Eco+Muscle Combines Dodge Challenger with Fuel Efficiency

While domestic manufacturers have in recent years returned to the “retro” look, reigniting the nation’s passion for the muscle cars of yesteryear, the rest of the world has been giddy on egg-shaped hybrids and fuel efficiency vs horsepower.

There is an understandably large gap between the fuel-conscious and horsepower heavy crowds, but Popular Mechanics has undertaken a project to bridge that with their Eco+Muscle hybrid Dodge Challenger.

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500 horsepower? Check. 99 miles per gallon in the city? Check. 5,000lbs of American automobile? Check, check, check.

This wild ride combines a ZEX ntirous kit, a UQM electric motor, and twenty-eight Exide batteries to make a muscle car car that can glide quietly through city traffic while still getting 25 MPG on the highway, thanks to the HEMI V8’s cylinder deactivation technology. A twist-grip throtte powers the electric motor, which has replaced part of the Challenger’s two-piece driveshaft and drives the car through city traffic while the petrol motor is left to idle. But because the HEMI also powers the power steering and brakes, it cannot be totally deactivated…yet. There are even solar panels attached to the carbon fiber hood, sort of an eco-friendly racing stripe.

The Eco+Muscle Challenger will be making its way around the country, debuting at the NASCAR Pocono 500 in June, and will eventually wind up at the SEMA Auto Show in Las Vegas this November.

Source: Popular Mechanics.

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