The HPP Daytona, first unveiled at SEMA earlier this month, is little more than a dolled-up Challenger R/T with the 5.7-liter HEMI. Nothing's been tweaked beneath the hood, but somehow they've managed to add styling cues of the classic Charger atop the new Challenger and make the whole thing work pretty well. The new nose cone fits perfectly with the new Challenger's lines and while we'd quickly toss the faux side details, we're liking pretty much everything about this monster-winged creation. Of course, we never really outgrew our love of Hot Wheels cars. Now if only Chrysler could make an interior worth working with. [Source: HPP]

Here's the official info:

Mopar Dodge Challenger 1320 Image Vehicle: Exploring a Street-legal Drag Pak Challenger
The Dodge Challenger 1320 began life as a Mopar Drag Pak Dodge Challenger. The current Drag Pak option is a light-weight, stripped-down, race-only, special-order version of the Dodge Challenger designed for competitive drag racing.

For the street-legal design, Mopar's design team took the vehicle back to its roots with styling reminiscent of vintage Mopar muscle, updated with today's technology. The Dodge Challenger 1320 image vehicle, named for the 1,320 feet on a quarter-mile drag strip, features Mopar's 426 cubic-inch, all-aluminum, HEMI® V-8 crate engine that generates 556 horsepower. The engine is equipped with unique Mopar-designed valve covers and a dress-up kit. Mopar's long-tube headers and exhaust system allow the cubic inches to breathe. Electric cutouts allow the exhaust to bypass the muffler system, which exits through custom side pipes for added rumble at the dragstrip. Power is put to the ground via a six-speed manual transmission through a custom Dynatrac rear housing with Mopar Dana 60 internals and a selectable, ARB locking differential. Mopar police wheels, widened in the rear, are strapped with Nitto street-legal drag radials to provide extra grip at launch. A four-corner, adjustable coil-over kit is provided by Mopar as an option for the Dodge Challenger. This system improves the handling of the vehicle under extreme loads of 556 horsepower and 540 lb.-ft. of torque.

Following Mopar's high-impact color heritage, the design team layered the 1320 in Acidic Hue, a non-metallic yellow paint and added matte black graphics. The body is lightened with the following carbon-fiber components from Mopar's design team and Seibon:

• Bulged hood with HEMI scoop
• Front spoiler
• Grille panel/headlamp surround

The interior is equipped with bare necessities-Dodge Viper seats, a sport steering wheel and a Hurst shifter. The rear seat, center console and radio have been removed in order to reduce vehicle weight and maintain the 1320's no-nonsense theme.

This first rendering of a car we gossiped about ages ago shows the new color, which we imagine will follow a similar route as the Challenger R/T Classic in serving as both a special design package and a trim-level. If you liked the original, this is at least the same color.

We're still waiting for the Anti-Establishment Ford Fiesta.

As any muscle car owner knows, size does matter and for Chevy fan-boys, this graph probably won't disappoint as the Camaro bars tower higher than Dodge or Ford.

The Swift—ubiquitous in Hungary as it was the first car manufactured in this country—is positively dwarfed by this Mopar monstrosity, seen here in top-of-the-line SRT8 trim, with the 6.1-liter engine and the appropriate Hemi Orange paintjob.

The scene is full of little surprises. Like how you could make a whole new set of wheels for the little Suzuki from the material found in one Challanger wheel. Or how it shows that even downtown parking spaces are indeed giant when compared to the average car: it takes 16.5 feet of American muscle to fill one to the brim.

It’s a wonderful sight in Budapest, this Challenger, comically inappropriate, with a punk swagger often missing from city cars. And while we know that the perfect city car is the Mercedes-Benz W140 S600, this come pretty close.

All you need now is plenty of Hungarian gasoline. At $6 a gallon. Yeehaw!

Ford Mustang Shelby GT500

This is the very last car I rode in on the American continent. Wert showed up with it just as I was heading out of Jalopnik publisher Gawker Media’s Soho offices to subway to JFK. Contrary to my preconceptions, it is a very nice car.

Much more compact than either the Challenger or the Camaro, the big Mustang is a surprisingly nice place to be in. The plastics are uprange Opel, meaning nowhere near Alfa Romeo Euro-poshness but perfectly okay.

