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2022 Dodge Challenger SRT Super Stock First-Time Driving Review


Image for the article titled Dodge Challenger SRT Super Stock Drive First Drive: Embracing The Divine Feminine Through 807 HP

Picture: Elizabeth Blackstock

The first time I tried to set a personal record in weightlifting was when I was in high school. It was my senior year, and despite being convinced that I didn’t like pumping iron, the class became an important form of catalysis for me. So I did what every self-respecting teenager does, and I instructed my lifter teammates on the leg press; I’ll see exactly how much weight I can lift in one hit.

She followed my lead, packing two 45-pound plates at once until my shaky legs could no longer stretch. By some unyielding willpower that I could never pull off again, I lifted nearly 450 pounds that day – three times my body weight at the time. After returning to the dressing room with my knees plastered, I changed into the pink floral dress I had worn that day, feeling like a goddess of power for the first time in my life.

That’s exactly how I felt when I drove the 2022 Dodge Challenger SRT Super Stock.

Full disclosure: Stellantis brought this wonderfully beautiful machine to the Texas Auto Writers Association Spring Fair, where I had the chance to hold it for an abbreviated spin.

Image for the article titled Dodge Challenger SRT Super Stock Drive First Drive: Embracing The Divine Feminine Through 807 HP

Photo: Elizabeth Blackstock

Image for article titled Dodge Challenger SRT Super Stock First Drive: Embracing The Divine Feminine Through 807 HP

Photo: Elizabeth Blackstock

What Is It?

What is the Dodge Challenger SRT Super Stock, you ask? Let me put it this way: It’s the wheeled version of the feeling you get when you’ve accomplished something solo that you thought would require a helping hand. It’s single-handedly assembling an Ikea bookshelf that’s twice your height. It’s finishing that long road trip and beating the GPS estimated time of arrival. It’s winging a macaroni and cheese recipe that turns out to be the best damn thing you’ve ever eaten. It’s turning up at your high school reunion as the undeniably most successful member of your graduating class.

If you aren’t fluent in Vibe Speak, I’ll put it a different way: The Dodge Challenger SRT Super Stock is currently the world’s fastest muscle car, the crown jewel in the Challenger lineup, which was derived from the 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon. The biggest difference is that the Super Stock SRT has less horsepower than the Demon and doesn’t have the optional High Octan mode. Otherwise, you can expect a very similar car. If you missed your chance to catch a Devil, now you have a second try.

Image for the article titled Dodge Challenger SRT Super Stock Drive First Drive: Embracing The Divine Feminine Through 807 HP

Photo: Elizabeth Blackstock

Image for the article titled Dodge Challenger SRT Super Stock Drive First Drive: Embracing The Divine Feminine Through 807 HP

Photo: Elizabeth Blackstock

How’s the drive?

Unfortunately, my test drive was a short lap – it took me 90 minutes circling the freeways and back roads around the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, TX.

Listen: This isn’t a crazy comfortable car if you’re not racing it. It has a pretty rough ride, and it gets caught in potholes or rough sections of the road. It is a vehicle for highway driving and cold starting, not for frequent commuting on a poorly maintained road. I had a thoroughly enjoyable time launching the car from a stop light and seeing how quickly I could hit the 60 mph speed limit without overtaking it. I don’t like driving on the tattered 35 mph road that surrounds the TMS. Thankfully, the sheer head-banging of the furious V8 sends you into such a state of dumbfounded bliss that even the worst of driving is still enjoyable. Hell.

You also have a number of different features to keep things interesting:

  • Line lock: This allows the front brake to lock independently of the rear brake, allowing the driver to turn the rear wheel without pulling on the rear brake. Ideal for drag racing scenes.
  • Launch the controller: Minimizes wheel spin while managing torque, throttle, and gear settings to let you start quickly, cleanly from a stop.
  • Electric chiller: This uses the air conditioner’s refrigerant to cool the V8.
  • Race cooldown: This keeps the engine’s cooling fan and coolant running while the engine is idle to help keep it running after strenuous use.
  • Torque reserve: Enable this along with launch controls to reduce lag when jumping out of line.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to try any of these, as I’m driving on public roads – but interestingly many of these features are available in Race Mode, which is weird. Weird is geared towards drag racing rather than actual track driving.

Dodge, if you’re reading this, please let me test this vehicle appropriately. I’ll drive to Dallas to pick it up if it means I can lower it down the 85 mph Texas toll roads on my way home and maybe even get to the local tow strip. I will behave, I promise.

