What’s Under the Hood of a Challenger
The Dodge Challenger is much more than a good looking car. Under the hood, there are mechanics in place that make the Challenger sound good and also ensure it is as powerful as possible. Here is closer look at what is under the hood of a Dodge Challenger.
Air Intake system
Cold air intake systems are pretty much standard on most performance vehicles today. Cold air intakes increases the cold air (cold air has more oxygen than hot air) that an engine receives and more oxygen results in increased horsepower and torque.
The cold air intake system on the Challenger Pentastar V6 s is a Typhoon cold air intake system. This factory installed intake system gains the vehicle roughly 11.99 horsepower according to K&N filters.
Transmission
If you don’t know, a transmission is in place to “transmit” power from the engine to the wheels in order to create speed and torque. Therefore, the transmission is very important to the speed of the vehicle. Depending on your driving preference, vehicles usually come in either automatic or manual transmission.
Dodge likes to appeal to those who may never have learned manual driving as well as catering to those who believe manual driving is not something of the past and still prefered. This is why, the Challenger models have both automatic and manual options. The automatic transmission is a Torqueflite eight-speed automatic transmission with manual paddle shifters. The manual option is a six-speed TREMEC manual transmission system.
Engine and Performance
Finally, the part you really wanted to know about. The Challenger lineup is available with four different engine options, two of which have SRT tuning. SRT or “Street and Racing Technology” is a special team of engineers within Dodge. The base engine is a 3.6-liter V6 engine, which is standard on the Challenger SXT and SXT Plus trims. This engine produces 305 horsepower and 268 lb-ft of torque.
A step up from the 3.6-liter engine is the 5.7-liter V8 HEMI VVT engine and it is standard on four Challenger trims — the Challenger R/T, R/T Plus, R/T Shaker and R/T Plus Shaker. This engine produces 375 horsepower and 410 lb-ft of torque.
Then there are the two SRT-tuned engines. One is the 6.4-liter HEMI V8 engine, and this is standard on three Challenger trims, the Challenger R/T Scat Pack, Challenger 392 HEMI Scat Pack and SRT 392. The “392” bit comes from the size of the engine displacement, which is 392 cubic inches, which is also equivalent to 6.4 liters. This engine produces 485 horsepower and 475 lb-ft of torque. This engine helps the Challenger accelerate from 0-60 mph in the low 4-second range and hit a top speed of 182 mph.
Finally, the all-powerful Challenger SRT Hellcat. This engine makes the Challenger the most powerful and fastest muscle car thus far. This engine is a supercharged 6.2-liter HEMI SRT Hellcat V8. This engine produces 707 horsepower and 650 lb-ft of torque!!! The Challenger SRT Hellcat accelerates from 0-60 mph in mid 3-second range and hits a top speed of 199 mph.
Like what you hear? Come down to University Dodge and check out our large inventory of Challengers. Also feel free to browse the inventory online here.
