After crafting his legacy with race-tuned versions of Ford's ubiquitous Mustang, Steve Saleen's turning his attention to another retro muscle car: the 2009 Dodge Challenger R/T.

Tuned by SMS, Saleen's newest venture, the SMS 570 and SMS 570X both make do with the R/T's standard 5.7-liter "Hemi" V-8. Although that motor pumps out 375 hp straight from Chrysler, the SMS cars reportedly will produce 500 and 700 hp, courtesy of an added supercharger.

We're not sure of what other tricks SMS has in store for the Challenger, aside from the company's claims that both cars will wear "high performance" driveline, suspension, and aerodynamic parts. From the artist's rendering, the package is discrete; apart from a more aggressive front fascia and larger wheels, there's little visual differentiation between the SMS Challenger and a normal SRT8 or R/T model.

As production of the '09 Challenger won't commence until later this fall, don't expect the SMS models to appear any time beforehand. Production numbers will be limited, so if the idea of a Saleen-prepped Challenger floats your boat, act quickly.

Driving close to 60 miles one-way can lead to a boring commute, but I had a bit of fun this morning. I was (slowly) making my way towards Ann Arbor when a prototype 2009 Dodge Challenger R/T in Vanishing Point white flew past.

The driver of the E-body revival derived quite a bit of inspiration from the same movie, moving up to 90 mph in no time while slicing his way through commuter traffic. That may be as easy as it seemed, seeing as the R/T makes use of a 375 hp 5.7-liter V-8. I wasn't, obviously, able to tell if the car made use of the new Tremec six-speed manual, or the standard five-speed slushbox.

White seems boring on most cars, but it seems to suit the Challenger quite well. Although the 2008 SRT8 models are limited to orange, black or silver paint, Dodge hasn't released what colors will make their way to the '09 range. I'd like to see "Kowalski White" make its way to the showroom, but may I also suggest Green Go or Petty Blue?

Chrysler's entry for the 2008 One Lap of America is using the 1971 film Vanishing Point as inspiration. A white 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8 will stand in for the 1970 Challenger R/T featured in the movie. SRT Vehicle Dynamics Supervisor Erich Heuschele and Chrysler Vice President of Design Ralph Gilles have the enviable task of piloting the muscle car during the modern-day Cannonball Run.

The car won't be the only retro-inspired aspect of the team; Heuschele will play Vanishing Point star Jimmy Kowalski, and Gilles will assume the role of radio DJ Super Soul for the event.

The detail-oriented duo has taken an immersive approach to the starring roles. Gilles and Heuschele have put together a wardrobe to match that of the movie - Heuschele's mom knitted a hat for Super Soul and also remade Kowalski's vest, while Gilles's wife went shopping for 70s clothing and period-correct big leather watch bands. They've registered for the event under the names Kowalski and Super Soul and list the characters' employers - Argo's Car Delivery and KOW Radio - as sponsors. The car even wears a recreation of the 1970 Colorado license plate from the film.

There will of course be some differences. Fortunately for his co-driver, Gilles is not blind like the character he'll be playing. Instead of attempting to deliver the Challenger from Denver to San Francisco in less than 16 hours, the team will be competing on tracks around the country over eight days. The One Lap competition begins and ends at The Tire Rack's South Bend, Indiana, headquarters, stopping at various tracks along the way for different scored events.

The new Challenger they'll be competing in comes with its own history. It carries VIN 003 and was the first Challenger to be driven on the road where it accrued 4000 hard test miles. Originally painted black and clad in camouflage, the car also wore orange paint for photo shoot duty before it got the white hue.

Kowalski and Super Soul's ride has been prepared for the event with a long list of upgrades, though the engine is original to the car and has never been removed. Mopar products include coilovers, front and rear swaybars, a front shock tower brace, a cold air intake, and a cat back exhaust by Corsa. The fender lips have been rolled to accept custom 20" Foose "Challenger" wheels. Power transmission is aided by a Quaife limited-slip differential and a torque converter from a Grand Cherokee SRT8 that works with a Mopar transmission reflash. It is entered in the SSGT2 Big Bore class.

