Dodge Challenger vs. Chevrolet Camaro

Dodge Challenger vs. Chevrolet Camaro

  • Total voters
    72
The Challenger looks a bit better I reckon.
 
The Camero looks like GM stole the 300 C turned it into a coupe and then had an orthodontist make a few styling suggestions. The Challenger needs something it's too smooth.
 
i think the challenger looks alot better then the camaro. and thats hard for me to say being a really huge GM fan, but more of a chevy fan. the nose of the camaro is just slightly to pointy. but if i was to buy one. the camaro would be it.
 
It's a toss up, but I'm waiting on final judgement until I see the ones that roll off the line. Everything always looks better pre-production.
 
I, too, would like to see the production versions, or at least has access to the production specs. I think the Camaro will stomp all over the Mustang and Challenger when it comes to handling. And from what I hear, the Challenger won't have a manual transmission option, so the fun-to-drive factor could suffer (for me anyway). What I'm really interested in is the weight. I want to see if GM could make a lighter car with IRS then Ford did with the Mustang. Should be interesting.
 
Challenger gets my vote.
 
Look! Classic American cars turning both left AND RIGHT! :D
660uv7l.jpg


Are they moving? Or was the shot taken while they were standing still?
 
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Neither, I prefer European cars, but if I had to choose, I would go for the camaro, have no idea why.
 
At first, I loved the challenger, but now, it doesn't really do it for me. The front just looks a bit silly, and it's basically the same as the old one. Now i'm not saying the Camaro isn't, but at least it's got a modern twist.

I think the Camaro is the best. And if the Camaro ends up with the concept interior.. <3

Besides, I can't help but feel all patriotic about holden, etc, etc :p
 
WellsieTRD said:
Look! Classic American cars turning both left AND RIGHT! :D

Are they moving? Or was the shot taken while they were standing still?
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They're moving...well they do anyway. This is the Trans-am series, the Camaro Z/28, Mustang Boss 302, and Plymouth barracuda ('cuda?) AAR, and Dodge Challenger T/A's, these cars were all built for this series. This is why they have 5 liter engines (the mopars the except, the rules allowed them to homologate a basic engine that they could reduce displacement of for racing).

One reason I like the Z/28's so much is because of this, they were built to corner, and they did quite well. The SS is the drag car, the Z/28 is their sports car.
 
thedguy said:
While I agree with you on this, I think the designers couldn't figure out when to stop designing, so they just kept going until someone finally shoved a cover over it and said "put it on stage in Detroit"

The gills on the side bug me a bit, the snout in the hood, and the grill design all make the car too "busy." I do applaud GM for going retro without necessarily going retro in the way Chrysler and Ford did, and the car looks good, just hard to compete IMO with the Challenger's classic lines.

The Challenger looks like they said "Ok lets take the old one, make it look like we lowered it, clean up some of the old trim design (like the chrome around the front is gone) stick some big wheels on it, call it a day"
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There is a fine line between over designing something and lazy design.

The Challenger is a bit on the lazy side and the Camaro is a bit on the too much side.

Will have to wait till the production versions to see which one is cleaned up better.

Oh edit:

I have a muscle car spec book around some where. It goes from the early 50s when truly big V8s were just starting to go in the full sized cars, right thorough the golden age from 1964-1971 and then finishes out around 1997.

The cool thing is they tell you the rated hp of the various engines from the 60s and then and estimate on how much they were underrated. Everyone was underrating the badass engines then for insurance reasons and the Trans Am series Z-28s were no exception. The 302 in the Z28s made 400 hp if you had the dealer install the right packages before you picked up the car.
 
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British_Rover said:
The cool thing is they tell you the rated hp of the various engines from the 60s and then and estimate on how much they were underrated. Everyone was underrating the badass engines then for insurance reasons and the Trans Am series Z-28s were no exception. The 302 in the Z28s made 400 hp if you had the dealer install the right packages before you picked up the car.
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http://www.vintagemusclecarparts.com/302Z_1.html

Rebuilt 302, with the cross ram. They built a custom cam to make the engine more streetable (i.e. reducing top end), and it belted out 377hp. I've talked to someone who had driven an unmodified z/28 and accidentally took it to 8k, never hurt it. It ran out of power way before it, but it took 8k rpms and survived. And people say push rods can't handle revs. :lol:

I'd love to build a modern version of one of those (using the LS engines), build it to rev to about 7500-8k (and make power of course). Damn that would be nuts.
 
