The wife and I just got back from 5 nights in Arizona. When we were planning the trip she had asked me what kind of vehicle I wanted, I said "something cheap" well, on the plane ride there I started regretting that. It hit me that I'm going to be on vacation for a week without our kids. I started thinking that I need a sports car. When we landed in Phoenix and I got to the rental car desk I asked the guy if I could upgrade. I requested something sporty and fast with a v8. He told me he could get me in a charger or challenger. I said no way to the 4 door charger and requested a hemi challenger. $100 upgrade. Not bad at all. When all was final he said I could go pick any car from lot #10 (the premier cars). Before heading down to the parking lot I joked With him and warned him to watch the 10:00pm news cuz he's going to see their car featured in a helicopter cop chase. then he started laughing and started pretending to be the news anchor covering the hypothetical story. Straight up hilarious. I get down to the parking lot and the lady there tries sticking me in a charger from lot #5. I told her that I paid for an upgrade and the salesman at the desk said I could pick any car from Lot number 10. I told her I was looking for a hemi challenger. She said that she didn't have keys for the lot 10 cars. So I go back upstairs to get keys. She then radios up and said she found the keys… big problem though. I pop the hood on 2 of the challengers and find that they are the 6 cylinder versions. I start cracking jokes with them that I want my hemi. Finally I hear an amazing sounding vehicle coming from about a block away. the guy pulls up and gets out and he's grinning and tells me this is the the one I want. I proceeded to pop the hood and was delighted when I saw the hemi. I started Ewwing and awing and druling over this bad boy while they were doing their final inspection. I joked with them to take a good look at it cuz they would never see it again. I had several of the workers laughing at this point. At one point insurance got brought up and I asked if they we're going to cover it if I brought it back with the rubber burned all the way off the rim….it was a fun experience and the people at fox rental went the extra mile and let me pop the hood on several of their vehicles to find the one I wanted. Heres my experience with the modern muscle. The car was a 2022 Dodge Challenger RT with 375 horsepower, 8 speed automatic transmission and I believe a 3:90 rear gear. The car features launch control which I believe was an adjustable stall speed. I didn't play with that much. With the click of a button you can change from normal mode to sport mode which affects everything from the way the car handles to power output. The car can also be manually shifted with paddles on the steering wheel or a slap shifter Style on the floor which was my favorite way to drive it. I put a little over a thousand miles on this car in 5 days. Its heavy but had no problem spinning tires. And accelerating was super fun. I didn't hot rod it too much but definitely had fun in it. The stereo was amazing and we rocked out streaming our favorites with the bluetooth capabilities. From the Phoenix area we took it on several day trips including the Grand Canyon and on the way back from the grand canyon I got stuck driving in a blizzard for 45 minutes and was surprised with how well the large 20-in tires and RWD handled in the snow. I reminded my wife that I had lots of RWD experience (in the snow) from a little Ford ranger I drove for a couple of years. We made it back to Phoenix safely. Throughout my time in Phoenix I had several cars rev on me including a white Lamborghini. My conclusion, the car was a blast but it made me miss my Buick. I like old hotrods but this challenger earned a special place in my memories. The vacation was epic. I have 4 awesome kids but it was great to get away for a week with just my wife…we did some awesome stuff in Arizona. We toured Sedona, toured the montezuma well, montezuma castle, tuzigoot, (ancient Indian ruins) Grand Canyon, dave and busters arcade, went to the movies, bowling, billiards, botanical gardens, hiking, canyon lake boat tour, pool day at the resort, and lots of great food. Check out pics of the car and our trip.
Few more pics...Arizona is awesome. It was unusually cold there but still better than iowa. The mountains and Grand Canyon had tons of snow.
I can't believe that you didn't remove that remaining splitter guard for the photos Head Dodge designer: please take those yellow splitter guards off
I've been away myself w/o the wife & kids but we've never been away w/o the kids despite telling my wife we need to. I guess that time will come soon as they're getting older. Sounds like a great vacation and good that you sprang for the fun car!