We wish the throwback team the best of luck and will follow their progress from the event's start on Friday, May 2.

I remember being horrified as a teenager in the early 1990s at the sight of some model wearing bell-bottom jeans in a fashion ad. My mother was amused at my naiveté and explained to me that everything in fashion happens in cycles, and it was about time for the flared jeans to come back into vogue. I laughed at her. But she laughed last - which is always the best laughter - when I bought a pair of flared jeans a few years later.

Humans seem to be stuck in the same old patterns, and in the automotive world, it's looking a whole lot like the 1970s. Just like then, we're seeing huge-horsepower muscle cars (451 horsepower in a C-class, anyone?). And just like then, we're seeing the looming emissions and fuel economy regulations that may put and end to it.

We're also seeing a dead ringer for the 1970 Challenger. Let's hope it lasts longer than the original.

First, it's important that we put Dodge's new coupe in perspective. Luckily, that's very easy: just look at it. The Challenger is jaw-droppingly stunning. And if you don't like its lines, think it's too retro, too boring, or whatever? Just reserve your final judgment until you see it on the street, next to Camrys and Versas and Rolls Royces. There is no other car in this price range that makes as much of a statement. For $37,995, you, too, can be a celebrity. Make sure your hair is done - and go get some cool bell-bottoms while you're at it.

As for the way the Challenger SRT8 drives? That, too, is simple to explain: drive a Chrysler 300C SRT8, and you'll know what the Challenger feels like. Underneath its skin, the two-door Challenger is a 300C (or Dodge Charger) with four inches chopped out of the rear footwell. Its suspension is seven percent stiffer than a 300C's, which, combined with the shorter wheelbase, makes its ride fractionally stiffer. It doesn't ride as firmly as the Charger, though, whose suspension is about twenty-five percent harder than the 300C's.

Like its siblings, the Challenger's steering is accurate, but unfortunately also completely devoid of feedback. The municipal bus-sized wheel and ultraslow steering ratio don't help. Then again, all of those qualities are classic muscle car features. So, too, is the pushrod 6.1-liter V-8. It produces 425 hp and 420 lb-ft of torque, pushing the Charger SRT8 to 60 mph in just over five seconds, according to Chrysler. But unlike many of the original muscle cars, the Challenger has real brakes - four-piston Brembo fixed calipers with aluminum housings.

On the road, the Challenger is a comfortable, quiet, and smooth cruiser. A fairly long final drive ratio (3.06:1) gives the five-speed automatic long first and second gear ratios, making no-wheelspin full-throttle launches possible. We'd prefer shorter ratios, just because the Challenger looks like it should be able to roast its rear tires off the line at one-quarter throttle. Wheelspin is, however, readily available with a little brake-torque.

At highway speeds, the big V-8 turns over faster than we expected, a result of having only five forward gears. EPA fuel economy suffers a little (EPA estimates are 18 highway, 13 city), but on the plus side, downshifts out of fifth aren't often needed. Despite the relatively high revs, the engine's roar is kept to a minimum, so long trips aren't tiring. In fact, we longed for a lot more noise inside the car - even at full bore, the Challenger is quiet inside. We think the passengers should be enjoying just as much big-bore music as passers by. Luckily, the powerful audio system was able to bolster the lack of acoustic drama - just set the iPod to Classic Rock and cruise along.

Cruising along was fun, but we spent more time in the SRT8 at Willow Springs race track, where the Challenger really got to flex its muscles. If the boys (and girls) at Chrysler's SRT do one thing really well, it's making street cars go around race tracks very quickly. The Challenger did an enormous job here. Willow Springs is a very, very fast track, and the big Brembos did an almost unbelievable job at slowing the heavy Challenger corner after corner. No matter how hard you push, brake fade is not an issue. Cornering grip is very impressive, and the Challenger's natural tendency toward mild understeer can be easily rectified with the throttle pedal. Thanks to its long wheelbase and well-damped body motions, the Challenger's tail steps out slowly and controllably, despite its lack of a limited-slip differential.