While the doorframe is certainly on the high side, you can stick your elbow out without having to worry about the sudden onset of Saturday night palsy, which is very much not the case in neither the Challenger nor the Camaro. And what is a muscle car without an elbow out the window, after all?

It was a fun 20 MPH ride in bumper to bumper traffic, over the Manhattan Bridge and into Brooklyn. Ray will have a full road test up in the coming days. And I certainly hope he will mention the shift knob, which looks (cue Nascar-like Southern drawl) "totally awesome."

Photo Credit: Ray Wert

Dodge Challenger R/T

The Challenger faced impossible odds: it was our chariot of choice in heavy traffic on the Long Island Expressway on our way to see a Lamborghini Miura. While no earthly car can approach the magic of the Miura, the Challenger failed in every way. The inside is decked out in plastics I would not store leftovers meant for dogs in. The shifter is a wobblefest, the A/C is only good for causing sudden onset hypothermia and cocking an elbow out the window is not recommended if you’re worried in the slightest about the health of your radial nerve.

The car may look fun in the pages of a magazine, but in real life, it just does not work. Yes, every modern American muscle car is a clear derivative of 40-year-old designs but while the Camaro and especially the Mustang display elements of modern thinking, the Challenger is at best a cartoon approximation of a scene from Vanishing Point. It is not in visual harmony with its environment.

Riding in the car with me was Natalie Polgar of Hyperleggera, a svelte and attentive driver, who pointed out the lack of grunt from the very loud 5.7-liter Hemi and the curious lack of cornering finesse.

If you have no elbows—and, consequently, no fingertips for feeling materials—and like driving at night in a straight line, this might be your car. Otherwise, steer clear.

Photo Credit: Natalie Polgar

Chevrolet Camaro RS

A fleeting glance this was not: I spent two days in this car, riding from New York City to Detroit and back, a total of over 1200 miles. Pictured above is that most Detroit of scenes, the abandoned Michigan Central Station, which we approached on a late Sunday morning as inner city residents were tending to their vegetable plots set up in its forlorn flowerbeds.

While the Camaro’s interior is a notch above the Challenger’s, the materials used would never fly in Europe, except perhaps in the lowliest of vehicles. But most surprising is the utter lack of interior space in a 16-foot car weighing close to two tons. Fitting a 6'2" frame into the back seats of any coupé is a challenge, but I have never seen anything as bad as the Camaro. There is much more space in a 1973 Lamborghini Espada—or a Fiat Punto, a European supermini a full four feet shorter than the Camaro. There is room for neither knees nor heads. You might be tempted to say that the point of a muscle car is definitely not the rear seat transport of males in the upper three percent of the height curve—and you might be correct. Still, it is an egregiously bad use of space.

The 3.6-liter V6 in the RS is not the engine to get if you decide to buy a Camaro. It develops 300 HP, which is sucked up by the car’s osmium heft, leaving you with sluggish acceleration. The big LS3 V8 must be way more fun.

Still, despite its bad design, it was in the Camaro that I finally understood the point of the American automobile. It was late night in a straight line somewhere out in the Detroit suburbs, the landscaped forests causing the 90+ degrees of the afternoon to plunge, and at a dreamy 60 MPH Pink Floyd was on the radio. But more on that later.

The verdict? Avoid the Challenger, try the Mustang. And if you do pick up the Camaro, grab a Dremel and finish the job of cutting air vents for the rear brakes. They were there on the concept Camaro but regressed to fake indentations on the production model, which really is a shame but perhaps reflects on the creeping sense of sloppy design.

August Sales in total units sold:

Chevy Camaro: 8,680
Ford Mustang: 6,289
Dodge Challenger: 1,132

It is worth mentioning that roughly a minute after the Challenger drove past them, one of the gentlemen on the side of the road uttered the term YEEHAW! in a non-ironic way. This is something I have never heard before.

Keep a close eye on our Woodward Dream Cruise tag page for coverage all day!

To call my insertion on the left side of the Atlantic eagerly anticipated would be quite the understatement. Despite my inherent Euro-ness, I have actually spent a cumulative three years of my life in the United States, including a number of formative months in an Oldsmobile Omega. So after being out of the country for five and a half years, I couldn’t wait to come back—if only to find out whether frosted Wild! Magicburst-flavored Pop-Tarts really do exist or are but whims of my consumerist fancy.

