Does it come in Black?" Exterior/ Grey Interior 2LT/RS Automatic
_____________________________________
The Batman would only drive a 2010 Camaro and buy from Camaro Scotty. 'Nuff said.

Anyone that knows of a place that is making the Concept Shifter for the new Camaro. (Auto specifically) Please let me know.

Order# NDTMVP Ordered 10/23/08.
2000 on 5/21/09... It begins.....
4B00 on 6/26/09... In transit to the Cave
5000 on 7/6/09 it waits for my arrival!
1000000 on 7/10/09 The Tumbler is in the Cave!
GothamCamaro is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
New future challenger information The_Stache General Automotive + Other Cars Discussion 25 06-09-2010 04:49 PM
2009 Dodge Challenger Press Release (introducing model lineup) Tran General Automotive + Other Cars Discussion 8 03-20-2008 12:47 AM
Challenger Pricing LSxcellent General Automotive + Other Cars Discussion 31 12-03-2007 09:00 PM
Ontario to become home of the all-new 2008 Dodge Challenger Mr. Wyndham General Automotive + Other Cars Discussion 3 08-09-2007 02:54 AM


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 01:58 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9 Beta 4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.