Image for the article titled Dodge Challenger SRT Super Stock Drive First Drive: Embracing The Divine Feminine Through 807 HP

Photo: Elizabeth Blackstock

Image for the article titled Dodge Challenger SRT Super Stock Drive First Drive: Embracing The Divine Feminine Through 807 HP

Photo: Elizabeth Blackstock

Image for the article titled Dodge Challenger SRT Super Stock Drive First Drive: Embracing The Divine Feminine Through 807 HP

Photo: Elizabeth Blackstock

Image for the article titled Dodge Challenger SRT Super Stock Drive First Drive: Embracing The Divine Feminine Through 807 HP

Photo: Elizabeth Blackstock

What’s good?

I hate driving with passengers. I actively despise driving with a chattering passenger, or someone who insists on changing the music, or someone who rejects Van Halen to point out something isn’t right. (I still can’t forgive my husband for turning down Top Jimmy in favor of talk like some kind of cute spouse.)

Inside the Challenger SRT Super Stock, you’ll find a cockpit that embraces the driver and actively discourages passengers from engaging in the driving experience. That right-hand seat is for sitting down and closing the hell door. The infotainment screen must not be angled next to the passenger. In fact, all the controls are almost concealed from the right seat. It’s beautiful. It creates a strong “don’t even look at me; I’m busy “.

If the interior design isn’t enough to convey that reality, the Challenger noise will be. Turn it on and you’ll be greeted with a growl of an engine that drowns out everything around you and encourages you to turn up the music a little louder. The sound system is divine – perhaps not as refined as you’d find in a luxury car in the same price range but ideal for turning on Hair Nation and playing ball.

And yes, it’s also good for your sense of self – for soul. If you need a reminder of your once-important place on this Earth, ride the Challenger. You can’t be sad driving a Challenger. You can’t care what other people think when you drive a Challenger. Just you, your Hemi V8 and the goddesses of asphalt. You are unstoppable.

Image for the article titled Dodge Challenger SRT Super Stock Drive First Drive: Embracing The Divine Feminine Through 807 HP

Photo: Elizabeth Blackstock

What is weak?

The biggest weakness of this car is probably the space for those who are not drivers.

However, I’d like to make the opposite point: Fuck your passengers.

No one sits in the back seat unless you hate them and want to know what it feels like to see their legs cramp. These chairs are for comfortable wallet only. If I could also get out of the passenger seat with a shotgun, I would too.

However, the trunk is spacious enough for at least two to three organs, should the need arise.

The infotainment system is also outdated, with a small screen, dense controls and no real place for your mobile phone:

Image for the article titled Dodge Challenger SRT Super Stock Drive First Drive: Embracing The Divine Feminine Through 807 HP

Photo: Elizabeth Blackstock

However, for space concerns, this is not really an issue in the context of the vehicle. You don’t drive a Dodge Challenger SRT Super Stock because you want a tech-heavy family car. You’re driving it because you want to whimper in utter bliss every time you hit the gas and feel all the 807 horsepower in action. You need the ability to listen to music and to navigate, and you’ll be able to do both with this monitor. Why bother with anything else?

Image for the article titled Dodge Challenger SRT Super Stock Drive First Drive: Embracing The Divine Feminine Through 807 HP

Photo: Elizabeth Blackstock


The Dodge Challenger SRT Super Stock is not a practical car, but it can fulfill all your desires. It is the sheer power of the wheel that will make your stomach rumble and make you crave more. It’s not a car meant for the school shuttle, although you’d be the worst mom out there with a Hemi under the hood. It’s not a car for groceries, but you can fit in the trunk with a well-stocked pantry. It’s not a commuter at all, but who wouldn’t want to drive this car at every possible opportunity?

I can understand why some people don’t like this machine, but I’m not one to deny the bold prowess of American muscle in all its astonishing glory. Yes want you see. I want you to see the woman in heart-shaped sunglasses and pink jumpsuit behind the wheel. I want you to say, “Damn it. And yes, I want the ego type of boost that makes me feel like an 807-horsepower goddess, because the Dodge Challenger SRT Super Stock is a car for girls.

2022 Dodge Challenger SRT Super Stock RWD Specifications

Engine type

Intercooled Supercharger Premium Unleaded V-8

Drive / Transmission

Auto w/OD



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