Barely 72 hours after touchdown at JFK, I was already rumbling out to Long Island in the shotgun seat of a Dodge Challenger R/T, the 5.7-liter V8 propelling us all the way to 50 MPH on the Long Island Expressway. Here’s a quick take on this lovely caricature of the American car:

• The Hemi sounds awesome if subdued
• The interior is—and I’m at pains to not put it bluntly—not something one would expect to find in a passenger vehicle
• The air conditioning is, like every example of American air conditioning, testament to a shady conspiracy by manufacturers of medication for urinary tract infections. Yes, AC is a wonderful invention but there really is no need to cool cars, subway cars and stores alike to 60 degrees Fahrenheit when it’s 90+ outside. The wimpy European body withers at 30+ degree temperature walls

Even in the crawling midday traffic, I soon escaped the expressway and—accompanied by Natalie Polgar of Hyperleggera and Brett Berk of Vanity Fair—folded myself into something a bit more European:

But more on this later! I shall be in New York City, Detroit and Washington, D.C. over the next three weeks. Suggestions on very American—or very un-American—cars to see in this area are more than welcome.

Photo Credit: Natalie Polgar and the author

Nearly a year ago, we saw this Sub Lime '70 Challenger gracing the streets of the rust-challenged isle, and that's been it for Chrysler E bodies before today. Not only is this mean-looking Mopar- which definitely has a Vanishing Point air about it- a daily driver, it's a painter's work vehicle! I ran into Dave, the owner of this '73, while on the same block that brought us the Moto Loco VW Golf, while he was painting a house in the neighborhood.

He's owned the car, which is an original 340/automatic machine, for 8 years and has been gathering parts for a full-scale restoration. The new engine- a hairy high-compression 340- is ready to go, and the bodywork is next. The leaky-trunk rust won't be too hard to fix, and you can buy reproductions of all the interior components, but the damage done to the roof by a previous owner who apparently used a hammer and chisel to remove the vinyl top will be quite a chore to undo.

Since this is Alameda and everyone knows each other, it turns out that Dave works for his Alameda-native uncle, who is the owner of several DOTS machines: the '62 Corvair van, the '61 Plymouth Valiant (which he purchased new, in Alameda), and the 1945 Chevrolet pickup (which he bought in 1966 at an Alameda County Transit equipment auction). I'll try to track him down and get more of the history of these vehicles for later posts, so check in later!

Following Hurst's previous packages, the Challenger Series one through five, the newest Competition Plus package promises to offer muscle car meat heads with everything they'll need to take their SRT8 one step further. Included in the $18,495 package is first and foremost, a Hurst shift kit and pearl white knob, a plaque of authenticity, K&N high-flow air filter, Magnaflow stainless-steel exhaust and a fully adjustable Eibach suspension system. Unfortunately, performance numbers have yet to be released, but we're hoping for the 572 HP and 528 lb-ft of torque from the Hurst/HEMI-Challenger SRT8 Series 4. That'd be just fine by us.

The Challenger Competition Plus package will be offered in either red, white, blue or silver and matte black Hurst Performance decals to complement the massive hood scoop, forged aluminum wheels, rear deck spoiler and chromed quad exhaust tips. We're betting on a mid-summer release, but as of yet, there's no official date from Hurst.

[Hurst Performance]

Everything has been blurred out to protect the identities of those involved, but our tipster tells us this is what happened:

"attached are pictures taken at my place of work where a customer dropped off their 2009 Challenger SRT 8 that was "attacked" by a gentlemans soon-to-be-ex wife.

I say this because the Husband drove this car to tell his wife that the marriage is over.

And once she became aware of his Asian girlfriend and his new toy, she flipped and started smashing the car up [with a carpenter's hammer].

She broke the windshield, rear window, damaged almost every body panel, and probably worse of all the sunroof which takes quite some labor to replace. i didn't bother to take pics of the side windows and the scratches where the psycho WIfe tried to break them."

