|
Lifestyle of the Fast and the Furious
The Lifestyle of the Fast and the Furious is a world of attitude fueled by nitrous tanks and hot passion for the high-octane excitement of street racing. It`s a world of showmanship set against a background of music and fashion, where the cars remain the stars, and your name is only as good as your quarter-mile time!
The History of the Dodge Challenger
To compete with the Pony car and muscle car market, Chrysler designed the Dodge Challenger. It was designed to compete against the Mustangs, GTO`s and the Camaro`s but other manufacturers had a three-year head start. The Dodge Challenger program was approved when the Pony car was into it`s second generation. The Dodge Challenger was not an original design from scratch; Chrysler management would not allow the new development costs. The first step for Performance reasons was to allow all of the Chrysler engines to be put in the Challenger. In order to accomplish this, Chrysler borrowed the K member support from the B body Charger and put it in the Challenger. With this support, they could now put the big block 440 and the 426 HEMI in the Challenger. The intent was to use the A body Barracuda frame but it wouldn`t allow the K member to fit, so some redesigning was done that widened the frame. Along with this came the idea to redesign the outer body for a sleek long look to complement the widened stance. Its stance was 5 inches wider than the Ford Mustang. The final wheelbase was 110 on the Challenger, and 191 inches in length, 2 inches longer than any other Pony car. It was in production for only 4 years, 1970 - 1974. In the 1970 model year the Dodge Challenger was presented to the public. It had 6 models - hardtop, convertible, and SE in both Challenger and Challenger RT. There were more than 60 options for the Challenger including 9 engines, 18 colors, 16 trim options and 3 different stripe configurations in up to 6 colors. The unique options were the shaker hood, go wing rear spoiler, A833 4 speed gearbox with Hurst 4 speed pistol grip shifter, wood steering wheels, and rectangular chrome exhaust tips. Also there was the slapstick auto transmission that allowed you to shift gears when you wanted to and high impact colors for exterior paint. The paint color names were Plum Crazy, Sublime, Go-Mango, Top Banana, Hemi Orange, and Panther Pink. RT Road & Track-this option gave you a three spoke wood steering wheel, and heavy-duty suspension. SE Special Edition-this option gave you leather bucket seats, a small rear window and an overhead console. T/A Trans Am-this option would give you a fiberglass hood, side chrome exhaust and a beefed up 340 engine with a six-pack carb. The T/A was also a limited production model during 1970 only. |
