Dodge Challenger | TOO DANGEROUS FOR ORDINARY DRIVERS. AMERICAN-STYLE POWER.

Video Description

The sound of an American V8, insane power on the rear wheels, applause, the thunderous roar of hundreds of horsepower. This is one of the best representatives of the legendary muscle cars, here and now. Challenger. Once upon a time in America gasoline was cheaper than water, nobody cared about ecology, and most Americans moved around in huge land barges. The ultimate symbol of prestige was an incredibly large V8 installed under the hood, and if the engine displacement was less than five liters, such a car was disdainfully considered a small economy vehicle. Size, comfort and power were the defining features of most American cars of those years. The fuel consumption of such liners on wheels was also quite high, but no one paid attention to it, because at that time a gallon of gasoline cost about thirty cents. Taking inflation into account and converting gallons to liters, dollars and rubles, it turns out that a liter of gasoline cost around eleven rubles, or even less. Such cheap fuel explains Americans’ love for huge and powerful cars, because nobody was particularly worried about fuel consumption. Very soon America would be swept by a real automotive revolution, the era of muscle cars was coming. In the forties, the so-called baby boom occurred, a sharp increase in birth rates, and as Americans joke themselves, every third child was conceived in the back seat of a huge American cruiser. Marketers predicted that by the early sixties those children would grow up and rush to get driver’s licenses, which meant it was necessary to create a car that would be affordable for young Americans. At the same time, the car had to have a bold youthful design and, of course, a powerful engine so that hot young heads could realize their wild temperament. Automakers gave them such cars: the Pontiac GTO, Ford Torino, Ford Mustang, Chevrolet Camaro, Plymouth Barracuda. This is only a small part of the cars that were desired by American youth of those years, but one of the craziest legends of that time was the Challenger, a true monster of the muscle car era. The name Challenger is translated as “challenge”, and that challenge was thrown toward the best representatives of the class, such as the Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro. The price of the Challenger for America was shockingly low: even in the most powerful and richly equipped version it was about four thousand dollars, which was roughly equal to ten months of income for an average American. If anyone is interested, the Moskvich 403 in the USSR at that time cost approximately the same money. I will pause here so you can fully realize this fact. The Challenger was equipped with a huge lineup of engines. The weakest was a six-cylinder producing 145 horsepower, but the main trump card in the fight against competitors was the legendary V8 HEMI engine. This monstrous 7.2-liter engine produced an incredible 425 horsepower for the early seventies. Controlling such power was extremely difficult, because muscle cars of those years had a very simple design. At the core was a frame with the body mounted on it, an independent front suspension, and a heavy solid rear axle. All this considerable power was transmitted through a three-speed automatic or manual transmission. Most of these cars did not even have power steering. In terms of design, muscle cars, including the Challenger, were not much different from our Volga or even earlier vehicles. Now imagine more than 400 horsepower on a soft, comfortable suspension, and you will understand that when pressing the gas pedal, adrenaline was produced in the owner literally on every meter of the road. Acceleration to one hundred kilometers per hour for the most powerful Challenger was 5.9 seconds, and the quarter mile such a monster weighing 1600 kilograms covered in 13.7 seconds. And back then, power steering and stability control systems had not yet been invented at all.