Dodge squashes Challenger ACR rumors

We had hoped that the rumors had some merit, but according to Autoweek, Dodge has no plans to build an American Club Racer (ACR) version of the Challenger.

The rumors stemmed from an Allpar post that claimed the Challenger ACR would shed weight with carbon fiber panels and add lots of downforce in an attempt to take on and beat the GT500 at its own game.

Dodge has been doing a fantastic job at keeping the Challenger appealing with special editions, new trim levels, and, of course, by offering consumers gobs of power. It seemed like a track version of the Mopar pony car would be a big undertaking considering the high bar set by the Camaro ZL1 and Mustang GT500, plus the daunting size of the current Challenger wouldn’t help, but we’re never ones to count SRT engineers out.

We’ve learned that the rumors of a lighter, more powerful road-racing Challenger do have a grain of truth in them. They seem to have stemmed from ongoing Challenger road race development, but not for a production car. Kevin Wesley piloted a 2019 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye Widebody at Pikes Peak, and it seems that our intrepid Allpar fanatic caught wind of the next iteration of that Time Attack car and just hoped it would wind up as a production car when it’s only a one-off.

Wesley’s car will do double duty, running at Pike’s Peak in August and, following a suspension swap, Hot Rod magazine’s Drag Week in September. It may not be an ACR, but you can bet that it will use lots of factory SRT parts that would bolt into any production Challenger.

The end of the production line is only the beginning. Just because you can’t buy a road-racing Challenger in the showroom doesn’t mean you can’t build one. Wesley’s ride will help prove what’s possible with a car the many people have written off as too big to be a road racer.