June 29: Challenger- speak of the devil

The Demon is dead, long live the Demon. Yes and no, folks. That limited edition Dodge Challenger, the one with no back seat and only one front, was from the get go a limited edition. That Demon and it's 840 HP was meant to live at a dragstrip, drive it on the street at your peril. Shed a tear, it's gone into the annals of muscle car history.

But what's with that evil red eye on the Hellcat?

Good old Dodge. Not resting on their Demon laurels, for 2019 they have massaged that wild Hellcat with some of the Demon's good parts. You know, those good parts like the Demon motor, but slightly detuned and as a bonus, it comes with both front and rear seats. Does life get any better? The standard Hellcat cranks out a glorious sounding 707 big ones, while the Redeye ups its output to a slightly more outrageous 797 HP. Gawd, where will it all end?

Throw on a couple of new hood scoops (like the good old days), those wide body wheel flares and get ready to terrorize the neighbourhood. Start this baby up early in the a.m. and none of your neighbours will need an alarm clock.

Now what about the numbers? You know, those really important numbers. Ok, try on a quarter mile time of 10.7 seconds. Fast? If you knew, you'd know. All this from a ride you can buy off of the showroom floor.

Way back in my youth, purpose built drag Challengers, the ones that were massaged in all sorts of race car ways, were turning these kind of times. Cars like these........

No one dreamed that sometime in the distant future, one could wonder into their local Dodge dealer and come out with a nutball machine, that would run with their old time heroes. Of course, no one thought of plugging in their car at night either, unless we were talking about a block heater. Can't live in the past forever, BT.

So now there's a new bad guy coming to town with his friends and they mean business........

All hail the Challenger Redeye!

Until next time........