Reid, sounds like you and your wife had a blast! Yes, Arizona is truly a very beautiful state. I have the total opposite story. I had to rent a car one summer, (Covid lock down time), to get back up to Virginia. I went to the local car rental place, and unfortunately they fixed me up with a Toyota Camry. I told him I couldn’t drive in that kind of a car because it would give me TB. The guy looked at me really strange and I explained to him that TB stood for Toyota butt. The week before I had just driven home in my wife’s Toyota and my butt was still hurting. There was a shortage of cars in the lot and that’s what I was stuck with. I walked out to the car very disappointed, opened the door, and was shocked at what I saw. The car was a filthy mess inside, and it looked like it had been lived in! They ended up giving me an upgrade to the Dodge Charger. Yes it was the four-door car, and it came with the V6 engine. But… The cool part was that it looked identical to the Florida Highway patrol cars. All black and it even had dog dish hubcaps. I cruised in the fast lane all the way to the Virginia state line. I cannot tell you how many cars got out of my way. I even had a few cars that were going faster than I was, but when they caught up to me they would not pass me. It was truly a blast driving a fake cop car! I entered Virginia on interstate 77 N. As I’m driving through the mountains I’m trying to find a radio station which is totally impossible in the mountains. I guess I wasn’t really paying attention to my speed and ended up coming down the mountain at 119 mph. Sure enough there was a state trooper in the median strip hidden behind two hills on either side of him. I knew he got me on radar and I slowly pulled over to the emergency lane. When he walked up to my car, my undercover police car, I roll down the window and he busted out laughing. Here I am sporting my ZZ Top beard and looking like a crazed old man. He immediately busted out laughing and said, you are not what I expected when I pulled you over. Being he was laughing, I started laughing, and I told him he couldn’t pull me over because I was driving an undercover cop car! He started laughing even more. We had a really good time talking, and did a lot of laughing. He ended up giving me a ticket for doing 80 in a 65 zone. Even though I got a minimal ticket, I felt truly blessed. I will say the car drove beautiful, had plenty of spunk for a V6 engine, and got unbelievably good gas mileage. Reid, as you settle back into your normal life in the middle of winter, at least you have your vacation to think about!!!
I got pulled over in VA in '86 at about 2AM on I-85 going to the Nationals on the way back down from hitting 120. Not sure how fast we were going but he could've arrested me & impounded the car. I think he gave me a ticket for 80 or 85. Speed limit then was 55 and IIRC over 30 over was the the point of no return.
12 years ago our family flew in to Phoenix and drove to Flagstaff for the week. Rented a six cylinder Charger and played tourist for a week-meteor crater, Sedona, Williams, took the train to the Grand Canyon, toured the indian artifacts and parks. Absolutely beautiful country. We now have a ‘17 Durango R/T; it’s heavier than a Challenger but drives great, has plenty of power and even tows ok if needed.. Patrick
I have a manual trans challenger but the launch control is basically the same. You set the rpm you want to launch the car at. In my case, you put your foot on the clutch and pit it in gear. Then mash the gas pedal to the floor. It will Rev the engine to the set rpm. When your ready, pop the clutch, hold on and hope the rear end doesn't unexpectedly dis assemble
When we were out there I noticed everyone in town wearing a shirt that said, “ taking it easy“ We were there for almost a week and I hadn’t figured out why everyone was wearing those shirts. The morning we left we went to the nearest town. Good old Winslow Arizona. They had a big memorial to the Eagles band. Patrick, I just recently heard about that train ride to the Grand Canyon. I’m definitely doing that the next time. Then I won’t have to listen to my wife saying, pay attention to the road!
We went a couple of Feb's ago. It was great. Many of the attractions we wanted to do were closed until may/ Will probably go back one day later in the yr
Great pics form a great trip, thanks for sharing your experience. Did you push the traction control off button for bigger burnouts? Some places have 392 Hemi Challengers to rent too.
People (mainly in the automotive press) want to give Fiat/Chrysler/Stellantis (ask your doctor…) grief because the Hemi cars and SUV are riding on such old engineering. I don’t think that’s a bad thing; if was good ten years ago, it still is. Apparently car buyers (huh-what do they know?) agree… Patrick
A lot of these new super cars have ruined a lot of us enthusiasts, me included. They are so nice, powerful, handle well, QUIET inside, and trouble free. A few years after buying a Mustang Terminator Cobra, I road tripped my Stage 2 64 Skylark for 600 miles and after that hot, noisy, road trip, thinking about what I would want to do and the cost to again upgrade to make it more comfortable, I promptly put it up for sale and sold it. Someone in CA has it, I wonder about it now and then. I had a lot of blood, sweat, and tears in that car over a 15-year period, and a lot of hard-found parts!
That's a great story! Were getting the full force of winter. Within a couple of days we'll be back in the single digits.
We've been away a few times by ourselves. We travel with the kids at least once a year as well. I didn't get to travel much as a kid and I'm trying to give my kids those experiences. But I would encourage you to get out an go with just you and the wife. It's refreshing.
The meteor is awesome. We actually toured that with kids in 2021. We drove from iowa in our Yukon. My wife and I loved Arizona so much in 2021 that we knew we'd go back. We want to go back to the grand Canyon a 3rd time and do the hike to the bottom.
I bet your car is incredibly fun. I am not in a place in my life where I can justify owning something like that. We have 4 kids. And I already have the Buick. But I could see myself owning one of these challengers or maybe a mustang from this era 10 years down the road...
"Pay attention to the road" sounds about right LOL. I should consider hiring a driver so I don't miss anything. And I can stare out the window the whole time.
