Just look at that photo: it’s the new Charger SRT-8 “Super Bee” running the back straight at Waterford Hills. One of my favorite cars, at one of my favorite places… plus a new color and some interior trim changes. What’s not to like? Well, there’s the Chargers really shouldn’t have four doors factor. If you want to, as Nicki Minaj says, “back coupes up and chuck the deuce up,” there’s now a yellow special-edition Challenger, too.
The Chrysler LX/LY/whatever cars are real auto-enthusiast litmus tests. Either you love them for being unapologetic two-ton, 400-plus-horsepower, square-shouldered ass-kickers, or you’re turned off by their weight, their lack of finesse, their unquenchable thirst for fuel, and their inability to pack even a mid-sized car’s worth of space inside what it nearly a full-sized automobile.
For those of us who fall in the first category, there’s a new Charger Super Bee and Challenger “Yellow Jacket”. All the changes are cosmetic, as far as I can tell from the press release. Two cars you either love or loathe, now available in yellow.
While the Challenger can, and should be, had with a six-speed manual, most of these cars will go out the door with the old Benz-sourced five-speed auto. The ZF 8-speed which is pushing the Pentastar-powered 300 and Charger to their well-publicized 31mpg estimated highway rating won’t be showing up for duty, either because
a) they don’t have enough of the transmissions available
b) they haven’t had time to complete testing
c) the HEMI 6.4 would turn the 8-speed into a magnesium box full of aluminum dust.
My money’s on c).
Production of the Super Bee and Yellow Jacket will be limited (to as many as they can sell) so get in line early!
Yellow Charger = lipstick on a pig.
Yellow Challenger = lipstick on a model.
Very nicely put.
Yellow Challenger should be called…Cindy.
Still only ONE color I’d buy the Challenger in: Hemi Orange.
As a person who falls into the first camp and has a Challenger (2010 R/T Classic) The Only Color for me was Stone White…….if you have to ask why you don’t get it.
I just have to ask why the hell they don’t offer it on the SRT.
The Charger, at least, has decent lines, if overly aggressive details. The Challenger still has that “fat guy on tippy toes” look.
I’d still take the 300 over both.
“Super Bee” and “Yellow Jacket” make me think Dodge will call the new small C-segment sedan the “Hornet” afterall.
According to the apparatchiks at Automobile, that is true. The new Alfa-based compact will have the 1.4 twinair Fiat motor as well as a 1.8 4cyl. Make it AWD and i’d think about it….
My avatar obliges me to post. For the Georgia Tech fanatics that do their cars up in white and gold (or yellow), the Challenger Yellow Jacket edition would be a no-brainer if you want to skip all the aftermarket custom paint/decal work.
I thought the Camaro was the super bee
oh right that’s the bumblebee.
And Datsun had the Honeybee B-210
I see they…corrected(?) the Charger’s snout in light of certain accusations of a likeness to another automobile.
Marketing hype…now visible from across an entire Wal-Mart parking lot.
I am certain there are many who will absolutely need this car because of it’s looks and will overlook everything else.
I wish you guys a lot of luck!
I wouldn’t be caught dead in something like that, though.
I agree, however it would be boring if everyone was the same or liked the same things.
That’s ok, that leaves one more for us who probably wouldn’t be caught dead in something you like.
Cure for the small winky now available at your local Dodge dealer!
I believe those are called Ram dealers now.
that could be said for ANY performance car
Are you saying that all the guys with big schvantzes drive Camrys?
Nope, Brabus ForTwos!
I prefer something more subdued normally but “plum crazy” and “sub-lime” would get me to look hard at these cars. I’m finding out that my lady is into “muscle cars” I haven’t asked if there’s a requirement for number of doors yet. :P And if I’m gonna go big I still perfer these over a freaking SUV/CUV. I’ll be more likely to use the power in the Hemi than to go off-road.
If I get a Challenger I’m getting either Vanishing Point white (a dealer did a small run of special order white SRT8s, but white R/Ts probably aren’t that rare), or, for the MOPAR ridiculousness of it, purple with a white leather interior (that is a factory color scheme). Definitely the Tremec.
Jack – you turn 40 and start making Nicki Minaj references? Are you feeling the need to compensate for age? I listen to stuff like Nicki Minaj as a guilty pleasure and still don’t know what you’re talking about (I’m with the “Best Answer”): http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110214170239AAiJpjK
For people reading this Super Bass, which Jack’s reference is from, is pretty annoying (although the original GMA version is worth watching). A verse in a song called Monster is probably her best work, or, depending who you are, still pretty annoying (NSFW language): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2dXT5b2Vgw&feature=related
Is that the one where the white Challenger runs into the bulldozer? (Sorry, inside joke from my work…) :)
I would wax Nicki Minaj’s ass like Rain Dance on the bumper, as the saying goes.
