2006 Dodge Charger Road & Track Test

We were on the south track, a bit smaller and curvier than the one being used at the time for testing a rather loud NASCAR mule. It

The tight body shell allows the chassis to offer very little side-to-side roll while still providing a smooth ride, even when jumping curbs. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, American Auto Press)

featured a nice long straight with a snake-like corkscrew, not unlike the one at Laguna Seca in California, a thrill-a-minute test area for wringing the most out of the hopped up sedan. Was it up to the task? Again, surprisingly so. Even the big disc brakes showed little fade, lap after lap. The tight body shell allows the chassis to offer very little side-to-side roll while still providing a smooth ride, even when jumping curbs. It was easy to ramp up speed quickly too, getting way beyond what would be legal on the outside world before running out of track.

While most Charger driver's won't get anywhere near a racetrack, which is a shame, the experience allowed me to see how well balanced the car is when pushed to its limit. The sophisticated fully-independent suspension, made up of an independent short/long arm (SLA) setup in the front and 5-link configuration out back. The result is an ideally damped setup, wonderfully controllable through long sweeping or tight corners at high-speed and confidence inspiring under extreme braking. Like the 300 and Magnum, Chrysler borrowed much of its state-of-the-art chassis from Mercedes-Benz, but reworked it to fit

Like the 300 and Magnum, Chrysler borrowed much of the Charger's state-of-the-art chassis from Mercedes-Benz. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, American Auto Press)

the slightly larger and heavier car in its Indiana facility, where the five-speed transmission gets built as well by the way.

For such reasons it would be a mistake to not consider the Charger just because it looks like a muscle car - which were rather crude compared to their European counterparts in their heydays. Even the R/T's pushrod actuated overhead-valve HEMI V8, enhanced with an Electronic Throttle Control (ETC) by the way, is a lot more advanced than some multivalve engines, in some respects. Its Multi-Displacement System (MDS) was the first cylinder deactivation system to be sold in North America on large-volume vehicles when introduced in the 300C. MDS increases fuel economy by up to 20 percent while still delivering all of the engine's 340-horsepower and 390 lb-ft of torque when called upon.