(By Tom Lohnes) – The current generation of Dodge Challenger is an old car. Riding on a 25-year old Mercedes E-class chassis, the Challenger has basically come as far as it can go handling wise. But a new Challenger is slated for 2024, and there are two available chassis for it to go to. Which one is better?
Well for our first entry we have the Alfa Romeo Giorgio platform. Underpinning the incredibly nimble Giulia and potent Stelvio, this chassis is made for power. Being a 4-year old chassis, Dodge can build upon it quite a bit. The engine bay is quite large so we can for sure put a V8 in it and it already runs an 8-speed automatic and RWD or AWD. In fact, the Alfa Romeo Giulia GTA-M Set a 4-door car Nürburgring record at 7:21:34. So, it is quite possible the next Challenger could be an Alfa underneath, and I’m quite open to that.
Next up, we have the harder option. With the supposed idea of Stellantis buying Jaguar/Land Rover, the Jaguar XF is the obvious choice in the lineup. With Mercedes E-Class proportions, and a supercharged V8 sitting under the hood, the XF is more than ready to be a challenger. RWD stock, and also offering a ZF automatic, the Big Dodge body could mate up to this quite well. Also, Jaguar makes an XF wagon, so a 2nd-gen Magnum is a possibility on that chassis.
i vote for the Alfa……
Hopefully what ever they choose will drop some weight off of the fat girl.
My Redeye weighs 4460 lbs. with about 1/2 tank of gas.
A few less pounds would be awesome.
Oh, is Dodge still in business yet? Ho, hum
Except he kept calling it a Challenger.
Clearly it must be a Charger.
Why am I reading this poorly put together opinion piece? I was talking to myself.
Agreed, some weight for better cornering and handling
Hopefully what ever they choose will drop some weight off of the fat girl.
My Redeye weighs 4460 lbs. with about 1/2 tank of gas.
Brother I couldn’t agree more lol. We have a 2019 with the v6 (the wife drives it as it’s more a luxury car than sports car) and a 2015 rt with the 6 speed hemi and don’t get me wrong they are both quick cars but if they where to shed some weight they would be monsters!! But other than the weight how do you like the red eye? I was looking at the getting a hellcat myself..
Just gave up a Durango 2017 RT.. dude, fam hauler and it hauls @$$… We basically all have Subarus now, please no mean words blah blah blah, American to the hilt, but we don’t do this tech well… Subie kinda does lol my outback is only a four banger and I can generally lose sleepy people at lights lmao…
I’m with you on that one .
Its an American Muscle car. Not a Eropean kinda cool family sedan.
Exactly, no one wants a light in weight car…it’s muscle!
I agree, level weight issue to where it’s closely balance with the other two opponent,….then we have just the stock pwrperformance to grade.
Just to further irritate true Mopar fans and throw another couple vaunted nameplates in the burning trash bin the next things they come out with will probably be a Fiat ‘Cuda with 4 doors and a hybrid 1.4 litre turbo diesel and some new butt ugly electric crossover SUV thing they’ll call a Chrysler Road Runner. Wouldn’t surprise me none.
Then, like they did with the Darts they’ll put in the ads…”we called it that because it brings back memories of your old cars”. Really??? Funny I don’t remember ANY of my old Darts being a foreign car with a 4 cylinder in them. Morons!!!
Whatever Dodge does please don’t make a 4 door Challenger !
Challenger? I feel like those pics are for the charger.
Guys , its good to let them know you don’t want your cuda or challenger a four door . Tom is just showing you the platform in its current state . The charger and the challenger are both built on the same platform…..ones a two door ones a four door . Believe it or not, back in the day we used to have two and four door models of the same car !
Its so funny how stupid people are and how much they just follow along. Dodge has zero ingenuity. The LX platform isnt even theirs and now again here we are. They just find marketing tricks and brainwashing to fool suckers into thinking they are getting a world beater car. Add some power, change some trim and options. Wow same car 15 years later…and it still sucks. The only Dodge I would ever by is a minivan. That’s ingenuity.
Okay, Giorgio can be the platform for the new Barracuda and the new Chally can ride on the Jag platform. In addition to a wagon they also make a convertible. Ahem… FCA really blew that one.
Why not the beautiful 1996 Concept car for the Charger. I think it was a natural gas car but the design I feel was gorgeous. Then we build a proper Dual A Frame front suspension and multi link rear.
That front’s gotta go but it’s the most gorgeous four door I’ve ever seen.
Was given an Alfa 2020 Giulia to drive for work. Didn’t know or anything about these cars, didn’t care, wasn’t excited about it. And then, it blew my mind. In my opionion it out handles the 370z I had a few years back. Incredible performance. I vote Alfa
Was given an Alfa 2020 Giulia to drive for work. Didn’t know or anything about these cars, didn’t care, wasn’t excited about it. And then, it blew my mind. In my opinion it out handles the 370z I had a few years back. Incredible performance. I vote Alfa
Love Mopar, love charger but would even love more a two door charger with less weight.
They never made a 4 door charger and I was wondering how the hell did the old charger which was always a 2 door suddenly grow 2 extra doors. They should have left that to the 300 Chrysler and built a performance 2 door charger.