Gregson Mathe
There have been rumors of an all wheel drive (AWD), performance focused Dodge Challenger for some time now. It really all came about when the Challenger Hellcat made it’s debut and everyone and their grandmother thought it was awesome that it was rear wheel drive (RWD). “Think of all the smokey, bitchin’ burnouts!” they would say. While that might be true, putting the power down on something with 707hp is a bit of a chore. You know, because physics and friction coefficients and all.
While an AWD Hellcat would be a dragstrip monster, we’re not going to be getting that for a while. Instead, we’ll be getting a V6 (upon release) Challenger GT that is 100% AWD. But how did we all come to find this out. Was it an auto show reveal? Maybe teased on the Dodge website and then paid off with a live video stream? Nope. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the same one that was the evil enemy in the Simpsons Movie, inadvertently posted numbers and stats about the car on their website. What a weird way to find this out.
It’s even still up today and you can see it right here. If you can’t see that, here’s a screen grab directly from their site. Click on the image to enlarge it.
Because of the AWD and the added weight that comes along with it, you can see the MPG figures are a bit lower, but if you’re buying these cars MPGs aren’t top of mind anyway.
The kicker is that Dodge hasn’t announced the vehicle at all. So let the speculation and rumors fly. Here’s one that I’ve come up with: this AWD system will be the jumping point for an AWD Hellcat for the second generation of the tire melter. I hope I’m not wrong, because with all the videos of Tesla Model S’s slaughtering Hellcats at the drag strip, I’d love to see those two race with the same drivetrain.
The GT, though, is expected to be in market for sometime next year adding to the fully ballooned muscle car market.
(Source: Fueleconomy.gov)
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