The new Dodge Challenger GT AWD may only have six cylinders but it sends everything the engine offers to all four wheels, making it potentially the perfect winter muscle car.
There are those that believe a muscle car should have a HEMI V8 up front and two tires burning rubber at the back. But this particular Challenger, though nowhere near as potent a force as the Hellcat variant -- its Pentastar 3.6-liter V6 puts out ‘just' 305hp compared to the potentially dangerous 707hp served up by the flagship model -- still promises thrills without spills.
In normal conditions, all power goes exclusively to the rear wheels via an eight-speed automatic transmission with steering-column mounted paddle shifts. But when the back end is about to go or when the conditions are slippery, torque is meted out to the front wheels too.
And with twice as much traction available, that means that drivers can use much more of the engine's output more of the time without coming unstuck in a bend or blowing the tires trying to pull away like a rocket at the traffic lights.
Then there's the fact that the motor is naturally aspirated. With no turbos or superchargers force feeding air into the block, there's no turbo lag, no moment of nothingness before all of the power arrives all at once. All of which makes it the perfect winter sportscar.
And it looks good too. It sits on 19-inch alloys, has projector fog lights up front, a deck lid spoiler at the rear and the cabin has one or two premium touches including splashes of leather, sports pedals and heated front seats and steering wheel.
Other standard kit includes an infotainment system that can record lap times, display how quickly the car went from 0-100km/h and how much g-force it's pulling in corners.
And of course there's a sport mode button that will shut off the stability control altogether so that if owners really want to they can go sideways into bends without the all-wheel-drive system stepping in and straightening things out.
Despite European and Japanese car trends, the Dodge Challenger GT AWD is officially the first two-door American-made American muscle car with all-wheel drive, and when it goes on sale in January, it will retail for just $34,490.
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