Car Reviews
Our week with the 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT 392
Every person who loves cars, knows anything about cars, loves power and American muscle… knows about the Dodge Challenger. The third generation (2008 – present) which is meant to closely resemble the first generation (1970 – 1974), was a homerun for Dodge. Evidence is all over the road as of today. Driving on the road you’re almost sure to see a few of those things burning some rubber or weaving in and out of lanes. But let’s get down to what I thought of the ride txGarage had that week, the 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT 392!
When Adam and I found out this was our ride to the 2015 Houston Auto Show, we were more than thrilled, but I have to be honest; I was a bit concerned at how this vehicle was going to be for a 4 hour road trip. Wasn’t as concerned about how the gas mileage was going to NOT hold up but more or less was wondering how it would be as a highway, long-ish, road trip. Was it going to be loud and annoying while you were nestled away in the leather wrapped seats? Short answer is, no and yes. Was it a tad loud for a trip, sure! Was it annoying absolutely not! Because the finely tuned SRT 392 6.4L HEMI did it’s job and made us feel like men going to an auto show, showing up in a muscle car beast made me forget about annoying interior noise. All-in-all, it was well tuned to limit some amount of road noise.
Let’s talk about exterior looks mixed with some under the hood talk – because let’s face it, you can’t look at this car and not wonder what’s under the hood! Every line and curve on the exterior, including the functional hood scoops, to the broad rear panels sitting just in front of the appealing tail light assembly, truly make this a desirable pure American muscle car. A functional feature that was eye-catching – the Brembo 6-piston High-Performance brakes with the red calipers. I can attest, these breaks are much needed for a muscle car of this caliber that pumps out 485 horsepower with 475 lb-ft of torque. Under the hood and around the exterior of the car it screams “American Classic Muscle”. The base curb weight is 4,160 lb with 4.8″ running ground clearance. It’s truly a performance vehicle with “Three-Mode High Performance Bilstein Adaptive Dampening Suspension”, you can tighten or loosen as needed in the electronic cluster from the interior, which we will go ahead and cover.
As far as interior goes, you’re sure to be extremely comfortable with the ventilated and heated seats. They’re wrapped in a very well-fitted Nappa leather and Alcantara Suede combination. I personally liked how the seats weren’t completely wrapped in full Nappa leather. If they were, you might be doing a little sliding going around some corners. I personally couldn’t get comfortable in the passenger seats, but that’s ok, because I drove most of the way to Houston and back, willingly. A couple things that are extremely noteworthy and well thought out, in my opinion, start with the epic sound system “18-Speaker 900 Watt Premium Performance Harman Kardon® Audio System”. I personally rocked out to a Metallica’s cover song of “Turn the Page” more than a few times. One of the best audio systems you will hear right off the lot of the Dodge dealership, hands down. The next big noteworthy talking point was the sheer beautiful instrument cluster in the dash and the user interface for radio and other UConnect apps/Racing Pages. I thoroughly enjoyed some of the SRT racing tracking technology that was within the control center of the 8.5” reconfigurable display. Getting to see your 0-60 time, enabling and using launch mode, and seeing g-force were just SOME of the things you could interact with and record from the screen. When you sit down in this 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT 392 and look just beyond the steering wheel, you will see the Tic-Toc-Tach gauges that sit elegantly outside another 7” reconfigurable display. This center display shows many things all the way from a digital speedometer (my favorite because of the typography of the numbers), shows turn-by-turn navigation, 0-60 time and many other things for your convenience. Along with these few cool features of the dash, you should quickly notice how the center display is slightly facing the driver rather than straight back. I personally think this was a slick modification from the classic early 70’s model.
This particular model we got to drive rang in, just under $50,000. If you ask me, this is worth every penny for a so many reasons. Not only do you get a great racing machine but you get a vehicle that you’re more than proud to be driving. This is THAT American Muscle Car that you roll with especially to an Auto Show.
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