[doomsday]

Crazy how I chanced upon this thread just about a month after my trip to Vegas - for the SEMA show.

Obviously driving anything but a blue-blooded HEMI when in Muscle Car Country would be a sacrilege - so I planned ahead and got hold of a beautiful 2020 R/T Scat Pack Challenger in an unassuming Silver/Grey shade, booked via Turo.

Handover process from the host was seamless and the car was in surprisingly mint condition.

Vanishing Point is one of my favourite childhood car movies and after almost 25 years since I was saw it (and many times since), getting my hands on the Challenger R/T was an indescribable feeling.

6.4 litres of raw American Muscle putting out nearly 500 horsepower. Enough to spin the massive 20" wheels in 2nd and 3rd gears with no effort WITH traction control ON. The upsized Scat Pack Brembo four-pots came in pretty handy.

You needed to be sharp, attentive and on the money every time you got behind the wheel.

My solo trip was pretty short unfortunately, in and around Vegas for about four days and a quick 250-mile getaway to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon in Arizona over the weekend, which includes the historic Route 66 - which has been beautifully preserved after being decommissioned due to the new Interstate System.

Its really something, I've driven plenty of fast cars and supercars in my line of work but nothing as emotionally charged as this.

Not many pictures but will let the few I took do the rest of the talking.


Customary Walmart trip to stock on essentials.


R/T Badge means business


The Challenger is WIDE!


Classic Vette in Vegas


'Merica


Perfect Roads to stretch the Hemi


Superb Tomahawk Steak dinner in Arizona


Heritage El Tovar Hotel/Saloon at the Grand Canyon


Signature Breakfast. Biscuit and Sausage Gravy with Sunny Side Up.


The Good the Bad And the Ugly. Fistful of Dollars. For a Few Dollars More.


Grand Canyon in all its vastness.

[Aditya]

Road tripping in the US in a 2020 Dodge Challenger R/T Scat Pack - Post moved to a new thread.

[RunSam]

Seems like quite an experience. The food looks truly mouthwatering!

[Foxbat]

Great writeup and pictures! How's the mileage ?

I have rented a base model Challenger and I found the handling pretty poor (probably one of the worst in recent modern cars I have driven). It doesn't want to do anything but go straight and fast. How's the handling on the R/T version?

I was surprised to find out the base Challenger was sold for around $30,000 when new.

[doomsday]

Honestly I filled up maybe $400-$500 worth of premium gas (as suggested by the owner) over a week but I'd say the performance at hand was worth every penny.

At times when I mashed the throttle in lower gears, I saw the instantaneous gauge show 1MPG (probably because it can't read any lower! )

Handling is decent as it had some uprated suspension as a part of Scat Pack but yeah you're not gonna be canyon carving in this thing - it was good enough for the fast, wide exit ramps taken at 60mph and nothing more.

I was more than thankful for the uprated Brembo brakes though, combined with the wide 20" rubber - they got me out of sticky situations more than once.

Extremely good VFM, my host told me he paid around $52k for this one (one-year pre-owned) with some 12k miles on the clock. Absolute steal in terms of price to performance ratio.

Originally Posted by Foxbat

Great writeup and pictures! How's the mileage ?

I have rented a base model Challenger and I found the handling pretty poor (probably one of the worst in recent modern cars I have driven). It doesn't want to do anything but go straight and fast. How's the handling on the R/T version?

I was surprised to find out the base Challenger was sold for around $30,000 when new.

Attachment 2700014

[AKTransAM]

Originally Posted by doomsday

Vanishing Point is one of my favourite childhood car movies and after almost 25 years since I was saw it (and many times since), getting my hands on the Challenger R/T was an indescribable feeling.

Great to hear someone else likes that movie! Myself and a couple other friends were on a roadtrip couple months ago, and we drove my Firebird Trans-Am GTA and my friends rental Challenger to Goldfield, NV, to check out the Goldfield Hotel, the setting for DJ Supersouls studio. The town looks exactly the same as it does in the movie from 1971. If you haven't made it there I'd highly recommend it the next time you're in Nevada, especially since you're a fan of the movie.

Front of DJ Supersouls studio




Still from the movie in 1971





In front of the stop sign at the side of the building that you can see in the still from the movie

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by doomsday

Crazy how I chanced upon this thread just about a month after my trip to Vegas - for the SEMA show.

