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By Warren BrownThe Washington Post and WashingtonPost.com
August 31, 2008
Raw, unbridled power is as attractive as it is forbidding. The more taboo it becomes, the greater its attraction grows, which is the only way we can explain what happened to us during our week in the 2009 Dodge Challenger R/T coupe, black with big fat tires and a 370-horsepower, 5.7-liter Hemi V-8 engine. We were followed, ogled, begged and made several offers we easily refused. We were stopped by fellow motorists, quizzed at length by perfect strangers. It mattered not who was behind the wheel -- me; my wife, Mary Anne; or my associate in vehicle evaluations, Ria Manglapus. The car was a magnet, even when the only person sitting inside was Ria's 83-year-old mother, Ursula DeGuia. "People keep asking me about this car," Ria's mom said. "They like this car," she said after being stuck in it for a few minutes in a Costco parking lot. "Everybody keeps stopping by asking about this car." It was not the reaction we expected. Gasoline prices are high. The housing industry remains in a slump. We are in the middle of a national political campaign season in which posturing, particularly on matters of energy consumption, more often than not trumps policy. On top of it all, the Challenger R/T, an unabashed throwback to the muscle-car era of the late 1960s and early 1970s, is not what we normally construe to be a Washington automobile. It is domestic metal, as Detroit as domestic metal can be, which means that, on the surface, it hearkens back to the bad old days when horsepower reigned and Detroit didn't give a hoot about fuel economy. We expected ridicule, clucking tongues, wagging fingers, maybe an occasional lecture or two on how the new Challenger R/T represents everything that's wrong with Detroit -- an egregiously consumptive car that is the wrong product at the wrong time. Instead, we reaped praise and envy. We got thumbs-up signs everywhere. "What's up with that?" I asked a young motorist who pulled alongside of me during one of those endless traffic jams on Interstate 66 West. "Man," the kid said. "That's pure car, pure power. It is what it is, and it's hot." It is so easy in this business to become entrapped by conventional wisdom, to believe that everybody is doing this or that -- such as abandoning the pursuit of horsepower, the exercise of automotive muscle in favor of better fuel economy. But the world is not that simple. It is not so easily ordered. For many people, including many who agreed that we should be doing more to conserve fuel, a big car with big tires and a big engine represents unfinished business, a part of youth untapped, a dream of prowess or power unfulfilled. They want the Challenger R/T. At the very least, they want the idea of it, which is why Dodge offers a V-6 version and V-8 with variable valve displacement, which allows the V-8 to run with all eight cylinders when that kind of power is desired, or to cruise more efficiently in four-cylinder mode when muscle isn't needed. Those options make Challenger ownership much more plausible in a world challenged by rising fuel prices and changing attitudes about energy use. But, clearly, there remains something remarkably attractive about a muscle-bound automobile with a wide, low-slung, almost growling stance. "Sweet!" said a man who pulled up next to me when I was waiting at a stop light on Constitution Avenue in the District. "I always wanted one of those," he said. He leaned to the side of his driver's side window, his voice conspiratorial: "Gun it, brother!" he said. "Gun it! You know you want to gun that one." But I was overcome by the nerd in me. I resisted the temptation to show off. But I finally understood what loving the big-muscled Challenger R/T was about. I found a few deserted back roads in the deepest Shenandoah Valley, where gunning the engine was not likely to get me in trouble with the law or with other motorists. I took a deep breath and stomped the accelerator pedal. Va-va-varooom, whoosh! Oh, my God! I understood. The Challenger R/T's rear drive wheels planted themselves. The car launched. I did it again and again. I was embarrassed by my motorized profligacy. But I loved every moment of it. I understood. ON WHEELS WITH WARREN BROWN Listen from noon to 1 p.m. Tuesdays on WMET World Radio (1160 AM) or http://www.wmet1160.com.
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