Challenger

Make
Dodge
Segment
Coupe

Now seems a very important time to be handed the keys to a 2022 Dodge Challenger. It's all placebo, but there was a sense of finality when we climbed behind the wheel of our Chally 392 Widebody test car. The future of the Dodge muscle car is rather up in the air, and while there are mixed reports about the V8 living on, the only confirmed info we have is that the muscle car will be electric, at least in part.

On top of that, being handed a car with a naturally-aspirated 485-horsepower, 475-lb-ft of torque, 6.4-liter V8 in the year of our lord 2022 is a hard thing to believe.

After all, how can someone still make this? You'd think emissions regulations would have killed this 15-mpg monster, but here we sit. And do you know what? The world is better for it. This car is 110% Americana, distilled like a fine Kentucky whiskey into a single object capable of making you proud of a country you've no real reason to be proud of. We love the Challenger for it, and knowing this one will be one of if not the last cars to make us feel like red-blooded Americans, we're a bit sad.

Style: A Muscle Car Icon

Those wider wheels and blistered arches perfectly fit the persona of the Challenger, which channels retro muscle car style perfectly. Additionally, Dodge adds a front splitter, rear spoiler, and stiffer, shorter springs to the car, giving it epic stance.

Our tester was equipped with the Hemi Orange Package - a $1,500 option bringing our car's as-tested price to $63,500. The obvious bits include distinctive black and orange striping, but it also equips Carbon Black Warp Speed wheels and limits your paint choices to Pitch Black, Granite, Smoke Show, Triple Nickel, and White Knuckle to best show off the stripes. The package includes orange brake calipers, "392" badges on the fenders, orange Hemi badges, and an orange-trimmed R/T grille badge.

Inside, the orange theme continues with orange stitching, a flat-bottom steering wheel with the same effect, and a Dodge "//" logo on the combination Nappa/Alcantara seats. White gauge faces are a stylish touch that bounces neatly off the orange interior accents.

So, what does that leave us with? More Americana. There truly is no other muscle car with the sheer presence of the Challenger, and the widebody package with orange accents takes the visual drama to another level.

Performance: All Motor, All The Time

For the Dodge-uninitiated, our tester's name could be rather confusing; Dodge Challenger R/T Scat Pack Widebody, especially when a fan throws in the car's cubic displacement and refers to this as a Scat Pack 392. The important bits to distill are this:

First, the R/T nomenclature indicates this is a V8-only beast. Part two: Scat Pack. Originally, this was a name given only to cars that could run a quarter-mile in under 15 seconds. To meet that metric, the Challenger R/T Scat Pack eschews the lesser 5.7-liter HEMI for the larger 6.4-liter (392 cubic inches) item with 485 hp and 475 lb-ft. Available with either a six-speed manual or an eight-speed automatic, that 15-second quarter-mile is easily achievable. Dodge claims it'll nail an 11.7-second run.

Then there are the brakes, which are six-piston Brembo units at the front and four-piston units out back. Dodge also throws in three-mode traction control, which can be fully disabled, a setting that is not for the faint of heart. Finally, you get adaptive dampers.

Part tres: Widebody. The largest change is, of course, the wider body. But it also nets you 20x11-inch wheels shod in 305/35-profile rubber. Ours came with Pirelli P Zero summer tires, and the extra sticky-icky still isn't enough to keep this car from blowing the tires off well into 3rd gear if you kill the traction control.

Driving Impressions: 392 Hemi Live In Concert

The Challenger 392 drives like a Metallica concert. It's a huge ensemble that leaves you feeling like you're performing for tens of thousands of screaming fans. There are big, meaty power chords echoing out from the dual exhausts, staccato, drum-like shifts from the eight-speed auto 'box, and wailing vocals brought to you by the fabulous intake noise at the front. Hell, if Kirk Hammet's guitar were a car, this'd be it. It's Ride The Lightning in automotive form, but instead of electricity, you're riding a wave of torque and leaving thunder in your wake.

That's really all this motor is, anyway. It's just mountains of torque briefly interrupted by shifts. Some people value the way a car handles. Others, the way it looks. But if you want a car that's all about the motor, this may just be the best thing this side of the Lamborghini Huracan.

It feels old school, yet techy - thanks largely to the modern trappings that surround this hunk of American (it's actually Canadian-made) V8 - like seeing an old band in 2022. They're the same, but the set has changed around them.

Because our car had the optional automatic ($1,595), it also had a special party trick, an encore in the form of Line Lock. Push the button buried in the car's SRT drive mode settings, and it'll hold the front brakes while gently warming the rear tires and turning the weather in your locale from sunny to overcast in seconds. Dodge will say it's for drag racing (and you can even measure quarter and half-mile times with the car), but it's really just Sideshow Mode.

