Pretty much everybody loves the look of the new Dodge Challenger, which looks a lot like the old Challenger. And it is hard to complain about a car that offers up to 470 horsepower and 470 ft-lbs of torque in the SRT8 version. But the fact remains that the Dodge Challenger, even in its most powerful form, is at a serious horsepower deficit compared to the top guns of its main rivals, the Chevy Camaro and Ford Mustang.
But Automotive Addicts reports that recently-captured spy pictures of a camouflaged Dodge Challenger SRT8 could be hiding a supercharged secret. Is Chrysler finally ready to tangle with the muscle car big boys?
The camouflaged Challenger (which we can’t show you due to copyright silliness) has a lot of camo over the front end of the Mopar muscle machine. We assume this is to hide an intercooler or heat exchanger that typically accompanies a supercharger. A Challenger SRT8, which makes 470 horsepower stock, could be pushing 700 horsepower with a supercharger system.
That would give the heavyweight Challenger more than enough horsepower to compete with its main rivals, the Camaro ZL1 and the Shelby GT500, which have 580 and 662 horsepower respectively. At first thought, this camouflaged Challenger could be the first wave of Barracuda mules that Chrysler is working on to replace the Challenger. But if the Barracuda is supposed to be much smaller, and on a whole new platform, this car could very well be the planned supercharged SRT8.
With that settled…how much horsepower do you think this ultimate Challenger will make?