Recently in Challenger Category

I have an appreciation for all sorts of cars, but deep down I'm a Mopar man.  I've owned Fords and Chevys, but my favorite cars have been my 1983 Dodge Mirada 340 and my 1972 Dodge Demon 340, and when I get to events like SEMA I'm always very excited to see what Mopar has in store for me.

 

This year, I have to admit that the indoor Mopar display was a little bare, although cars like the Challenger 1320 (click here for more info) and the new Dodge Avenger pro stock car (more info coming soon!) made the display worth the time.  

 

But there was still Mopar Alley.  The area connecting the Central Hall and South Hall runs you through a parking lot and atop a busy overpass, but for years now Mopar has bridged the gap with a variety of new and vintage Mopars -  both privately owned and featured vehicles owned by Chrysler Corporation.

While a great many of the vehicles brought to SEMA by the guys at Mopar are often outrageous and unlikely to ever see the street, this year's Dodge Challenger 1320 was not such a car.

(Click here for more information on the Dodge Challenger 1320.)

 The color might be a little much for some people, but the modifications made to this relatively calm looking Challenger shows the potential of the pony car, with a little help from a Mopar 426 cubic inch crate motor.

The engine designation is spread across the corner of the hood, with a subtle suggestion of this car's attitude in the black-on-black hood trim.

Speedfactory has become well known for their high performance late model Mopars, and at the 2008 SEMA Show the Vortech display featured a blown 6.1L Speedfactory Challenger.  Earlier this week, news surfaced about the debut of a new, more powerful Speedfactory '440 Hemi' Challenger.  

That's right - 440 cubic inches of SRT-Hemi muscle, and with the help of a Vortech centrifugal supercharger this nasty Challenger makes 700 horsepower on 91 octane gasoline.  This 440 is created by taking a 6.1L Hemi, boring and stroking it to 7.2L, and adding a fully forged rotating assembly.  A set of worked Mopar Performance cylinder heads helps move all of the forced air needed for the 440 Hemi.

This is announced as the debut of the car, but I thought that I recognized it, so I checked with the guys at Speedfactory. Yesterday evening, Speedfactory contacted me and confirmed that I have indeed seen this Challenger before, and based on my first sighting of it...it is one great looking Challenger.  This will be the debut of the 440 Hemi Challenger in this form, although this car has been displayed before.  In August of 2009, this Speedfactory Challenger was displayed alongside a wicked 10 second Speedfactory Charger at the Mopar Nationals in Columbus, Ohio.

The 2009 SEMA Show in Las Vegas is only 18 days away, and today the Mopar camp offered their first teasers of what to expect in their display.  Not surprisingly, the first four announced vehicles for the SEMA Show include a Dodge Ram and a Dodge Challenger, along with a pair of wild Jeep concepts.

The two Jeeps to be featured at the Mopar SEMA Show display, the Jeep Wrangler Overland and Jeep Lower Forty are both based on the popular Wrangler.  The Mopar Dodge Ram Bianco is based on a production Dodge Ram 1500 Sport, and the Mopar Dodge Challenger 1320 (the first of many Challengers I expect to see at SEMA) is actually based on the Dodge Challenger Track Pak rather than a production model.

The most exciting (to me) concept of the 2009 SEMA Show Mopar display to be announced so far is the Mopar Dodge Challenger 1320.  The base vehicle of this concept was not a production vehicle, but rather the track-only Dodge Challenger Track Pak and in the artist's rendering the Challenger 1320 shows off a yellow (they call is Acidic Hue) and flat black scheme.  A large hood scoop, widened police style wheels wrapped in Nitto drag radials, and special graphics help to define the exterior but the real news about the Dodge Challenger 1320 is the drivetrain.  Mopar began with an all-aluminum 426 cubic inch Hemi crate motor decorated with Mopar valve covers.