I was a movin’ man in my younger days
But I gone out my ramblin’ ways
I left that road so far behind

Now I know, oh babe
I got mine…

~The Black Keys

The sun’s coming down as I dip off the interstate, long rays nicking off of the Challenger’s endless nose. The sheet metal, dipped in retina-snatching Inferno Red Crystal Pearl, seems to stretch on indefinitely toward the horizon, and the 5.7-liter V8’s sonorous tone bounces through the open windows to sing back up with The Black Keys. Under normal circumstances, I’d down the volume as I approach the stoplight, but I’m in a Challenger, and I haven’t felt this bad ass since perfecting the J-Turn in high school. I stop next to a Grand Caravan and the mom behind the wheel instantly scrambles to up her window. The kids in the back are glued to the glass, eyes the size of dish plates, soundless “wows” escaping their lips. I tap the throttle to get the 372 horsepower mill to bark just once as the light turns green and the kids go wild. Mom arches her eyebrows in spite of herself. Kowalski would be proud.

The 2009 Dodge Challenger R/T is a funny bird. Bigger, heavier, more expensive and more comfortable than the other neo-muscle competitors out there, the car seems to ooze confidence. By now we’ve all read the reviews. We know even the mighty SRT-8 fails to stack up against the sinister Chevrolet Camaro SS or even the underpowered Mustang GT in all the ways a sports car can be measured. But this ain’t no sports car, kids. This is Detroit muscle in the biggest way. It’s not the fastest, but it’s mammoth proportions are larger than life and damn good looking in the flesh – the kind of mean styling you don’t mind walking away from in the parking lot. “Oh that? Yeah, I’m driving it.”

Dodge seems to have penned the Challenger with an eye toward recreating that adolescent moment when scads of the American youth first laid eyes on their uncle’s car back in the ‘70s. You can’t help but feel small as you approach it, thanks largely to the epic 197.7 inch length and 75.7 inch width. The car. Is. Huge. From its squared off, recessed grille to the bulging rear hips, the Challenger simply exudes size, and that girth is a nod to the original. The dish-plate headlights and turning indicators are genuinely cool, as is the bar tail light out back. We’ve also got to give credit to the 18-inch wheels on our tester. They’re big, but not ridiculously huge 20 inch steam rollers.

More than a few auto journos have berated the Challenger for its interior, but the truth is it’s not a bad place to spend time. The black-on-black-on-black theme is about as bright and cheery as sticking your head in a paint bucket, but the seats are comfortable and supportive with serious bolsters, and the soft-touch dash nice, if nothing else. The bland styling is clearly a shot to the original car, so we can only fault the designers so much. The four-spoke steering wheel is a tad bulky for my tastes, but fits well with the car’s overall ham-fisted theme. My only real qualm comes with the location of the turning indicator and cruise stalks. They seem to be placed unnaturally low on the column, and for the first few days with the car I was left fumbling in thin air. I also have to question the location of the emergency brake. You won’t find the hoon’s favorite hand brake in this sucker, it’s a pedal-activated unit. We miss the temptation.

The Challenger benefits from some serious gusto, even in mid-level R/T trim. The 5.7-liter Hemi V8 dishes out 372 horsepower and 400 lb-ft of torque and in our tester it was coupled to a 5-speed automatic box, though a six-speed manual is also available. A locking diff out back makes sure every ounce of that power makes it to the ground. Thought the 5.7’s power pales in comparison to the SRT8’s mighty 6.1-liter, complete with 425 horsepower and 420 lb-ft of torque, it’s still more than enough to hustle the Challenger along.

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