I release the brake pedal the way you pop a clutch. The 20-inch Goodyear performance tires noisily protest their loss of traction, let the Challenger fishtail a little, and leave behind their dissenting black-rubber signatures. The 470-horsepower Challenger vaults ahead, forcefully reminding me of why they build seats with backrests. Zero to 60 is accomplished in 4.5 seconds.
Is that fast? Does The Donald use hair spray? Does Newt Gingrich need a baggage trolley?
This special Challenger model, whose 470 horsepower is matched by 470 pound-feet of torque, is certainly one of the gutsiest automobiles I've driven. If you scratch the 600-horsepower Dodge Viper, the 556-horsepower Cadillac CTS-V models, and the 600-plus Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, and Corvette ZR-1, I can't think of much else I've been in that outmuscles it.
In addition to reminding me that my gray veneer still barely camouflages an unredeemed teenage car freak, the SRT8 392 qualifies as an authentic traveling nostalgia show. Like the Chevy Camaro and Ford Mustang, it is a wonderful anachronism, a new-millennium resurrection of the '60s muscle car. It not only looks like its ancestors, it even shares some of their mechanical DNA. In an age of smaller aluminum engines with overhead camshafts and four valves to the cylinder, the huge V-8 in the SRT8 392 employs an iron block, pushrods, and a mere two valves per cylinder.
The nostalgic plot thickens. The SRT8 392's engine is called a "Hemi," as in hemispheric combustion chambers. The Hemi had its origins back in the '50s, when it powered the legendary Chrysler 300.