The Challenger's weak point on the track is the automatic transmission (a manual will be available for 2009). It's certainly up to the thermal and physical forces of a whole day of hot lapping, but it's sometimes slow to obey downshift requests from the driver. On occasion, the downshift would happen after we had already turned into the corner, and since the transmission doesn't blip the throttle to rev-match, the sudden increase in drag on the rear tires would kick the Challenger sideways. That behavior might frighten some drivers (for whom it would be advisable to leave the stability control on), but we used it as an excuse to power-slide the Challenger through the rest of the corner.

Speaking of stability control, the Challenger's standard ESP has a sport mode which allows greater yaw angles before intervening and, more importantly, disables the traction control portion of the system. This means that power doesn't get cut mid-corner. One of SRT's drivers said he was faster around Willow Springs with the ESP in sport mode than he was with it fully off, and we don't doubt it. Sport mode allows clean, slide-free driving even at ten-tenths without any intervention - but is on-call as a safety net if you get sideways. It's great.

In fact, the whole SRT8 Challenger is great. It's not, by any stretch of the imagination, a sports car. It's a big, comfortable cruiser that's very capable on the back roads and even on the track. Sure, we can complain about the slow and numb steering, but none of that matters. Look at it. It's stunning. And while it may only last a few years before the CAFE standards and CO2 anxiety relegate muscle cars back to the history books, we're thrilled to be able to enjoy them for the time being. And it's even better to know that my mom was right: even if the muscle cars go away, they'll be back soon enough.

Click here to see video of the SRT8 doing some smokey burnouts and donuts, and use the links below to see our previous coverage and photos of the Challenger.

We tend to take certain automotive standards for granted: Cars use pneumatic rubber tires. They're powered by internal-combustion engines (mostly, so far). Passenger cars have a steering wheel on either the left or the right side of the vehicle.

Now, you know why we use tires and internal-combustion engines - because we haven't managed to figure out anything better - but when you think about it, isn't that whole left-hand-drive/right-hand-drive setup sort of arbitrary? Why not sit in the middle? This is the question that led me to Aladdin Auto Service in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to talk to its proprietor, Mahmood Rezaei-Kamalabad. Mahmood has done more than just ponder this question. He's built a solution: the Celestial Driving System.

Until the Dalai Lama gets his ASE certification, Mahmood is probably the most spiritually aware mechanic you'll ever meet. His Web site, www.mrkart.com, proclaims that each body contains 1000 spirits, and thus his site's 10,000 or so visitors represent 10 million hits, spiritually speaking. (It's a good thing that Mahmood doesn't work for Nielsen, or Andy Barker, P.I. would still be on the air.) His garage is bisected by a line of metal sculptures, one of which is shaped like a giant lightbulb and contains silhouettes of a menorah, a cross, and the Arabic word for Allah. This symbolizes Mahmood's belief that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are all parts of a greater religious whole.

There are two books in the shop's waiting area. One, displayed atop a large rock, is a hefty, red tome that combines the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Koran under one cover. Mahmood printed twelve copies of this book to underscore the commonalities among religions and shipped them off to libraries in Israel, Iran, and the Vatican in hopes of promoting theological unity and taking a step toward stanching centuries of bloodshed, particularly in the Middle East. The other book is a shop manual for the Porsche 924.

At the back of the garage is the car I've come to see, a 1989 Dodge Colt that Mahmood modified with a central steering position that he dubs the "Celestial Driving System." Whichever side of the car you enter, the driver's seat slides over to that side. As you shut the door, the seat moves to the middle of the car, where you'll find the steering wheel, pedals, and dash-mounted manual shifter. While this setup has some obvious practical advantages - in side impacts, for example - the impetus for the design was spiritual.

"In your living room, is there a main wall?" Mahmood asks. I reply that there is. "And, on that wall, do you have something?" Yes, a TV. "And where on the wall is it?" In the middle. Mahmood (who has a master's degree in fine arts) is making the point that we instinctively seem to seek balance in our surroundings. So why not in our cars?