That fish-scale outfit she’s wearing in the “Super Bass” video is money in the bank. Not sure what my chances are with her. I’m not as buffed-out as that Drake fellow but I’m also not murderously dull at dinner.
I like it, having been left in the car while my family hit the mall recently – I can’t tell you how boring it is to gaze upon a sea of silver/grey occasional black or maroon blobs in the parking lot. Oh, and don’t get me started on white Buicks driven by “blue hairs”!
The Charger looks, surpisingly, stunning in that livery.
I’m grooving on the new Charger and 300 – I think the cosmetic refreshening of both were a well done update on what has become an iconic vehicle. The new 300 especially wears it’s new look very well – like an athlete upgrading an Armani suit for a Tom Ford get up. Restrained subtle athleticism.
Works for the most part on the Challenger but the Charger looks like a Matchbox toy IMHO.
Maybe it’s the four doors but for me the Charger looks far better as a cop car, especially with a push bar, but this? Meh.
In fact the Charger looks just as dumb as the Ram truck they had out a few years ago that had the same over the top paint job and a stupid spolier to boot.
I wish it was possible to sell something like this in Norway, although there’s a lot of stuff that is just wrong about them. (there are some privately imported Challengers, Camaros and Mustangs of the last generation over here, but with the more powerful V8’s they land in the >20k+++$ category, used…)
What I personally dislike about them is that they just aren’t awesome enough. In the late 60’s some of the fastest accelerating road legal cars in the world were reasonably cheap American muscle cars, and these just aren’t as fast as supercars. They aren’t even faster than German luxury sedans.
Instead they are just clones, like the dinosaurs in Jurassic park, which had modern reptile DNA in them..
Another more mature part of me also hates that we still make stuff like this in a world that doesn’t seem to want muscle cars anymore, for a multitude of reasons, although they are a lot better than any SUV.
I couldn’t find an edit button, so I’ll have to say I meant to say they cost >200k over here, used.
If I could get one (a Charger, it’s not so much a clone, and borderline not useless :) )it’d have to be as Dan said, plum crazy, or sub-lime. And I would fit a vinyl roof :P
What’s not to like? I’d like to see a bit more bright trim, especially around the side glass, however.
I’m still waiting for the return of the “Big Bad…” colors of the early 1970’s on the AMCs.
I’m also awaiting what I think is the nicest color of yellow ever to adorn a car – Goldwood Yellow as on a 1964 Chevy. None better.
Ya, seriously? Chrysler/Fiat owns the rights to the color codes. Might have to ask Nissan/Renault for permission though…
If you are going to redneck-up a brand new car you might as well go all out. How about a special edition Charger Daytona with a spoiler that sits three or four feet above the rear deck and a pointed nose with pop-up headlights?
http://wot.motortrend.com/heide-turns-dodge-challenger-into-classic-charger-daytona-plymouth-superbird-8503.html
I’ll bet someone has also done a General Lee version.
Say what you want to about the WA580 (the five-speed in the Charger), its old, inefficient, shifts slow, but man can it handle allot of torque. 580 designates 580 newtons or 430 ft/lbs. That’s the reason Mercedes is still using it in their V12 models. The torque rating for the ZF8 according to allpar is 450nm(331 ft/lbs) – not enough to handle the standard 5.7 liter Hemi let alone the 392.
That’s just the version Chrysler is using right now. The ZF8 has versions that can withstand 650+ ft/lbs.
Needs the shaker scoop and front splitter off the SRT10 concept.
And wider tires.
And a lower price.
Otherwise I like them both.
“Their inability to pack even a mid-sized car’s worth of space inside”? Definitely not the 300 you’re talking about. The best thing about the interior of my ’08 300C AWD is that it’s cavernous. People are usually shocked when they get in the front or back seat of one for the first time, in this era of mid-size cars.
I should hate these cars for a load of reasons, yet I really like them – a lot. Fat, garish, fuel swilling, these are the antithesis of what I think a vehicle should be but there is just something so emotionally compelling about them…I am glad there are still a few cars like this…
Love it. I’ll take 2 of each.
Ooh, will these have special colored stitching like the previous ‘green with envy’ limited edition?
If you’re gonna go with a throwback muscle car, might as well go whole hog and get an HPP Petty Superbird.
Or go whole Boss Hogg and get a Col. Lee replicar.
Yeah, I know, not current model. Work with me.
“Either you love them … or you’re turned off…”
Is there room in your world for me to be both? I’ve still got my (mostly wrecked) ’70 Challenger in the garage doing duty as a low functioning shelf, and I have to admit a bit of the old feeling for the Yellow Jacket. BUT, I’m turned off by the original. the stupid reproduction is HEAVY, and has all the old faults without wheelies.
Um, uhh, what?