Oh yeah that engine is a screamer when built right.

Back in my senior year of college I had a chance to buy a 1969 Z/28 in fairly rough shape.

At the time my roommates, a few of my co-workers and I were trying to buy a bar and I decided not to buy the Camaro. The deal for the bar ended up falling through though so it didn't really matter.

A modern version of that motor would be outstanding. Match a 6 speed to it with a fairly low first gear and a fairly low final drive to solve the low torque problem and then a steep overdrive for good highway cruising.
 
TomCat said:
I, too, would like to see the production versions, or at least has access to the production specs. I think the Camaro will stomp all over the Mustang and Challenger when it comes to handling. And from what I hear, the Challenger won't have a manual transmission option, so the fun-to-drive factor could suffer (for me anyway). What I'm really interested in is the weight. I want to see if GM could make a lighter car with IRS then Ford did with the Mustang. Should be interesting.
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From what I'm hearing, the current problems with the SRT-8 are
No way to tune the computer
Drive by wire with terrible lag and disconnect feeling
Way to intrusive ESP with no way to disable completely
Terribly slow shifting transmission
No manual Option
ADAPTIVE LEARNING

Everyone over at the hemi forums are pretty sure these problems will show up in the challenger.
It should be very easy for GM to make the car lighter than ford did with the mustang, if nothing more than it's a new platform, vs a 20 yr old one. GM rears are glass, and I'd prefer them to just use a ford solid axle.

FYI...the new shelby came with a solid axle because the IRS in the 03-04 cobra's sucked and everyone hated it.
 
bigsweezey said:
FYI...the new shelby came with a solid axle because the IRS in the 03-04 cobra's sucked and everyone hated it.
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Nah. From what I heard the 03-04 Cobra's were some of the best handling Mustangs ever made. But drag racers didn't like the problems that came with the IRS, like axle hop. And when owners started upping the Boost with pulley swaps, the half shafts started snapping like twigs under hard launches. Solid axle conversions where popular with the drag racing crowd who didn't care about handling.
 
TomCat said:
Nah. From what I heard the 03-04 Cobra's were some of the best handling Mustangs ever made. But drag racers didn't like the problems that came with the IRS, like axle hop. And when owners started upping the Boost with pulley swaps, the half shafts started snapping like twigs under hard launches. Solid axle conversions where popular with the drag racing crowd who didn't care about handling.
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Best handling, true. But it's like having the prius with the most hp. Great and all, but it still sucked. The IRS just made it easier to modify so it actually handled well. You can only take that old of a chassis so far.
I suppose I'm a drag racer, but the IRS would hop like crazy in 1st and 2nd if you put your foot down at all. People riding out the wheelhop is why the half-shafts break. I never had a problem in mine, 100's of hard launches on DR's and with the power boosted up to 500hp.
 
From what I'm hearing, the current problems with the SRT-8 are
No way to tune the computer
Drive by wire with terrible lag and disconnect feeling
Way to intrusive ESP with no way to disable completely
Terribly slow shifting transmission
No manual Option
ADAPTIVE LEARNING
Click to expand...

Hmhh all sound like typical Mercedes issues to me.


As far as the IRS Cobra problems those are all things I have heard before. My question is how do the imports do it? The Supra, 300ZX, 350Z, RX-7, RX-8 all use IRS suspension and they go to drag races too. I know that some of fastest Supras have gone to heavy duty automatics an solid axles for dedicated drag racing but those cars are putting out over 1,000 horsepower.
 
The reason Ford put a live rear axle under the current mustang was for cost reasons. And their excuse for not using an IRS in the new GT500 was that the increase in weight wasn't worth the trade off for the "marginal handling benifits".
 
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