Unfortunately, I don't get a look inside the Colt, let alone a stint at the wheel. The car is up on a lift and covered with dust, so I'm left to contemplate its custom steering rack and, of course, its hood ornament - an Aladdin lamp - while Mahmood holds court. As I sip tea of a proprietary brew, Mahmood touches on a range of topics, including the rise of Toyota ("Americans are no good at making small things - it's the culture"), his favorite cars ("I'm a Chevy guy - I've found that Chevys feed my spirit"), and the role of God in, say, Porsche 924 water-pump replacement ("If you learn how to appreciate what you're doing, your work, you're with God"). Mahmood realizes that many of his ideas, be they theological or automotive, aren't destined for acceptance anytime soon. "In twenty-five years, people will get it," he says.

In the meantime, there's a cherry red 924s that needs attention. Mahmood peers under the hood at the partially disassembled engine. He seems to have reached an impasse, one that probably would have me hurling wrenches and cursing the 924, Porsche, Volkswagen, Germany, and Germans in general. But Mahmood serenely proclaims, "As a mechanic, you spend a lot of time thinking about what someone else was thinking."

I leave Mahmood to his work and step out into the parking lot. I drove to Aladdin Auto Service in a Mazda Miata, and as I get behind the wheel to leave, I can't stop thinking about the imbalance of driving from the left or the right of the car. Now that I'm paying attention, this does seem all wrong. I'd rather sit in the middle.

Great. It figures that I'd have a spiritual epiphany, and it would make me want to buy a McLaren F1.

We've seen it before. A carmaker takes an iconic model from its past, updates the design, and adds the newest technology and safety equipment: out pops a modern interpretation of the original. The Volkswagen New Beetle, the Mini Cooper, and the most recent Ford Thunderbird all fit this mold. Two years ago, General Motors and Chrysler both displayed new versions of their legendary smoky-burnout machines - the Chevrolet Camaro and the Dodge Challenger - at the Detroit show. While the Chevy was an evolutionary design in the way that a 2008 Porsche 911 is distantly related to a 1965 911, the Mopar machine could have passed for the original 1970 Challenger. In fact, you'd swear that some parts from the '70 edition were used on the thirty-six-years-younger concept.

Two years later, GM is still hard at work readying its Camaro for the streets, but Chrysler used the 2008 Chicago auto show to unveil the road-ready, production-spec Dodge Challenger SRT8. With the prices of vintage American muscle cars still hovering in the clouds, Chrysler's strategy of using a virtual mirror image of the original Challenger for today's car might just be the ticket to help the struggling automaker suck in some cash.

When you walk up to the Challenger, the first thing you notice is its size. With a nine-inch-longer wheelbase, ten-plus inches of additional length, and nearly two inches in extra width, the Challenger dwarfs its main competitor, the Ford Mustang. Imagine Mr. T standing next to Richard Simmons. Pity the fool who was expecting the Challenger to come with tidy, new-age packaging; its hefty dimensions are a result of its donor car, the four-door Dodge Charger. Underneath its retro design, the Challenger is all Charger, bar a four-inch loss in wheelbase.

Hard-core Mopar nuts are probably thinking that this is pure déjà vu. Back in the late '60s, Chrysler desperately needed a pony car to do battle both on the streets and in Trans-Am racing. Its late-to-the-party pony car also needed room in the engine bay for both small- and big-block powerplants. A solution was found in the Chrysler B-body chassis that underpinned the Charger. The company chopped seven inches off the wheelbase and about seventeen inches from the length to create the 1970 Dodge Challenger. The model weighed about 3500 pounds - a lightweight by modern standards, especially with a 425-gross-hp Hemi engine. The new Dodge, in contrast, weighs in at a porky 4140 pounds. While it has 425 real horses under the hood, that's a lot of extra weight. And it's nearly 700 pounds heavier than the Mustang GT. That's not a good start.