It stinks the Challenger got the brunt of the rage, but considering the way the news was delivered, we can't say we blame her. Walk through the dented Challenger gallery to see the pain inflicted upon a defenseless Challenger.

Here's what we're going to do — since there's outlets out there better suited to walking through reams of meaningless testing data, we've left that to them. Instead, we're more interested in how these babies perform as, well, as muscle cars. That's something as much about feeling as about numbers. So we've assigned two Jalopnik staff people to each of the three marvelous modern muscle cars, rating them on a five-star scale for the categories of Exterior Design, Interior Design, Acceleration, Braking, Ride, Handling, Gearbox, Audio, Toys, Value and an Overall score. We'll add up each writers scores for each car and the pony with the most stars at the end wins! Let's begin.

Exterior Design

2010 Chevy Camaro SS

Krewson: *****
Yes, it's a retro-inspired reimagining, and you might want to dock it points for that, and yes, its sheer size is astounding- at one point Wert was driving the Camaro (imagine that) just a couple car-lengths in front of me on the expressway when a Civic pulled between us, and the Camaro's shapely flared fenders were clearly visible on either side of the Honda. But come on, folks, get into the spirit of the thing and admit that from the scowling grille to those muscular flares, it looks exactly the way a 21st-century Camaro should, all hunkered-down heroism and larger-than-life muscularity. A stunning car.

Siler: *****
Ditches the shamelessly retro nature of the other two for something that's more retro futuristic. Pushes all the right muscle car buttons, promising a powerful, wild car underneath.

Dodge Challenger R/T

Siler: ****
The only retro car that actually looks better than the original, the Dodge Challenger resolves the 1970 car's awkward proportions into something that's completely distinctive and seriously attractive. A master class in car as toy for man-children, the Challenger would be perfect if it wasn't so big that it makes all its drivers look like the 12-year olds that they are inside. This car has the "Classic" package, which brings chrome Crager replicas and swoopy black stripes.

Wert: ***
As I've said before, the Challenger's the perfectly-styled retro muscle car...for 2008. Back then it was the only newly-styled pony on the road. Now, with the Camaro and Mustang available, it just kinda looks quaint — not exciting. Still I love the children's coloring book R/T stripe package.

Ford Mustang GT

Wert: ****
I can't tell you how many times I've heard "It's not a revolutionary design change, it's evolutionary." Still, we should all be this evolved. The new design freshens up the packaging of what is, essentially, the same Mustang powertrain lineup as before. Also, love the trick turn signals lighting up in sequence.

Krewson: ****
The Mustang looked, well, pretty okay when it debuted a few years ago, and while it was never exactly revolutionary, they've done a pretty good job of sharpening this crease here and redrawing that curve there to keep the design pleasant enough. Our GT had the extra fog lights, the blacked-out pony on the grille, the nifty sequential turn signals, and the tasteful spoiler delete option, so even in frankly putrid Harvest Gold Metallic (remember the great kitchen stoves of the '70s?) the GT is a nice, handsome car. Not striking or daring or even particularly head-turning, mind you, but certainly a car that'll give the owner satisfied grins for a good long time.

Interior Design

Chevy Camaro SS

Krewson: ****
The strong styling continues inside to pretty good effect, with those distinctive round gauges in rectilinear pods looking out at you through a chunky steering wheel and ancillary gauges peeking up at you past the shifter, materials that are perfectly fine, and two rather firm deep-dish bucket seats (let's just ignore the back seats the way God intended). You are way, way down in those seats, though; again there's no escaping the size of this car, which means visibility isn't great in any direction except straight ahead. And even in the age of chin-level beltlines the Camaro is in a league of its own-I tried to hang my elbow out the window just like any decent American would and damn near dislocated my shoulder. Just the same, it's aggressive, well-executed, and muscle-car appropriate.

Siler: ***
A reasonable amount of space, even in the rear seats, but vision is terrible, materials are cheap and the supplementary instruments down by the gear stick feel contrived.

Dodge Challenger R/T

Siler: **
Well, it covers all the unsightly wires and whatnot, so I suppose that's something. Sit in the Challenger and you could be in a Neon, PT Cruiser or any other crappy Chrysler/Dodge. It does not make you feel special.

