The Dodge Trans-Am is back!

458bhp retro-hardcore Challenger concept unveiled at SEMA, but will Dodge make it real?

If you're a fan of Seventies muscle cars, you may be familiar with the Dodge Challenger Trans-Am, a legendary homologation special of the day. If you're too young to remember pony-car racing pre-history, fear not: Dodge has revealed a modern day interpretation of the Trans-Am to bring you up to speed.

Unveiled at this week's SEMA show, the Challenger T/A Concept (that accronym stands for Trans-Am, not Time Attack as in the Viper) is a throwback Sam Posey's original number 77 race car.
Fitted with a naturally aspirated 458bhp 6.4-litre Hemi V8 from the Challenger R/T Scat Pack, it slots below the deranged 707hp Hellcat within the Challenger range. But where the Hellcat has more power, the T/A may on par with performance thanks to its focused, racy mindset.

Weight is reduced by chucking out the Challenger's rear seats, carpets, sound insulation and adding carbon fibre. The T/A also borrows its set of uprated Brembo brakes from the Hellcat.

And where the Hellcat has one perforated headlight to suck more air in to the engine, the Trans Am utilises two. These holes send air straight from the lamps and Viper hood into a Mopar induction system.
There's a trick new exhaust, too. On the Challenger's keyfob is a button that activates an electronic cutout to bypass the muffled rear pipes and direct the exhaust to two derestricted sidepipes. The result? More noise. Lots more noise.

With Kermit-the-Frog ‘Sublime Green' paint offset with matte black sideburn stickers, plus a matte black front splitter, gurney-lip spoiler and bonnet catches, there are plenty of visual throwbacks to the original Trans-Am. Same on the inside, where the T/A honours its spiritual father with a flat-bottom steering wheel, carbon-fibre bucket seats complete with harnesses, and a half cage.

As a mish-mash of parts already available from Dodge HQ, it'd be no great leap to bring this Challenger T/A from concept to reality. The campaign starts in the comment boxes below...