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Traded in the 350z for a Challenger, the wife is taking it over.

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MattRobertson said:
These cars will go around corners *extremely* well, with a few mods.

You can do it on the cheap with an SRT take-off suspension. Find them on EBay with sways for about $400 + shipping. Its a direct bolt-in, and since its a passenger car suspension made for a car that is designed to be a weekend track car, you get a very nice, comfortable compromise that will give an amazing boost in cornering performance. They will lower the vehicle and its center of gravity by 0.5". Which SRT they come off of matters. Challenger SRT is the softest, then the 300, then the Magnum and stiffest is the Charger. All are different only by a teeny bit in the rear except the Challenger SRT which is softer by a bigger margin on all four corners.

Next step up is coilovers and drop the ride height - as aggressive as you want to get. 1" is safe. 2" is aggressive but most effective. Lowering springs are a terrible idea on these cars. Kills the (cheap) stock shocks. Best most survivable coilovers are KW Variant 2. Then put on Hotchkis sways. Do it all at once to save on install headache. The KW's alone are around $1600 street price though. Maybe $350 for the bars. At that point you have an extremely well-handling car whose already super-stiff chassis and independent rear suspension conspire to make that heavy car extraordinarily capable in the corners.

If you have the money and the desire, urethane bushings are awesome. Sway bar end links are a help (and stiffer ones alleviate a failure point as the stock links will bend under extreme circumstances on track). There's more but going past coilovers and sways only make sense on a tracked car.
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Bet it eats through tires like mad though. All that weight means heat into the tires no matter how good your suspension is.
 
JulesMaximus said:
People who care about max performance are financially constrained? 😕 Care to tell us how you came up with this wildly idiotic notion?
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Because if they weren't financially constrained they would be spending billions to get max performance :whiste:
 
MattRobertson said:
that automatic transmission you have is the WA580 - a 5-speed Mercedes AMG transmission taken off the parts shelf back when Daimler owned Chrysler. It is *incredibly* robust. Reportedly rated for about 800 hp. With the right computer modifications you can use it as part of your braking system, which is necessary when tracking a 4400 lb behemoth. So I have dropped from 3rd into 2nd at about 90 mph down to about 35 while standing on the brakes and the tranny takes it just fine.
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They start to have issues a lot lower than that. Over 500-ish whp and you end up changing transmissions. Not all 5G-Tronics are made the same. The one instance I know of of someone having a SC installed on a 2011 challenger (with 2010 PCM) involved a transmission swap because the stock one had issues, and that was 590 lbs*ft torque at the wheel. The design will handle the power you stated, and you may be able to get by without a full replacement, but you will have to upgrade some components to handle that power. The swap I am referencing was a stock NAG1, for an upgraded NAG1, not a new design.
 
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JulesMaximus said:
People who care about max performance are financially constrained? 😕 Care to tell us how you came up with this wildly idiotic notion?
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This is how someone who can't afford a nice car makes themselves feel better about settling.

Keep in mind they are able to fully convince themselves that their own lies are true, so there's no way for them to see otherwise.
 
SpatiallyAware said:
This is how someone who can't afford a nice car makes themselves feel better about settling.

Keep in mind they are able to fully convince themselves that their own lies are true, so there's no way for them to see otherwise.
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So, everyone who doesn't own a performance car is poor and just rationalizing their choice in transportation?
 
SpatiallyAware said:
This is how someone who can't afford a nice car makes themselves feel better about settling.

Keep in mind they are able to fully convince themselves that their own lies are true, so there's no way for them to see otherwise.
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Dude, I think this is the way you feel about yourself, your M is basically stock yet you are trashing everyone else. Is that M coupe really yours?
 
Fantastic Car OP! The stance on that car and color combo really make those pop. Few cars look mean. That does.
 
I'm a fan of the crazy Challenger colors. If you are going to have a MOPAR, might as well have it stand out. One of my reports has a purple one and it's neat looking. I think it was called Plum Crazy or something.
 
Yea, the yellow is what really put the car over the edge for us. I guess I'll have to clean out the garage to keep it in good shape!
 