Wert: **
Dear federal government, please never let the current LX platform spawn another model with the exact same blank, flat, plastic interior design we've seen since the 300C first rolled off the Brampton assembly line in 2004. The seats however, and rear room, are divine. Your taxpaying friend, Ray.

Ford Mustang GT

Wert: *****
I can't believe I'm saying a Ford Mustang looks good on the inside, but it really does — with lots of room in the front cockpit and good use of more expensive-feeling plastics than the other two muscle cars. Also, bonus point for having a windowsill low enough to rest your elbow on without getting an ulnar nerve displacement.

Krewson: ****
Less pretty, more practical: More retro here, this time Ford flavored, featuring one of the great automotive typefaces of all time on the tach and speedo (Dad was a Ford guy, and seeing that dash on Father's Day weekend gave me a real pang, I don't mind telling you), controls with pleasant heft and feel, and simple, well-bolstered seats. It's a touch slabby, in the way your passenger gets a nice aluminum panel staring them in the face and the door panels kind of resemble collections of vacuum cleaner attachments, but it's all built out of pretty good stuff and you're soon right at home. Except for the rear quarters, outward visibility is quite excellent as well, though Ford will let you cover up those rear-quarter windows with optional louvers if you just want to throw your hands up and say to hell with everything.

Acceleration

Chevy Camaro SS

Krewson: ****
I know, I know, the numbers say one thing, but my inner ear and butt say quite another. You may argue that my butt's doing all the talking as usual, but hear me out: there may be a big ol' version of one of the great engines of all time in this thing, but it's deep down under lots and lots of automotive lard, and the car never felt all that comfortable to launch or happy to hook up. Yes, the Camaro is the quickest car here, and my forebrain knows that. But my, uh, hindbrain keeps telling me all that quick should be a lot more fun, and it's right.

Siler: *****
With a 426 HP, 420 Lb-Ft 6.2-liter V8, straight line acceleration is the Camaro's reason for being. The official 0-60 time of 4.6 seconds means you'd have to bring a Cadillac CTS-V or Corvette to be assured of beating the Camaro.

Dodge Challenger R/T

Siler: ***
376 HP and 410 Lb-Ft of torque do an admirable job of propelling the 4,140 Lb Challenger, but the engine needs more revs than we'd like in a muscle car and that weight does make it noticeably slower than the other two. Expect 0-60 MPH in 5.5 seconds.

Wert: ***
There's always power to be had with a HEMI, even if the R/T only comes equipped with the smaller of the two shoehorned between the rails of this platform. Given how heavy this car is, it needs the 6.1-liter.

Ford Mustang GT

Wert: ***
Meh. Same Mustang powertrain, different Mustang model year. Wake me up when I can get an EcoBoosted-six under the hood with more HP. Or something Boss-ier. Still, the Mustang GT holds its own against the Challenger R/T. Then, of course, they both realize they were just left in a cloud of smoke by the Camaro SS.

Krewson: ****
Same rating as the Camaro, because in the real world, the Mustang is easier to hook up, feels more eager, and unlike the other cars here it wasn't so bloated that it struggled to get out of its own way. Nice loud toppling-woodpile clunks from that live axle, though, and when all's been said and you need to get things done, the Camaro will run a tick or two faster. It just won't be as much fun.

Braking

Chevy Camaro SS

Krewson: ****
Now here's a very pleasant surprise; these brakes are pretty good. Sure, they're giant discs working on huge tires, but it's still a wonder the way they progressively and repeatedly slowed a sizable coupe without being grabby in the least. Impressive.

Siler: ****
Like the engine, biggest is best. 14" discs are reassuringly powerful and easy to modulate.

Dodge Challenger R/T

Wes: ***
You can feel the Challenger's weight here too, even if you can't feel much in general. The 13.6" front discs will bring you to a stop, but we wouldn't want to rely on them to repeatedly haul us up on track.

Ray: **
Could have used a set of Brembos like the SRT8. Just sayin'...

Ford Mustang GT

Wert: ***
Not Brembo-class, but capable with little of the brake fade I felt on the Challenger.

Krewson: ****
Communicative, unflappable, and very good indeed, if not world-beating. Again, size and weight played a subjective part as I was more comfortable braking harder and more confidently in the Mustang than the others.