The Challenger's styling is more convincing. It's easy to like a familiar design from the late '60s, and the Dodge looks very cool. Nifty highlights include the black detailing on the front air splitter, the grille, the full-width rear taillights, and the rear spoiler; the massive, twenty-inch forged-aluminum Alcoa wheels; and the carbon-fiber-like decal and the functional air-intake nostrils on the hood. The dark detailing looks especially great laid over the Hemi orange paintwork. When the car appears in dealerships (at about the same time you're reading this), buyers can choose this orange hue as well as silver or black. If you want to see retro brought up to an even higher level, pop the hood on this modern muscle car. Sure, the Challenger has Chrysler's 6.1-liter V-8 that also can be found in other SRT8 products, but the details around this carryover engine are gorgeous. There is little if any plastic shrouding, and the suspension towers and the radiator support - specially sprayed orange - are reminiscent of the days of Led Zeppelin and leaded fuel. Well-done, Chrysler.

Unfortunately, the Challenger's cabin is not as well conceived. The center console - canted toward the driver - and the basic dash design hark back to the original Challenger's cockpit, but the rest of the interior could have been lifted from any current rear-wheel-drive Chrysler car. From the design of the Challenger's gauges to its typically overbolstered SRT seats, it feels as if Chrysler ran out of money just as it got to the cabin. At least there's impressive space inside - there are even seatbelts for five. You wouldn't want to stuff three of your buddies in the back, but the rear seat is quite livable for short trips with two adults. Front and rear headroom were also very good inside our car, which lacked the optional sunroof. Spy photos of the forthcoming Camaro indicate that Chevy has been more creative with its interior, including a cool gauge cluster in front of the shift lever.

But is the new Challenger a styling exercise like the New Beetle and the Thunderbird, or is it a true performance car like the Mini Cooper? Dodge let us loose in a couple of lightly camouflaged, near-production-spec Challengers at MotorSport Ranch near Fort Worth, Texas, to answer that question. With temperatures just above freezing and constantly drizzling rain, conditions were not conducive to track driving, but we were able to get some good initial impressions. Turn the key, and you're hit with the sound; the Challenger's balance of exhaust rumble, intake noise, and actual engine music make for the perfect muscle car sound track.

Of the two available test cars, the first one we drove was closer to final production specification. It was equipped with a five-speed automatic transmission paired with an open differential that will be installed in every one of the 6400 Challenger SRT8s being sold in the 2008 model year in the United States. Wheel spin - a constant issue with the weather that mother nature sent our way in Texas - is effectively controlled via the Challenger's three-position stability control system (ESP) and ABS, even when ESP is shut off. On the cold, wet track, the electronic systems worked overtime to keep the Challenger on the circuit; we wish that the ESP system would resume power delivery more rapidly after cutting wheel spin. The steering is very accurate but slightly too slow and lacking in feel. At least the four-pot Brembo brakes - borrowed from the Charger SRT8 - held up to our constant thrashing, and once we were able to get the back tires hooked up, the Challenger proved to be very quick. Our only real issue was with the car's excess weight, which reared its ugly head a bit too much, especially through lower-speed corners.

The second Challenger we drove was almost identical to the first, except that it was equipped with a prototype Getrag torque-sensing limited-slip differential. Boy, what a difference this simple part makes on a damp racetrack. Stability control was less eager to step in, and the chassis hooked up in places where the other car struggled for traction - there's something fundamentally wrong with a 425-hp, rear-wheel-drive car that relies on ESP and ABS to control wheel spin. The good news is that SRT tells us that this differential, conveniently, works with stock ESP programming. Look for it as an option, most likely paired with a six-speed manual gearbox, on 2009 Challengers. In addition, the 2009 lineup will grow to include a V-6-powered Challenger and a V-8 R/T model with about 350 hp.

Our brief track drive resulted in positive initial impressions but also confirmed that the Challenger would benefit from some Sweatin' to the Oldies. The car looks great, but Chrysler may have gone too retro with the exterior design and failed to put enough work into the interior. It seems that GM is taking a more modern approach with the Camaro, which is set to debut later this year. But rest assured - the Dodge Challenger SRT8 is a true performance car, not some sissy, profiling retro-mobile. Chrysler certainly won't have any trouble finding buyers for the first run of cars.

