Features

The inside of the manual R/T is better than the SRT8's, as it features at least two of the key interior features from the original car. There's the pistol-grip shifter and the seats are pleated, albeit horizontally and not vertically as per the original. The three-spoke steering wheel is nowhere to be seen, though.

But as disappointing as the interior is, the rest of the car is an almost exact copy of the gorgeous concept. The trademark gaping front grille and broad rear light bar still sandwich the classic design's fluid curves, the five-spoke alloys fill the wheelarches perfectly, and there are a couple of eye-popping colours apart from the fierce orange of the concept. It looks right.

And best of all, it goes right, too. It's four inches shorter than a Charger, but the Challenger's chassis is otherwise a direct lift from that same, rear-drive, independently suspended LX platform. It's not light - at 1,833kg, it's actually a complete porker, being some 268kg heavier than a V8 Mustang - but it puts out so much power and torque it hides its bulk well.

The suspension is on the authentically soft side of firm, but the handling isn't too bad. With independent rear suspension, it doesn't need vision-blurringly hard suspension to get grip, and so the ride is nothing short of plush.

The unexpected flip side of this is the car's extraordinary high-speed stability. It might not look like it, but, Dodge says, the new car creates enough downforce to do a 150mph rapid lane change without somersaulting. I'll take their word for that...

I'll also take a recording of the exhaust note, please. While the SRT8 sounds rumblelicious, it's the new R/T that takes the silverware for the best muscle car exhaust sound ever. The reason for the distinct difference is the R/T's exhaust system. Where the SRT8's engine exhales out of a pressed steel muffler, the R/T fires its exhaust out of two low-backpressure bottle resonators that gargle the fumes before spitting them out.

So the manual R/T is definitely the pick of the Challenger bunch, the closest to the original and the most fun. All the time you're driving the SRT8, you're thinking what extra fun you would be having if you were in the manual car, with the better noise, the better drive, and for less money. 6,400 people got it wrong the first time around.

Now the important thing for them to remember is not to make the same mistake with the convertible, due out sometime next year. Can't wait - but then again, maybe I can