Ride

Chevy Camaro SS

Krewson: ****
It's firmly sprung and damped, but even on some of the astoundingly excruciating roads we put up with in NYC, the Camaro did an okay job of keeping the fillings in the teeth. It soaks up freeway bumps particularly well, although strangely, expansion joints seem to only hit through the rear wheels. My theory: the supermassive Chevy's front wheels smoothly pound bumps through the Earth's crust on contact, but then the rear wheels jounce over the resulting impact craters.

Siler: ***
Where you want and expect a visceral muscle car, The Camaro rides like a luxury sedan thanks to struts and coil springs up front and multilink rear suspension.

Dodge Challenger R/T

Siler: ***
Pretty decent for a performance car, the Challenger rides like all the LX platform sedans. Large ruts and long sequences of bumps still upset the chassis, meaning more composure would be welcome, that's surprising for a car with independent rear suspension.

Wert: *
Wait, the Mustang's the one with the truck axle, right? In all seriousness, the cut in size from the standard LX platform does nothing to help smooth out the jarring feeling of the West Side highway underneath you.

Ford Mustang GT

Wert: ***
While you can tell it's a live axle, you can also tell Ford's spent the past, umm, 45 years, fine-tuning the suspension for this tree-trunk-like truck axle to soften up what would otherwise be bone-shattering rough roads. It actually performed better than the Challenger's IRS. Who knew?

Krewson: ****
It's good and supple and comfortable, right up the the point it isn't. That live axle does a surprisingly good job of soaking up most trouble, but again, we're in New York City, and on the bad stuff the live axle turns undead on you. As a result, this is is the muscle car I sheepishly drove around the potholes.

Handling

Chevy Camaro SS

Krewson: ***
Frankly, I didn't like driving the Camaro all that much. I didn't hate it-It grips pretty well, and its considerable mass is tautly strung together and evidently well-centralized, because it handles predictably and turns without yawing like a lifeboat and never seemed to want to plow the front under or spin the rear out. But it wasn't the happiest car I've ever driven, and when you took it through the tight stuff or changed direction quickly, it seemed to double in weight. Conversely, the steering was far too light and isolated from the wheels, making the car feel even less integrated.

Siler: ***
Imminently capable yet utterly boring. We want muscle cars to be wild, dangerous beasts that require big balls and bigger skills to exploit, yet your mom could take it down a back road as fast as you could. Push it and the staggered tires will see the narrower fronts push unless you're silly with the throttle, then you get uncontrollable oversteer.

Dodge Challenger R/T

Siler: **
Ties itself in knots in corners, initially it's all understeer before snapping into oversteer unpredictably. You can't fully defeat the stability control (only the traction), which is a good thing because the good ship Challenger feels just like the LX sedan it is underneath.

Wert: **
Frankly, cornering the Challenger's like trying to wrassle a warthog. I mean, if I knew what wrasslin' a warthog was like. But my assumption is it'd operate just like one of them thar rear-wheel-driven animals, moving that rump from side to side with nothing close to resembling grace and ease.

Ford Mustang GT

Wert: ***
Yes, the Mustang GT handles well, but not world-beater well. I'm sorry but the live-axle becomes apparent if you accelerate over even a medium-sized pothole or highway spacer while turning. It's good, but it could be better.

Krewson: *****
Better men than I am, and also Wes, have striven to tell us the Mustang GT is a brilliant handler despite being a bone-stick-stone primitive struts-and-live-axle car. Well, those men and Wes are absolutely right. It moves so much better than every other car in this group that it's hardly even a fair comparison. The steering is well-coupled and well-weighted and perfectly matches the Mustang's aptitude for cornering without drama, complaint, or anything to spoil your fun-your loads and loads of fun. Chalk it up to American ingenuity, I guess, because it flat-out works.

Gearbox

Chevy Camaro SS

Krewson: ****
A muscle car, or as I'm starting to think of this Camaro, "muscle-lux" car, with a six-speed transmission is surely one of the signs we're living in The Future, and this six-speed is a nice one. The clutch engages through a surprisingly narrow band, though, strange when you consider the very similar G8 GXP had such great feel and usability.