The Forgotten Challenger
By Rusty Blackwell

Just about everybody in this hemisphere knows of the original 1970-74 Dodge Challenger. But not many people remember the Challenger's first reprise, a rebadged Mitsubishi Galant Lambda that was sold in the United States from 1978 to 1983.

The rear-wheel-drive, second-generation Challenger featured Mitsubishi's balance-shaft-equipped four-cylinder engines - a 77-hp, 1.6-liter unit was standard from the outset, but the optional 105-hp, 2.6-liter four superseded the smaller powerplant by 1980. The car's chassis favored ride over handling, but it was nonetheless a viable option for buyers considering sporty rear-wheel-drive contemporaries like the Ford Mustang (which it closely resembled), the Mazda 626 coupe, and the Toyota Celica.

When you include the nearly identical Plymouth Sapporo, Chrysler sold almost as many of these Mitsubishi-built coupes as it did early Challengers. Not surprisingly, the Japanese twins are much harder to find today. Still, less than $5000 can buy you a near-perfect example.

Sometimes, it seems that carmakers invent names for their products solely so they can insert corny lines into media-presentation speeches. Take the recent launch of the Dodge Journey: "The Journey," the attending media were told, "is always more than the sum of its parts." Heady stuff, especially when you consider that Dodge's new crossover is built on the same platform that underpins the decidedly mediocre Chrysler Sebring.

Regardless, the pitch makes sense: Dodge is aiming the Journey at people in transition (new families and recent empty nesters are the two primary targets) in the hope that it will be seen as something more than just another parts-bin-built crossover. As such, the Auburn Hills company decided to emphasize people-carrying ability over power and budget-oriented practical touches over frippery.

Predictably, then, seating capacity and clever available features are the Journey's strong points. As many as seven passengers can be crammed into the Dodge's interior if you choose the optional third-row seat, and the list of standard equipment includes such positives as stability control; a six-disc, MP3-compatible CD changer; electronic brake assist; myriad storage spaces (see sidebar); and side-curtain air bags for all three rows of seats. Hands-free Bluetooth connectivity, rear air-conditioning, a backup camera, and a 368-watt Infinity sound system, among other goodies, are all optional.

From the curb, the Journey looks a lot bigger than it is, and therein lies the rub: at sixteen feet long, five and a half feet tall, and six feet wide, Dodge's not-quite-a-minivan, not-quite-a-car doesn't have a lot of interior space into which to cram its many features. The Journey's third-row seats are all but useless unless you're a half-pint quadruple amputee, and its second-row seats offer little legroom and a claustrophobic atmosphere akin to sitting at the bottom of an oil drum.

Nevertheless, that "sum of its parts" line wasn't just hype. Oddly, the 3800-pound base Journey is far more satisfying to drive than its 3300-pound Sebring sibling. Unlike in the Sebring, road noise and annoying engine thrum are kept to a minimum. The Journey's rocker panels and key sections of its unibody are filled with closed-cell expanding foam, which helps to make the Journey one of the quietest sub-$30,000 vehicles we've driven. The standard 173-hp, 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine is unobtrusive and well-behaved, and the optional 235-hp, 3.5-liter V-6 provides a decent amount of off-the-line thrust. As you'd expect, the Journey's chassis suffers from some of the same maladies that the Sebring's does - chiefly, underdamped body motions and a lack of steering feel - but it still handles predictably, and the rear suspension offers up none of the impact noise found in the Sebring.

What impressed us most, however, was the Journey's interior, which exudes a quality not usually found in Chrysler products, with soft-touch plastics and tight panel fits. This upgrade reportedly came - late in the Journey's development cycle and at great cost - at the behest of Chrysler's parent firm, Cerberus Capital Management, and it's a welcome instance of corporate meddling.

The Journey is a decent, if not earthshaking, effort. Packaging disappointments and other complaints are partially offset by a low base price - four-cylinder models start at just $19,985 - and although the competition is often more entertaining to drive, few competitors offer as much bang for the buck. Or, to be more succinct, the Journey - also known as getting there - might not be half the fun, but at least it's cheap.