JulesMaximus said:
Bet it eats through tires like mad though. All that weight means heat into the tires no matter how good your suspension is.
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Oddly enough tires are not so much the problem - once you learn how to drive the car. As a noob yes you will scrub them clean quick. I think I was at two days for a set in the beginning. Once you learn how to drive right you will get the same amount of wear as is common with other tracked cars. The outside edges wear like crazy on the front so you rotate front/back and flip tires after the day to get more life out of them (I run race slicks). So I probably work harder at it than someone driving a Miata/M3 etc. I get about 10+ days running uber-performance street tires, and 7.5 days running race slicks. Thats pretty typical. The car is a lot bigger but so are the tires.

Front brake rotors... now those you go thru in about two days. You beef up the calipers, pads and fluid, and put in brake ducts, but keep the rotors stock because they are disposable whether cheap or fancy, and only cost $80 if you use stockers.

Ferzerp said:
They start to have issues a lot lower than that. Over 500-ish whp and you end up changing transmissions. Not all 5G-Tronics are made the same.
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Hey read back to what I posted. I said hp not whp 🙂 Sure the bona-fide AMG unit is geared differently and uses different valving and software. But the big difference is in the software. What you are describing is due to the fact that any self-respecting owner of a built-up Challenger will disable/minimize torque management from Square 1.

Here is a 2-gear dyno run that demonstrated the effect of Daimler's torque management in stock form. Date on the image is August 2005 so this would be back before we had any idea of how to tune ... anything. This is going to be very similar performance to the OP's Challenger except its a 340hp 5.7L motor instead of the current 370. The picture tells it all.

dyno_1024.jpg


With power reduction like that during gear changes, you can be rated for a LOT more than what you'd think if you are playing around in today's world where we can buy toys that defeat it.

Nonetheless, if you are strip racing a Challenger, even if only as a weekender, I would agree that 500 rwhp is about the time you should be looking at an upgraded stock transmission. A couple of vendors sell some good stuff. I don't know of anyone selling a total NAG1 replacement. Everything is an upgrade due to the software issues, but those upgrades can be mighty robust.

For road racing though, the stocker is fine and will stay fine for years without any modification over and above adding a second cooler inline in front of the stocker already there. I do a complete tranny service by the race shop that built the car after every season. This was what the fluid looked like

trannypan01.jpg


In a word: Perfect. If I can beat the holy snot out of my car at this level month in and month out, I can absolutely guarantee that - with no abuse and proper service - the OP's stock Challenger is never going to have a transmission problem, ever.*

*edit: this guarantee is worth about as much as you would think from a guy nobody knows who is posting on the internet
 
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Ferzerp said:
Maybe our definitions differ, but a $50k "beater"?
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As in something that is well rounded plush roomy 4 door that you could be happy with leaving stock and just driving it as is, but yeah I guess it's a bit pricey for "beater". Didn't notice the price tag, and didn't realize there was such a high markup for special edition stickers. 😛
 
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That yellow jacket looks nice. tbh I like the looks of the Challenger best out of the 3 modern pony cars. There's a guy in my neighborhood that I drive past when leaving and always stare at his black SRT8 sitting in his garage. I'd be surprised if that car has more than 1,000 miles on it. He parks it elsewhere for the winter, then brings it home in the summer and I only see it out maybe once or twice each summer, and he'll be out there wiping it down before parking it back in the garage when he does.

The black looks really nice, but been there, done that (owning black vehicles.) I'd like to see a "Green with envy" in person.
dodge-challenger-green-envy.jpg
 
base SRT is $45.5k, base Yellow Jacket is $46.5k, add on some options and you're in the $50's pretty fast.

A loaded 2011 stickered for $50k-ish. Now they go up to $53k

edit: You meant the Super Bee. Those cost even more I think.

edit2: looks like the base super bee is about 3 grand cheaper than the base yellow jacket, so I was backwards.
 
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IcePickFreak said:
That yellow jacket looks nice. tbh I like the looks of the Challenger best out of the 3 modern pony cars. There's a guy in my neighborhood that I drive past when leaving and always stare at his black SRT8 sitting in his garage. I'd be surprised if that car has more than 1,000 miles on it. He parks it elsewhere for the winter, then brings it home in the summer and I only see it out maybe once or twice each summer, and he'll be out there wiping it down before parking it back in the garage when he does.

The black looks really nice, but been there, done that (owning black vehicles.) I'd like to see a "Green with envy" in person.
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I considered GWE, but went with this (color is very slightly off in this picture):

wp000051202.jpg
 
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