Siler: ****
It's a Tremec TR6060, as used in every other V8 GM performance car ever made. That's a good thing because it has short, positive throws and precise selection.

Dodge Challenger R/T

Siler: **
Whoever thought a pistol grip was a good idea for this long-throw, sloppy version of the TR6060 is a moron. It's pretty hard to find the right gear, made harder because you have to grab the shifter like a cartoon superhero.

Wert: ****
I loved the Tremec TR6060 six-speed manual transmission in the Dodge Viper and I love it here in the Challenger. The pistol grip shifter's a nice touch and makes me think, for just a moment that I'm in a ‘60s muscle car. I like that feeling.

Ford Mustang GT

Wert: ****
I simply adore the Mustang's gearbox. It's easy to shift, even with the rock-hard clutch. I'd have given them an extra star if they'd offered a six rather than the five. Ah well, still love it.

Krewson: ****
Just a five-speed here, though, somewhat disappointing as the GT500 can be had with six. Still, it's a good five-speed, the best-shifting gearbox of the group by a couple hairs, with much better, if stiffer clutch feel.

Audio

Chevy Camaro SS

Krewson: ****
The stereo is just fine, I guess (although the exposed rear-speaker magnets and wires in the trunk are a little too retro). I really have to say that the engine note rarely got as growly or raspy as I'd like, and should be more prominent; if it can't be as glorious as the Mustang's, it should at least be as good as the G8 GXP's muted roar.

Siler: ***
The LS3 sounds awesome under full throttle, you can't hear it otherwise. I never turned the stereo on.

Dodge Challenger R/T

Siler: **
The V8 only wakes up at 4,000 RPM and higher, meaning you'll need to use the crappy stereo if you're driving in traffic. It looks like Chrysler bought it at Pep Boys.

Wert: *
Blech. The entire Chrysler audio faceplate lineup needs a redesign. I feel like I'm looking at the same stereos I've seen since 2004. Oh wait, I am.

Ford Mustang GT

Wert: ***
Best of the group — although that's not saying much. But seriously, who's blasting music when you could be listening to the music coming from the pipes out back?

Krewson: ****
The stereo is just fine, I guess. But the important thing is, well, perhaps you've heard that Ford does this great trick where they run some sort of resonator pipe past or through the passenger compartment-I'm not sure which and I don't care, but it is absolutely majestic. It's a sound you hear with your pelvis.

Toys

Chevy Camaro SS

Krewson: ***
I continue to be a fan of GM's OnStar, the navigation system that is made of real live people. Also, if I understand Ray correctly, this car unfolds into a five-story tall robot, which is not to be sneezed at.

Siler: **
No Sat/Nav? OnStar will give you directions and call an ambulance when you hit a telephone pole, but I'd hardly call either fun. The extra gauge pack is somewhat pointless as all the needles do is sit still right in the middle. I'm convinced they're glued on.

Dodge Challenger R/T

Siler: *
If you love caressing sweaty black plastic you'll love playing inside the Challenger, otherwise that cheapo stereo/nav screen is all you get. Still, the Challenger is essentially a full scale Hot Wheels toy so people will always think you're playing with something.

Wert: *
What toys? The craptastic nav system that always sends me through the Brooklyn Battery tunnel rather than the Midtown or Brooklyn Bridge? That one?

Ford Mustang GT

Wert: *
This car is a toy. It's toy-sized and it looks like a toy. Unfortunately, it has no toys in your toy so you can play while you play.

Krewson: ****
Our GT was a little basic, without either of the available nav units, but it did have Ford's excellent SYNC system, which is worth noting for its transparency and because, as far as I know, it's the only voice-recognition system in the world that works really well. It also has that Mustang interior accent-lighting color-change gadget, which is kind of neat, I guess, but spare me.

Value

Chevy Camaro SS

Krewson: ***
Of course the person who absolutely has to have it will get it, and they'll be able to overlook its considerable flaws because none of them are really deal-breakers. But the average person looking for a fun second car just has too many other alternatives, whether they're looking for an all-American-type experience or not; this Camaro is a strange 'tweener, neither a luxury coupe nor a true go-to-hell muscle car, and that's an awkward no-man's land. That said, it was the car that dropped the most jaws, got the most thumbs-up, and made kids yell "Bumblebee! Bumblebee!" Can you really put a price on that?

