The 2017 Dodge Challenger GT will be the first Detroit muscle car to use all-wheel-drive.
If you’re a muscle car fan living in the Midwest or some other part of the Snowbelt, odds are you either put your steed up on blocks over the winter or spend much of your time driving worried about spinning out.
But Dodge is “shifting the muscle-car paradigm,” according to brand boss Tim Kuniskis. It’s about to launch the first Detroit model to offer all-wheel-drive, the new Dodge Challenger GT expected to plow into dealer showrooms before the end of the first quarter of 2017.
Set to become “the world’s first and only all-wheel-drive American muscle coupe,” the Challenger GT actually becomes the latest in a string of high-performance models intended to improve all-weather drivability by delivering torque to all four wheels.
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Set to start at $34,490 – plus a $1,095 delivery fee – the GT will roll down the same Oshawa, Ontario assembly line as the rest of the Challenger line-up. It will share the same all-wheel-drive system already found on the Dodge Charger AWD sedan.
The Challenger GT will start at just under $35,000.
That starts out with a 3.6-liter Pentastar V-6 making 305 horsepower and 268 pound-feet of torque paired to an eight-speed automatic transmission. There will a trade-off for traction. The rear-drive version of the Challenger with that V-6 gets 19 mpg City, 30 Highway. The Challenger GT will cut that to 18 and 27. Dodge hasn’t yet released performance numbers, including 0 to 60 times.
Dodge had hinted at the coming of AWD when it launched a Challenger GT concept model a year ago, though that version featured the more beefy 5.7-liter Hemi V-8. There are currently no plans to offer AWD with the bigger Hemi V-8 Challenger packages.
The addition of the GT package for Challenger is no surprise considering Dodge already sells more AWD versions of the Charger sedan than rear-drive models in 19 Snowbelt states.
And that reflects a broader industry trend. For decades, AWD, as well as older-style four-wheel-drive systems, were generally reserved for pickups and sport-utility vehicles. But they have, quite literally, gained traction in recent years with mainstream buyers, especially as new crossover-utility vehicles come to dominate the American automotive market.
And demand has been growing outside the country’s snowier climes. Many buyers now view AWD as a performance-enhancing feature, not just something to help cope with wet and snowy roads. It helps that manufacturers are launching new versions of the technology, such as torque vectoring, which can help steer a car through a corner by increasing torque to the outer front wheel.
The Dodge Challenger GT joins a growing list of performance cars offering AWD.
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Significantly, Daimler AG has said that almost all of its future Mercedes-AMG models will come with the maker’s 4Matic all-wheel-drive system as standard equipment. AWD is standard on virtually all Lamborghini vehicles. And other performance makers are also increasing the availability of the technology.
Meanwhile, a variation of all-wheel-drive is becoming common on many of the new battery-electric vehicles on or soon coming to market. That includes the Tesla P100d, which uses separate motors to the front and rear axles. Porsche will use the same layout – sometimes called a through-the-road all-wheel-drive-system – for its upcoming Mission E electric sports car. That approach does not require a prop shaft and differentials mechanically linking front and rear axles.
While Ford and General Motors have not added AWD to their muscle cars, strong demand for the new Dodge Challenger could influence their thinking for future versions of products like the Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro.
(Porsche aiming to sell 20,000 Mission E electric sports cars annually. Click Here for more.)