U.S. News has named the Challenger as the top "tuner" car- surpassing the Mustang. It defines tuner car as a car with parts that have been changed to make it run faster. The word “tune” is best described as to “adjust” or “change.” Additionally, any vehicle that has been modified for its performance can be a tuner car, no matter its make or model. Here is an excerpt from the article: "The new Dodge Challenger cars should be in a class of their own. For example, the 2022 Dodge Challenger SRT Super Stock models come well-equipped with a jaw-dropping 807-horsepower 6.2-liter V8 engine. However, is the expensive price tag worth the investment? You could opt for a 10-year-old model and install a new engine and suspension system to save money. U.S. News suggests, “You might even think about ripping out the internal combustion engine and replacing it with an electric motor.” Whatever you decide, it will have that muscle car appearance that everyone knows." The Dodge Challenger Beats the Ford Mustang as the Best Tuner Car - TopCarNews
That's a lot of tuning cause those Mustang owners make lots of changes (suspect their avg. ownership age is / has been younger?).
The Challenger. German-designed, as in, lifted right from a Mercedes, chassis, Gigantic Brembo brakes available. The Hellcat, blowing people's minds with the power levels available. In the real world, the Hellcat doesn't really change your life but it sure makes it so you get to pick whatever spot you want to be in in traffic, including in the right lane when parked cars are waiting right after the red light in that lane. Never in the history of American muscle has a car been so overwhelmingly superior at acceleration, braking, aerodynamics, side windows that actually don't blow open at speed while still being frameless, and getting 20 plus mpg on the highway. There is just so much to TUNE. Instead of the huge lump of iron jouncing around with the car trying to control it as its rump get bumped into the air over every speed bump or pavement ripple in mid-corner, which was the case with the Dana 60 more than any other muscle-car rear axle, we get the lightweight, completely-independent rear suspension of the Boys from Germany. The car just has so much potential, in blown and unblown form. The SRT 392 is something that calls, siren-like, to those who REALLY like to leverage a bit less weight and a few more cubes to take themselves to handling and naturally-aspirated Nirvana, while saving a wheelbarrow of cash of the Hellcat upgrade cost. There is most likely someone who as taken a N/A Hemi in a Challenger over 700hp. It would be fun to see the dyno sheets. It would be MORE fun to hear the idle. Think of this from the perspective of the 1970's, when Pro Stock teams would add 25 pounds of aluminum welding rod to heap up material on some heads to give themselves material to use to elevate the intake ports' angle to closer to vertical, and, as an added bonus, the exhaust ports' angles to also face further downwards. Oh, and let's not forget titanium retainers and great valve springs: https://www.compcams.com/600-lift-b...retainers-for-2003-08-dodge-57l-hemi-cpg.html Aftermarket cylinder heads were relatively nonexistent. Now? You can just go to some aftermarket place and order you up a set of COMPLETELY COMPUTER-MATCHED ported cylinder heads for less than it costs to mortgage a house, unlike such a fantastical thing in the 1970's. While manufacturing fled the USA, the resulting massive competition between businesses in China and other countries meant that entire industries that were formerly ultra-expensive and super-specialty, such as cylinder heads, forged internals, etc. were becoming available to guys who hadn't just won the lottery, twice. anyway, I don't know the policy for stuff from Non-Vendors, so you can figure out yourselves where to get your eight-identical-set-of-ports CNC heads. People now are talking about "Oh, yeah, got a tune and a PCM and a pulley, et voila! My Hellcat now has 1000hp..." (this is an exaggeration, but the 1970's wouldn't even fantasize about the age we're in now. The catalytic converters available now flow better than exhaust manifolds did back then. You can upgrade your suspension right from Ma Mopar. You can upgrade your engine, also, from the same source. You can get bodies-in-white if you want to make a Challenger Kit Car to skirt odious regulations to slam the weight down as low as possible, as Kit Cars etc. have less-stringent regulations than mass-produced cars. This is the golden age of tuning, and the Challenger is the Golden Boy of tunable cars. Y'know, Ford COULD have produced a similar car. The supercharged Ford 2015 Torino. 5 seats, slick style, yada yada, but, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO They regurgitated Greta's vomit and came out with the Mustang Mach E. Getting banned from an entire series, up to this present day, the Mopar Hemi/NASCAR. Having them change the rules to limit your utter dominance: Porsche in the Can Am. Bribing legislators to attack the entire engine industry in lieu of actually COMPETING: Other American automakers. (theory. It happened to the first muscle car era, also. With that one, it was the insurance industry who conspired to destroy what (especially) American males did better than absolutely everybody else on the planet. This time it's the Klimate Krazies.
