By Larry Edsall

On Sale: Early 2008
Expected Pricing: $25,000-$35,000

The 2008 Dodge Challenger will feature the long hood, short deck, wide stance and two-door coupe body style that distinguished the iconic Challengers of the 1970s.

Arguably, it was the 1970 Challenger that finally brought Dodge into the pony car race. Ford established the pattern for this vehicle category when it introduced the Mustang as a 1964 1/2 model. Chevrolet followed suit with its 1967 Camaro, as did Pontiac with the Firebird.

Fast forward 35 years. With the pony car reborn in the form of the 2005 Ford Mustang, Chevy and Dodge are saddling up new ponies and getting ready to gallop. Both displayed concept cars at the 2006 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, and the Dodge Challenger concept looked ready to roll from the show stand to the show room.

Built on the Chrysler Group LX platform that underpins the Chrysler 300, Dodge Charger and Dodge Magnum, the Challenger is expceted to go into production in 2008.

The Challenger concept was powered by Chrysler's 6.1-liter Hemi V8 that cranks out 425 horsepower and 420 pound-feet of torque to a pair of 21-inch rear wheels.

The production car will be powered by a 5.7-liter Hemi, say Chrysler officials, but rumor has it that a high-performance SRT version will also be produced with more than 400 horsepower.

While the 2006 concept looks a lot like the Coke bottle shaped 1970 original, it is built on a 116-inch wheelbase vs. 110 for the original. The concept also is more than six inches longer, two inches wider and more than five inches taller than the original, yet the concept maintains the beautiful long-nose, short deck and nicely rounded proportions of the original.

Its designers had to set aside much of their modern knowledge to maintain the exciting proportions of the original. The concept features relatively long front and rear overhangs, which does not make for outstanding aerodynamics. The only modern design cues are the big wheels and tires that fill the wheel wells. By today's standards, the original had small wheels and tires.

Painted a beautiful Orange Pearl, the gray stripes are actually unpainted sections that cleverly show off the carbon fiber hood.

The concept's interior is as exciting as its exterior. Seats have '70s-style pleats, with a single orange-colored trim panel in the seatback providing a visual highlight.

The original Challenger was the first production car with injection-molded interior door trim panels so special attention was paid to the doors of the concept, which look like machined billet aluminum with a rubberized material cover.

In place of the standard instrument panel, the Challenger concept has a gauge cluster designed to look like a bank of the Hemi engine with its head cover removed, and with an enlarged first cylinder housing a special engine computer that allows the driver to track 0-60 mph and quarter-mile times, quarter-mile and top speeds as well as maximum engine rpm in each of the six forward gears.

The Challenger concept was unveiled at the 2006 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Chrysler confirmed on July 1, 2006, at the Pepsi 400 NASCAR Nextel Cup race at Daytona that the Challenger would be a production vehicle.

Larry Edsall filed the original report from the 2006 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, with Mitch McCullough reporting from Los Angeles August 1, 2006.

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