Over the past two weeks, your correspondent has spent dozens of hours and thousands of kilometres driving two resurrected American muscle cars - the Dodge Challenger and Chevrolet Camaro. Admittedly, I’m a child of the 80’s. That means I missed the original muscle-car scene by more than a few years, though it looks and feels to me like modern engineering and technology have, in many ways, made the American performance car a hell of a machine.
Of course, things have changed since the original era of raw power and cheap tires, gas and insurance. Today, even muscle cars have to be more sensible, economical and efficient than ever. So, partially as a result of new safety, economic and environmental concerns, a few annoyances have found themselves engineered into both the Camaro and Challenger.
Your writer’s least-favourite side-effect of muscle-car modernization is called skip-shift. This frustrating feature is common to the Tremec manual gearboxes in both the Challenger and Camaro. In a nutshell, it forces a first-to-fourth shift by locking drivers out of second gear when the shift lever is pulled down.
Skip-shift intends to reduce fuel consumption and emissions, but it also annoys thousands of drivers to all heck. After all, manual transmissions are chosen by shoppers who want to call the shots themselves - and all of them could shift first to fourth to save fuel if they felt so inclined. The forced gearshift lockout is especially frustrating with the Challenger, where the manual box is a $2,000 option.
Modern muscle pet-peeve number two? Electronic throttles. Mechanical cable linkages have left the scene and been replaced with expensive electronic sensors, modules and control systems that try to simulate the real thing. Most of the time, this works. Sometimes, it doesn’t.
Case in point: lift off of either Challenger or Camaro’s go-pedal after maintaining forward velocity or accelerating slightly, and the computer holds the throttle a moment before releasing it slowly. At best, this can feel numb and abnormal. At worst, it can feel irritating. Drivetrain longevity? Emissions? Combating the potential effects of ill-timed lift-off oversteer? Regardless of 'why', the electronic throttle stickiness is a bit of a pain.
So is electronic stability control that can’t be fully defeated with a button press. Clicking the ‘ESP off’ button in either Camaro or Challenger merely turns the driver aids down-- not off. Full dismissal of the stability control in either machine requires holding the button for some 10 seconds or more, in which case even the Challenger still intervenes to some degree.
Why turn the stability control off?
Simple.
You just dropped forty-five large on a new piece of American motoring history with a V8 engine and rear-wheel drive. As such, it’s your God-given right to drift out of the office parking lot at the end of the week if you so please - without having to consult the computer first.
Of course, it’s not the end of the world. Electronic throttle and stability control complaints can be fairly easily programmed out of the engine control module with a few commonly-available software hacks. Additionally, a quick google search for ‘skip shift removal’ can set owners up with a $20 solution that’s easily installed.
That’s it for today’s rant, folks. Thanks for reading.
Of course, things have changed since the original era of raw power and cheap tires, gas and insurance. Today, even muscle cars have to be more sensible, economical and efficient than ever. So, partially as a result of new safety, economic and environmental concerns, a few annoyances have found themselves engineered into both the Camaro and Challenger.
Your writer’s least-favourite side-effect of muscle-car modernization is called skip-shift. This frustrating feature is common to the Tremec manual gearboxes in both the Challenger and Camaro. In a nutshell, it forces a first-to-fourth shift by locking drivers out of second gear when the shift lever is pulled down.
Skip-shift intends to reduce fuel consumption and emissions, but it also annoys thousands of drivers to all heck. After all, manual transmissions are chosen by shoppers who want to call the shots themselves - and all of them could shift first to fourth to save fuel if they felt so inclined. The forced gearshift lockout is especially frustrating with the Challenger, where the manual box is a $2,000 option.
Modern muscle pet-peeve number two? Electronic throttles. Mechanical cable linkages have left the scene and been replaced with expensive electronic sensors, modules and control systems that try to simulate the real thing. Most of the time, this works. Sometimes, it doesn’t.
Case in point: lift off of either Challenger or Camaro’s go-pedal after maintaining forward velocity or accelerating slightly, and the computer holds the throttle a moment before releasing it slowly. At best, this can feel numb and abnormal. At worst, it can feel irritating. Drivetrain longevity? Emissions? Combating the potential effects of ill-timed lift-off oversteer? Regardless of 'why', the electronic throttle stickiness is a bit of a pain.
So is electronic stability control that can’t be fully defeated with a button press. Clicking the ‘ESP off’ button in either Camaro or Challenger merely turns the driver aids down-- not off. Full dismissal of the stability control in either machine requires holding the button for some 10 seconds or more, in which case even the Challenger still intervenes to some degree.
Why turn the stability control off?
Simple.
You just dropped forty-five large on a new piece of American motoring history with a V8 engine and rear-wheel drive. As such, it’s your God-given right to drift out of the office parking lot at the end of the week if you so please - without having to consult the computer first.
Of course, it’s not the end of the world. Electronic throttle and stability control complaints can be fairly easily programmed out of the engine control module with a few commonly-available software hacks. Additionally, a quick google search for ‘skip shift removal’ can set owners up with a $20 solution that’s easily installed.
That’s it for today’s rant, folks. Thanks for reading.