Siler: ****
A 426 HP Corvette engine with four seats and good looks for just $31,040? That's amazingly good value even if it is boring to drive.

Dodge Challenger R/T

Siler: ***
$30,995 isn't bad for a fast-ish muscle car that looks this good, but the other two offer so much more for a similar price that it'd be hard to pick the Challenger.

Wert: **
It's $1000 cheaper than a base SS but still a world apart.

Ford Mustang GT

Wert: **
At $32,835 it's too rich for my blood. Especially when you can get a Camaro SS with so much more HP, brakes and panache for just a grand more.

Krewson: ****
It wouldn't be perfect, but unlike the other cars here, the Mustang could in fact be your only car. It's the easiest car to drive in everyday traffic as well as the easiest to drive fast, the most comfortable, and probably the cheapest to buy and operate. It's also a 'tweener, but it occupies a more comfortable area between muscle car, sports car, and daily-driver.

Overall

Third: Dodge Challenger R/T
Average score: 2.5
Equipped with all the characteristics of a classic muscle car — big engine, not much else — the Challenger R/T just doesn't stack up in the modern world. Krewson and I spent and entire weekend fighting about who's turn it was to drive it. Not because we wanted to, but because we were so embarrassed by the bright orange paint, Hot Wheels stripes and the huge size that we really didn't.

Second: Ford Mustang GT
Average score: 3.6
The lightest, least powerful and most involving to drive car here, it's nevertheless 111 HP down on the Camaro SS. If muscle cars are about muscle, that matters. Even though it's the cheapest base model, you have to spec it up to the base Camaro SS price if you want equivalent spec. Had we had the optional track pack, with its GT500-derived suspension, we suspect this result could have been even pricier, but the outcome may have been very different.

First: Chevy Camaro SS
Average score: 3.7
The Camaro has a great engine, looks really cool and does pretty well everywhere else. Since none of these cars are out-and-out handlers, that puts it over the top. Grow a mullet, switch to cheap domestic beer and embrace your inner hoon.

[FoxSports]

Photo Credit: Motive

We realize this story line is getting a bit ridiculous, they are just wheel weights after all, but in the interest of fairness we figured we should point out that horsepower isn't the only place in the muscle car wars these three cars compete. Nope, it's the hefty load of wheel balancing weights as well.

One theory put forth has been the addition of the government mandated tire pressure monitoring system, which requires a pressure transducer and a wireless transmitter mounted inside the wheel, making this excessive amount of wheel weight necessary. This could reasonably be the case, but relying on tire techs to properly place weights to balance a wheel introduces too much variability for our engineering tastes. The TPMS mandate has been in the pipe for a long time now, so one would imagine the added heft of the module would be offset in the design of the actual wheel.

Or, it could have nothing to do with the TPMS system. Could just be a condition of huge wheels on low profile tires and delicate NVH requirements. We'll get to the bottom of things... eventually. Hey, the weekend is coming up and we've got wrenches to turn. (Thanks for the picture Brett)

The new transmission is similar to the one found on the V8 powered Challengers and becomes standard for the 250 HP V6 powered Challenger SE this year. The new hardware includes the Autostick feature, allowing drivers to pretend they're driving a big-boy muscle car. It also improves performance all around, even bumping fuel economy up to 25 MPG.

The Rallye package includes some snazzy 18 inch aluminum wheels, a set of rather nice stripes, the chrome fuel door from the SRT, and a spoiler out back. Not bad for a V6 pony car. Which makes us ask a funny question: Is a V6 automatic a Shetland pony car?

[Source: Chrysler]

The car was captured by forum member Kyle Paulson in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills — home of the Chrysler tech center and world headquarters. The prototype seems to be heading for the scrap heap, which probably means some Mopar freak's garage for twenty years of storage before it sells for six-figures at a Barrett Jackson auction. We haven't heard much in the way of a serious convertible program for the big Challenger, but there's clearly something going on at the Pentastar brand. Since we've seen most of the future Chrysler portfolio by way of Treasury Department filings, this is probably just a glimpse at what might have been. (Thanks for the tip Brian) [MI F-Body Association]