Heavy Metal Brawler, Ready to Rumble
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TESTED 2012 Dodge Charger SRT8
WHAT IS IT? The already imposing Charger made even more intimidating in looks and performance.
HOW MUCH? $47,620 base, including a $1,000 gas guzzler tax, $49,310 as tested.
WHAT MAKES IT RUN? A 6.4-liter Hemi V-8 and a 5-speed automatic transmission; rear-wheel drive.
IS IT THIRSTY? Is the pope German? The Charger is rated at just 14 m.p.g. city, 23 m.p.g. highway.
MY father was a Dodge guy. All of his work trucks were Dodges, as were our family cars. I remember a Monaco, a Polara and a Coronet. When he helped me buy my first car, my father kept it in the Mopar family, steering me into a used 1966 Plymouth Belvedere.
His cars were practical, and it wasn't until I sorted through his papers after he died in 2001 that I had my own Biff Loman moment: I discovered my father's secret desire. He had saved a well-thumbed Dodge dealer magazine from 1970 that bragged about the brand's success in motorsports, featuring stats and tire-smoking photos of muscular Challengers and Chargers.
The Charger of my father's dreams produced 375 horsepower. It makes me wonder what he'd make of the 2012 Charger SRT8, a Dodge equipped with a 470-horsepower Hemi because the 425 horses of the previous version weren't quite enough. After a week with the car on a family trip to Virginia, I was close to tucking away a brochure for my own children to find.
The SRT8 is the latest addition to the muscle-car rebirth that has produced updated Camaros, Challengers and more versions of the Mustang than might seem possible. In fact, during my week with the SRT8, I became a muscle-car speed bump as many of the Charger's brethren slowed down to gawk at my test car. "They're looking at me," my wife, Christine, said after another Mustang full of guys swooped in for a closer look. Of course.
The Charger has had a checkered history, from the performance cars that tempted my father to forgettable coupes from the mid-1970s. This new SRT8 has taken the award (from the previous version of the Chrysler 300) as the most evil-looking car on the road. When Jalopnik.com asked readers what car looked most intimidating in the rear-view mirror, the answer was the Charger. With its open-mouth grille and squat stance on 20-inch tires, the SRT8 can indeed look frightening. Dress it in black for the full effect.
First Published February 12, 2012 12:01 am
