Dodge Challenger: Old is new again - but better

New version of '70s muscle car just as powerful and fast, but smoother, more fun to drive.

You can understand my family's surprise when we heard a rumble in the driveway and saw my father getting out of a new Dodge Challenger R/T muscle car painted traffic cone orange with black stripes.

He'd left for work that morning in his dirty, pea soup green Dodge Dart with cracked vinyl seats and rusty rocker panels.

This was in the early 1970s, and we figured that Dad had officially gone middle-aged crazy. Our uncle, a Dodge dealer, talked him into buying the Challenger.

My father was a college art professor who had nine children, attended Mass every Sunday and listened only to classical music. His family couldn't think of a more inappropriate car for him, but we thought it was cool that he would even think of it.

Less than a week later, the Challenger was back on my uncle's lot. My dad's midlife needs were eventually satisfied with a Volkswagen Scirocco sports coupe and several Modern Jazz Quartet records.

During the Challenger's brief tenure, Dad tossed me the keys a couple of times. It was fast all right, but rough, and frankly not much fun to drive on speed-restricted city streets.

Thirty-some years later, I took another drive in a Challenger, the 2008 SRT8, priced about $38,000. (Original Challenger price was around $5,000. That's before the family discount.)

This recent drive, just a half hour or so, was on the banked oval at Chrysler's proving ground near Detroit, an auspicious first taste of the reincarnated Challenger's most powerful model and the only iteration available to the public until now.

Unlike the original Challenger R/T, discontinued in 1974 when interest in muscle cars faded, the new SRT8 model is smooth and easy to drive. But the exhaust rumble still broadcasts confidence, and the driver still better be holding on when hitting the accelerator. The 425-horsepower, 6.1-liter Hemi V-8 moves the '08 Challenger from a stop to 60 mph in five seconds or less.

Dodge introduced the SRT8 a few months ago in a limited edition of 6,400, which the company says sold out quickly. (One Austin dealer told me he still has one '08 SRT8 left.)

Full rollout of three '09 Challenger models priced from $22,000 to $40,000 has just begun.

The least expensive will be the Challenger SE with a 3.5-liter V-6 and 250 horsepower. The Challenger R/T, starting around $30,000, will use Chrysler's 5.7-liter Hemi V-8, refined for '09 to produce 372 horsepower using less fuel than the previous Hemi. For '09, the SRT8 will get an optional six-speed manual transmission (also on the R/T) and limited slip differential. Automatic transmissions all are five speeds.

To Dodge's credit, interior and exterior designs are spare, functional and attractive. The optional 20-inch alloy wheels and performance tires of the SRT8 and R/T contribute to the businesslike appearance.

The reincarnated Challenger, a rear-drive coupe like the original, rides on a wheelbase 6 inches longer than my dad's, so rear legroom is decent, and even tall front-seat occupants are able to stretch out. As with similar coupes, its backing visibility is poor.

During the next year, I'll drive all the models, but my initial experience suggests that the SRT8 will add a desirable choice for drivers looking at the Ford Mustang GT and Shelby Mustang, as well as Chevrolet's upcoming resurrection of the Camaro SS.