Surprise Package
After 40 Years, Mopar® Announces The All-New Dodge Challenger Package Car Program.
Words: Roger Meiners
Nearly half a century ago, Mopar® set the drag racing world on fire with its phenomenal package car program.
Fast forward to 2008. Mopar fittingly used the stage at the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals in July to unveil its all-new Dodge Challenger Drag Race Package Car amid roars of approval from the crowd. The first two ever built were at the track in the form of HEMI®-powered stockers, demonstrated by “Big Daddy” Don Garlits and “Miss Mighty Mopar” Judy Lilly.
After the cars were unveiled, the legendary drivers pulled into the water boxes at the starting line. Garlits hazed his tires and waited while Judy Lilly spun her slicks into a huge burnout. “She made the whole car disappear!” said “Big,” who is usually hard to impress. The lights came down and the two drivers launched the Challengers into Mopar history—the first package cars in 40 years.
The introduction of these wicked devices steps up Mopar’s commitment to its grassroots base—the hard-core performance fanatics whose collective loyalty have made the Mopar brand legendary. The fact that Mopar went ahead with this project in these uncertain times shows a far-reaching view of the performance world of the future, one that takes into account the fact that Chrysler’s decades-old package cars still electrify enthusiasts.
The package car concept in this case is not a race ready car, but literally a performance part, designed by Mopar to give racers a platform on which they can build a competitive drag car. There are choices of automatic and manual transmissions, and three engines; the 6.1L and 5.7L HEMIs and the 5.9L Magnum Wedge (360) V8. This will make six part numbers, one for each engine/transmission combination. Racers will add goodies from the Mopar Performance Parts catalog, as well as from outside suppliers, to tailor a car that can fit into one of a possible 40 NHRA classes. You heard right: 40 classes.
The beauty of the Challenger drag package is that it adds a brand-new Mopar vehicle and three engines to the catalog of approved NHRA choices for drag racing. This is significant because, according to Mopar, these items will be usable for years to come, just as the ’68 A-Body HEMI cars are still going strong in 2008—their 40th anniversary.
Current plans call for a NHRA-mandated minimum of 100 Mopar Challenger drag packages to be assembled alongside the Viper Competition Coupes at a plant in Auburn Hills. Final specifications are dependant on NHRA approval, which could come soon after press time.
40 YEARS OF PENT-UP DEMAND
The idea of a new Mopar package car has been simmering for 40 years, since the last one was unleashed on the unsuspecting drag strips of America in 1968. That year, 100 Dodge Darts and Plymouth Barracudas were built with 426 HEMI engines crammed into their engine compartments so tight that large sledge hammers had to be used on the passenger-side shock tower to make room. Chrysler also built Dodge and Plymouth drag package cars in 1963, 1964, 1965 and 1967.
When the new Challenger concept car hit the scene at the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit in January of 2006, Mopar enthusiasts saw visions of Maximum Performance. And, as cool as the new production car is, many imagined a big air scoop and a gut job to recreate the famous Mopar drag package cars of the 1960s. Enthusiasts bombarded Mopar and Chrysler executives with pleas for a drag version of the new muscle car.
CHRYSLER AND MOPAR LIGHT THE FIRE
By then, drag package hints were rumbling at Chrysler’s World Headquarters in Auburn Hills, Mich. Chrysler Design started a project to create a Challenger Super Stock concept for the upcoming 2006 Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) show in Las Vegas, Nev.
The design team grabbed an extra carbon-fiber body molded for the NAIAS Challenger Concept and mounted the body on a shortened Dodge Magnum SRT8® chassis with a Dana 60 solid rear axle, leaf springs and wheelie bars. Mopar showed the Super Stock concept at SEMA and generated loads of Internet and magazine coverage, fueling the Mopar Nation’s fire.
THE FIRE GETS HOTTER
Mopar Performance Parts took over the SEMA Challenger Super Stock concept car, painted the car black, and displayed it at the early-March 2007 Autorama show in Detroit. The car was also shown at Mopars at the Strip among other venues. Enthusiasts loved the car. Unknown to them, Mopar was working out the business case for management approval of a drag package concept that could be tailored to fit into many National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) classes, not just Super Stock.
Meanwhile, Mopar Motorsports Engineering was doing its homework. The team glommed onto a scrap 300C to mock up the required solid axle conversion that would make the package competitive on the drag strip. Jeep® Grand Cherokee control arms and mounting points were used to locate a solid axle and coil springs. Photos and diagrams were sent to the NHRA. There was encouraging response.
A “GO” PROGRAM
Mopar’s proposal made it through the corporate gauntlet and, when program approval was received, the engineering team acquired two Challenger “bodies in white” (bare body structures with no components installed) from the Brampton, Ont., assembly plant and one car build commenced. A second was started later.
The Chrysler Technical Center (CTC) labs were made available in Auburn Hills to help develop the package. Technicians built the bodies in white into cars 001 and 002 in the facility’s Road Test Garage, using many specialty items donated from the drag racing supplier community. Teams from Mopar Motorsports and Mopar Performance Parts Engineering did the development to make the cars NHRA eligible. Test sessions were conducted at Mid-Michigan Dragway in Stanton and Ubly Dragway in Ubly, Mich. Elapsed times in the mid-to-low ten second range were recorded for the quarter mile. The Ubly tests were conducted only a few days before the cars were loaded for shipment to Denver for debut at the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals.
The rest is history in the making. After 40 years, Mopar’s famous package car program is on its way back.
