I spy supercharger sitting pretty. Lower air inlet looks bigger too.

In the pantheon of new-age pony cars, the Dodge Challenger has always been the broad shouldered fella of the bunch. In fact, at over TWO TONS, it’s more quarter horse than pony and for all intents and purposes, a two-door 300/Charger. Unfortunately, with it’s arch rivals both sporting superchargers, the Chally is now the big guy that needs to go to training camp. Chrysler was well aware of this and sent their BBPC (Big,Beautiful Pony Car) off to aforementioned fitness farm and in model year 2014, the Challenger will join the forced induction club with a 6.2 liter, supercharged Hemi V-8, code named “Hellcat.” Chrysler fanboy site Allpar, brings us the scoop.

Moparians working their magic. All black with Viper wheels looks good.

Along with the supercharger, expect slight front and rear fascia updates, a ZF 8 speed automatic and between 600-650 HP with 650 ft lbs of torque.  It’s also been whispered that this decreased displacement Hemi can bark out up to 700 HP with some coaxing. That’ll give the Camaro ZL-1 and Mustang GT500 a run for their money and up the ante in the 21st century pony car horsepower wars. All this won’t come cheap though and expect a substantial premium for a forced induction Challenger.

With all this factory one-upmanship, this news might be hard to hear for current Challenger owners. For a guy or gal who bought a Challenger in 2013, hearing that a factory blown Chally was coming just a few months down the road can be bittersweet to say the least.

Not to worry though because Kenne Bell, Edelbrock, Whipple and Procharger will gladly sell you a bolt on supercharger with a 100-150 HP upgrade to your existing Challenger.  In fact with all the Big 3 (2.5?) car makers offering factory installed superchargers, this is now the anointed formula for uber performance and if you missed the OEM boat, you can still upgrade without trading in.

If there was any question that the golden age of factory horsepower is NOW, or in other words “these are the good ol days,” remember that stringent fuel economy requirements are coming and by 2016, all car makers have to AVERAGE 37.5 mpg.  Get your big, blown pony car now folks, before the party’s over.

Big,beautiful pony car indeed. Big pipes are clue to “Hellcat” upgrade.