Obviously driving anything but a blue-blooded HEMI when in Muscle Car Country would be a sacrilege - so I planned ahead and got hold of a beautiful 2020 R/T Scat Pack Challenger in an unassuming Silver/Grey shade, booked via Turo.

Nice trip and lovely pictures especially the food.

Glad to know you enjoyed the Challenger. I have driven the Challengers the base model and SRT several times and I have a different opinion.

Originally Posted by Foxbat

Great writeup and pictures! How's the mileage ?

I have rented a base model Challenger and I found the handling pretty poor (probably one of the worst in recent modern cars I have driven). It doesn't want to do anything but go straight and fast. How's the handling on the R/T version?

SRT averages around 14-16 mpg which is absolutely dismal.

Oh yeah. The handling is almost non-existent in a challenger. It's a straight line machine.

Base Challenger rented last year during a quick visit to Vegas. Full story here :

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/trave...ml#post5648426 (Maiden Visit to Las Vegas, Nevada | Driving a 2023 Dodge Challenger in the “Sin City”)

It was at best an average experience with the base version. As it's a very inconvenient car to drive due to its long hood and low visibility all around the car as you are sitting low and windows are high.

The power was just ok at 303 horsepower.

It's more of a glam show than a car that I would love to own. The real deal in Challengers and Chargers would be SRT onwards and Hellcat/RedEye would be my choice.





Here is an SRT that I drove a few times. This was slightly better from a power aspect but, everything else remained same.

Muscle cars are nostalgic and a feel good category.

Considering the power that I am used to, I would probably be happy with Hellcats...



My recent rental was a base Mustang (320 horsepower) and yet again the power was just average (Slightly better in sports mode) but, the handling was lot better than the Challenger.

Full story in a travelogue that's comin' up.

[doomsday]

Wow I had no idea it was shot here, here's another thing on my bucket list for the next time I'm in NV. Hopefully next year.

Lovely Trans-Am. You guys Stateside are outright lucky.

Originally Posted by AKTransAM

Great to hear someone else likes that movie! Myself and a couple other friends were on a roadtrip couple months ago, and we drove my Firebird Trans-Am GTA and my friends rental Challenger to Goldfield, NV, to check out the Goldfield Hotel, the setting for DJ Supersouls studio. The town looks exactly the same as it does in the movie from 1971. If you haven't made it there I'd highly recommend it the next time you're in Nevada, especially since you're a fan of the movie.

[doomsday]

Originally Posted by mobike008

Nice trip and lovely pictures especially the food.

Glad to know you enjoyed the Challenger. I have driven the Challengers the base model and SRT several times and I have a different opinion.

SRT averages around 14-16 mpg which is absolutely dismal.

Oh yeah. The handling is almost non-existent in a challenger. It's a straight line machine.

It was at best an average experience with the base version. As it's a very inconvenient car to drive due to its long hood and low visibility all around the car as you are sitting low and windows are high.

The power was just ok at 303 horsepower.

It's more of a glam show than a car that I would love to own. The real deal in Challengers and Chargers would be SRT onwards and Hellcat/RedEye would be my choice.

Here is an SRT that I drove a few times. This was slightly better from a power aspect but, everything else remained same.

Muscle cars are nostalgic and a feel good category.

Considering the power that I am used to, I would probably be happy with Hellcats...

I understand what you are saying, after driving the Challenger for a week I went to the Las Vegas Speedway to drive a Cayman GT4 for 40 laps and the difference was like using a chef's knife compared to a chain saw.

I've driven a lot of European performance cars and supercars over the years which are super-precise and that's something you appreciate on the Autobahn or the racetrack, but the Challenger still impressed me over a week of everyday driving and grand touring and of course I'm a bit biased towards American muscle.

I think being equipped with a Scat Pack option also helped, I haven't driven any other variants - it had decent running gear for the amount of power it was making. Uprated suspension and Brembo brakes were a welcome addition. Its obviously not something you'd take to the track but I'd take it over an M3 for daily use every day.

All the minor inconveniences like the super long hood, low visibility and poor fuel efficiency is a more than agreeable trade-off for the visceral experience, high fun-quotient and those true-blue Muscle Car looks.

Next time I will try to score a Hellcat - but I just feel you'd have to really tiptoe around it and of course it may try to kill you if you get too handsy