Should you want to go all in, there's also a large, prominent "LAUNCH" button begging to be pressed. Do so, and after you've set the car's launch RPMs via the SRT drive settings, depressed the brakes, and floored the throttle, you're off to 60 mph in a time that'll compete with supercars. On a less-than-ideal, unprepped, and rather hot surface, we managed 4.2 seconds.

But, these numbers, drive modes, and statistics are all just noise. When you're sick of all that, the middle-child-Chally can be a civilized daily driver. That means the Challenger 392 Widebody Scat Pack Hemi Orange Package V8-Go-BRRR-Edition isn't just a car for being loud and American in.

You can put groceries in the trunk and people in the back, and with our tester's Plus Package giving us ventilated seats, ambient lighting, and a nice mix of carbon, suede, and leather throughout the interior, it did double duty as a perfectly comfortable high-speed lounge on wheels.

If you need one car and it must be a muscle car, this is it. It's $20,000 cheaper than a Hellcat with usable on-road performance, more spacious than a Mustang Mach 1, and more of a Muscle car (with a capital "M") than a pony-hunting Camaro.

Still, there are some issues. The V8 has an obnoxious drone on the highway, and the adaptive dampers don't seem to do much. If you're not used to being Mr./Ms. Social, people will notice you in this, and not all of them in an approving manner. Fuel consumption can be described as "gluttonous," and the cops will make any excuse to get those lights in your rearview mirror.

Oh, and there's that other American Muscle cliche that kinda just happens to be true... This car does not corner. No sir, no cornering for you. Instead, you'll pick a line, a gear, and a speed. Then, you'll turn the wheel. The seats are wide, so you'll slide over a bit, and then, you'll hang onto the wheel like you would one of those spinning teacups at the fair.

It's sloppy and wild. Still, it's fun as hell.

Interior: Who Cares?

With so much of the focus placed on the Challenger's looks, performance, and general vibe, you'd think Dodge would've forgotten to put seats in the thing. Thankfully, it didn't. However, the interior does feel a bit like Dodge has laid a whole bunch of nice linen sheets over a mattress found on the side of the highway. You know what's underneath (plastic), but you'd rather not think about it. Despite that, the materials present in this particular car were nice. However, some of the leather had delaminated from the driver's side door in our press car; not great.

A word of advice should you want one of these for yourself: spend a bit of money on the interior.

Our car came with the upgraded Uconnect 4C NAV 8.4-inch touchscreen, but navigation is all it adds compared to the standard item for $995 - something we're not sure is necessary considering Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are standard.

In the Challenger's cabin, there are two stars of this show. First, the controls; there's no screen to dig through unless you're deep in the car's customizable SRT modes. You'll set those up once, things such as the shift light, launch RPMs, drive settings, and timers, but other than that, the car's controls are purely physical.

The second star, but by no means second string, are the seats. These are FANTASTIC. While they're a bit wide for skinny journalists, most Americans will fit just fine. But the real benefit to these seats is the comfort. It's not often you look at a seat and it's as comfortable as you expect. These are. They're nicely trimmed as well, and the ventilation will keep you cool while you play Dukes of Hazzard in the sweaty American South. For some reason, only American companies seem to do a good ventilated seat. Dodge is one.

The cabin is large, despite this being a coupe, and even an adult can fit without feeling like a second-rate citizen. But you're not putting four adults in this car for more than an hour. Still, thanks to Dodge's well-planned use of space inside, this is a car you can cruise in every day. We wouldn't hesitate to spend six hours driving this car halfway across the state. Or state lines, depending on if you've been caught using Line Lock on public roads.

Verdict: Last Man Standing

This unique combination of usability, V8-driven sense of occasion, style, and affordability means the Challenger stands on its own. Both the Mustang and Camaro have become more sports car than muscle car in years gone by, despite their loud, brash V8 engines, and the Chally is cheaper than typical true-blue four-seater sports coupes like the BMW M4. Yet the Challenger is too expensive to be considered a budget performance car. So, where does that leave you?

If you ask us, it leaves you standing next to a car without equal. That's partially by default. This is really the last honest-to-God muscle car left standing. But it's also not there to compete with anyone.

Dodge has filled a niche, now bringing more than a decade of Challenger sales to a very, very successful close. The next chapter looms, and with the Challenger Scat Pack fresh in our memory, we're a little apprehensive.

Metallica won't be on tour forever. And the idea of what it means to be a red-blooded American won't be the same tomorrow. So ride the lightning. Just like the song says, you've found yourself somewhere you don't want to be, with what is very likely your last (V8) ride.