General Challenger

General Challenger

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Engine Control Unit (ECU)

An engine control unit (ECU), also commonly called an engine control module (ECM), is the brain of your car. It is the main reason that we are now in the second era of muscle cars, despite restricting emission regulations. The ECU controls a series of actuators on an internal combustion engine to ensure optimal engine performance. It does this by reading values from a multitude of sensors within the engine bay, interpreting the data using multidimensional performance maps (called look-up...
General Challenger

All About Paint

In the early days of the automobile industry, painting was a slow process. It was applied manually and dried for weeks at room temperature by solvent evaporation. 1930 Packard Factory As mass production of cars made the process untenable, paint began to be dried in ovens. Nowadays, two-component (catalyzed) paint is usually applied by robotic arms and cures in just a few hours either at room temperature or in heated booths. (Note- That is why car paint can be waxed as soon as the new owner...
General Challenger

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Leasing vs. Buying

How does the cost of leasing a Challenger compare to buying it, in terms of out-of-pocket costs? Or if you decide to buy a used Challenger, how much more will you save? And finally, what do those costs look like in the long run? These are important questions for buyers who want to carefully manage their automotive expenses over the years. It's hard to give one answer that covers all people and all situations. But the question can be divided into two parts: 1. An analysis of the hard costs...
General Challenger

What is Hydroplaning?

The term hydroplaning is commonly used to refer to the skidding or sliding of a car’s tires across a wet surface. Hydroplaning occurs when a tire encounters more water than it can scatter. Water pressure in the front of the wheel pushes water under the tire, and the tire is then separated from the road surface by a thin film of water and loses traction. The result is loss of steering, braking and power control. Rubber tires have tread (grooves) that are designed to channel water from...
General Challenger

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Axle Ratios

An axle ratio is the number of revolutions the output shaft or driveshaft needs to make in order to spin the axle one complete turn. The number is expressed in a ratio, which represents the number of teeth on the ring gear divided by the number of teeth on the pinion. For example, a vehicle with a 3.73:1 gear ratio means that the driveshaft will turn 3.73 times for each complete wheel spin. Many people simply refer to the axle ratio as 3.73, rather than express it as the ratio 3.73:1....

General Challenger

Ronnie Sox- A Tribute to "Mr. Four Speed"

Ronnie Sox is one of the greatest Mopar drag racers. Like many who eventually became professional racers, "The Boss," grew up around cars, raised in the shadow of his family’s Sinclair service station. As soon as he was old enough to drive, Sox began competing in drag races, sponsored by the Police Club of Burlington, NC, at a local airport. In the early days, Sox didn’t even own a car and used his father’s 1949 Olds. From these humble beginnings, Sox would go on to become what many...
General Challenger

Slicks & Drag Radials

Drag radial street-legal tires had their origin in racing. Originally, race cars used “racing slicks”- a type of tire with a smooth tread. The first production "slicks” were developed by M&H Tires in the early 1950s for use in contact patch to the track and maximized traction for any given tire dimension. Slicks were also used on road and oval track racing where steering and braking require maximum traction from each wheel. Slicks, however, are not suitable for use on street cars which...
General Challenger

Why Do Hemi Engines Have Dual Sparkplugs?

Each cylinder on a Hemi engine has an ignition coil pack over one spark plug, and a regular plug wire connected to the other spark plug. Further, the coil pack also has a plug wire attached to it that extends to the opposite cylinder bank. Each cylinder shares a coil pack with another cylinder. Each of the two plugs on a given cylinder is fired by a separate coil. One plug has a coil directly attached, and the other is fired via an ignition wire connected to a coil located on another...
General Challenger

Superchargers vs. Turbochargers

When designing an engine to pull in more than atmospheric pressure, engineers often turn to forced induction. It’s one of the fastest ways to add significant power to almost any engine, and there are two prevalent ways it can be done: supercharging and turbocharging. But, which is better? Both are different in terms of how they work, performance and cost. Both operate on the principle that the more air you can get into your engine, the more power your car will make. Supercharging is old...
General Challenger

History of SRT

Performance vehicles are a Chrysler tradition. In the 1950s, an elite team of Chrysler engineers set out to extract extreme horsepower from existing engines. The team created new manifolds featuring long-tube intake runners. The innovative design helped engines ingest more air, translating into improved performance. The new induction system was called “Ramcharger,” and the team behind the technology adopted that name. The Ramchargers’ new engine produced enormous amounts of power,...