I’ll be up front: Dodge finally put all-wheel drive in a Challenger, and it doesn’t get a V8 or a manual transmission. But even with a V6 and an automatic only, the Challenger GT sounds like it is ready to beat the crap out of snow-covered roads.
Fiat Chrysler has some pretty powerful V6s in its lineup, and the Challenger GT gets the 3.6-liter Pentastar with 305 horsepower and 268 pound-feet of torque. The transmission is the ZF 8-speed Chrysler builds and calls the Torqueflite. This is the same deal as with the AWD Charger.
The Challenger GT starts at $34,490, which is about as much as a rear-drive V8 model, or about seven grand more than the base base Challenger’s MSRP. A Charger with AWD, by contrast, is only a two grand premium over its rear-drive equivalent, but I don’t know the differences in trim with this new Challenger GT. The GT gets, for instance, fancy 19-inch wheels, as well as fog lamps and heated and ventilated leather seats.
The big debut will be at the Detroit Auto Show in 2017 with production starting not long after.
Even without a Hellcat engine or even any other Dodge V8, the Challenger GT sounds like a complete hoon machine. I guess it would also be good for ordinary people who want to look cool in a Chally but don’t want to ever deal with oversteer, but that’s less fun.