Driven Hard: XV Motorsports Dodge Challenger

OK, hands up if you’ve ever been a fan of the “Dukes of Hazzard”. Or maybe “Starsky and Hutch”. “Kojak”? How many of you have the DVD of, say, “Bullitt”? “Vanishing Point”? “The French Connection”? I’m guessing most hands have gone up by now. Which means that even if you don’t know that this car is a Dodge Charger, even if you’ve never actually seen a classic American muscle car on the road, it’s still as familiar in its way as a Ford Fiesta.

Another thing you’ll remember from the car chases is how these behemoths appeared to handle. They seemed to spend most of their time rolling around like punch-drunk boxers, only ever looking stable when going in a straight line. That powerful shape might have said “Don’t mess with the Texas,” but it would have been left for dead by any European sports car of the period. Not that it stopped us lusting after them.

Standing at the XV Motorsports showroom, based just outside New York City, nothing has changed as far as that goes. A 1971 Plymouth ‘Cuda, a drag-spec 1965 Dodge Coronet (with the battery mounted in the trunk to put more weight over the rear tires) and a 1970 Hemi ‘Cuda with a shaker hood are enough to get a man quickly crunching numbers. Though those numbers aren’t what they used to be.

An amazing dark green 1970 Dodge Challenger that one might expect to go for $20,000 is now worth at least $40,000, according to John Buscema, joint owner of XV. Another 1970 Dodge Charger is worth a cool $200,000. At which point the calculating ceases. Part of the reason these are far pricier than expected has to do with rectifying those old handling issues. XV takes an original car, like the Challenger in these pictures, and transforms it into something you’d want to own today. Because all of the assumptions made watching ’70s U.S. cop shows are now confirmed: These old muscle cars are complete dogs to drive. As Buscema points out, “The brakes are fine, but not if you’re planning on stopping more than once.”

So what XV does is basically reengineer the entire car. That’s what it takes to make this monster handle, stop and ride as well as a modern car. All the suspension is ripped out, the engine is replaced, the seats are changed, the brakes are swapped. Even the chassis has two pieces of precision-cut metal welded underneath it to add strength. Torsional rigidity was not a strong point on ’70s muscle.

Don’t assume this is all done on the hoof by XV. The suspension has been designed on a shaker rig, which generates a computer model of what the new setup should be like. A lot of the suspension is aluminum and purpose-built for these cars – they get race shocks and aluminum trailing arms. XV builds its own steering columns because it wants the ignition barrel to be on it, yet it also wants the column to adjust for rake. The original cars didn’t come with that adjustment, and no one builds anything suitable, so XV builds its own.

And even though you’ve got a modern 6.1-liter Hemi under the hood, XV engineers a unique intake manifold that allows it to fit an original air filter. These look far better, allow the engine to produce more power, and, crucially, fit in with the whole retro thing much better. And keeping that retro vibe is what it’s all about. It’s all clever stuff, with an attention to detail that would shame some low-volume car manufacturers.

The crucial thing is that the looks, for the most part, remain exactly the same. The wheels have had to be changed, because the old 15-inch alloys won’t fit the new disc brakes, but everything else about the styling remains.

To get an idea of what all these changes translate to on the road requires a drive, and XV was kind enough to let us drive an old restored but unmodified Challenger, a TA model, which was meant to be the handling pack of its day. (Clearly, someone didn’t drive a BMW from the same period before deciding that.) In fact, Buscema even let us have a go in his own unmodified Charger, the $200,000 one, with all original bodywork and 34,000 original miles, which he kindly pointed out as we pulled from the lot.

It’s surprising how different both are to drive, but we wouldn’t recommend either as a case study to an aspiring engineer. Drive down the road in the Challenger, and its staggering how little precision there is in the steering – you’ve got at least a quarter of a turn before anything happens at the front wheels. It’s also best to stick to reduced speed zones. With these brakes, you just bury your foot and hope that something bites.

Following a Toyota Camry, it actually takes some work to keep up. This car is seriously quick in a straight line, but show it a corner and you’ve got to guess how much lock you need on the turn-in. Driving in general is all about anticipation, but this car takes that to a completely different level. Then, because it’s got such bad bump steer, you’re constantly adjusting it all the way through a bend. You’re driving by intuition here.

But for all this, driving it makes a person feel incredibly cool. You sit listening to every cylinder fire individually. It’s even got a gear lever shaped liked a pistol, for god’s sake.

The XV Challenger, the version with the completely modern overhaul, is a different thing entirely. There are plenty of clichés you can use with this car, but honestly, none of them come close. The experience of driving it around New York City, in the bright sunshine, without having to pay for the fuel, is one of those life-defining moments that we sincerely hope everyone gets to experience at least once.

Of course, it drives better than the original cars, because it now stops, steers, corners and rides with an accuracy and compliance that just wasn’t there beforehand. It flows through corners and gives you more confidence to press on. But the single best thing about it is that XV has kept the muscle car feel. It even smells like an old car.

No, it still doesn’t handle like an Elise, but you wouldn’t want that. Challengers are a man’s car, and they need to remain that way. You don’t deftly slip it into gear, for instance, you drag hard on the gearstick. The car still feels heavy – the clutch is stiff, and it’s much the better for it. More fitting. At the same time, this transformation has hardly upped the environmental credentials by any noticeable degree.

For every gallon you put in the tank, about a third probably comes straight out of the exhaust pipe, unburnt. And the exhaust noise – oh, the exhaust noise. It makes more sense to say “sound.” Noise suggests a racket, and this Challenger creates the opposite of that. Normally you head for tunnels in loud cars to get the best of the exhausts’ effects, but not here. There’s plenty on show, even if you’re just cruising at 30 mph. At last, a V8 that sounds as it was originally intended to.

They say you should never drive the cars you idolized as a kid because they’ll never live up to your expectations, much like meeting your heroes. But that no longer applies to old muscle cars. They were iconic because of their shapes and the culture they created, and now they can be equally famous for the way they drive.