Originally Posted by TriShield
They have good reason too, weight is an absolute killer of acceleration, handling and braking. The less the Challenger weighs, the better it's going to feel and drive.
Weight is the common complaint I see online with modern muscle cars. If it's over 3,500lbs people get upset. If the Challenger weights 4,100lbs like the Chrysler 300/Dodge Charger, than it will kill sales for many people and they'll go to the Camaro which is almost guaranteed to weigh 3,600 or so.
The wheelbase on the concept car is nearly the same as the Pontiac GTO, and it weighs 3,700 officially. If the Challenger weighs more than that it will be a factor in swaying my decision to buy something else. I don't want to drive a car that feels like a fat pig oinking over the road.
Sure, I know like anyone else knows that weight kills acceleration + handling and it doesn't give a help in braking (especially fade is the issue, but not only), that's nothing new to anyone.
Now if you have to have a car that is 197 in. long and at the same time weighs 3500 lbs or less, you surely need to find alternative solutions that most likely will be quite expensive.
So, what do people want ? To spend less money and have the Challenger the way it is, or let's say have some 10-15k added and have extensive use of aluminum, carbon fiber and titanium in order to save some 500-600 lbs ? I am willing to bet that people prefer to save the 10-15k...
The Camaro has the same wheelbase, fine...though the Camaro concept is almost a foot shorter in overall lenght than the Challenger...people need to understand that this foot or so is not made of air, but instead is metal, plastic and whatever other material they employ...therefore it weighs more than a Camaro...
Make a Camaro the same lenght, not only same wheelbase, as a Challenger and chances are that it will weigh more or less the same...
If pure performance is your thing, then you are wasting time comparing the Challenger to a Gt500 or Camaro...you better go with the others...the Challenger is bigger, more going along the lines of a pure muscle cars...
Which is fine by me.