For 2017, and in celebration of Mopar's 80th anniversary, the Mopar '17 is one trick looking Challenger. With a total of 160 units split evenly between the two snazzy, hand-painted two-tone paint schemes, 80 cars painted in Pitch Black/Contusion Blue, and another 80 in Pitch Black/Billet Silver, it's a nod to 80 years the Mopar brand has been in existence from its humble roots as a line of antifreeze products in the 1930s.

Because of the limited run, don't expect to see another Mopar '17 Challenger in the lane next to you at the stoplight. That low-production number gives you instant exclusivity. Like when you're displaying in the late-model show car field at the Carlisle All-Chrysler Nationals and among the rows of 2008-2017 Challengers, you're the only Mopar '17s in the whole fairgrounds.

"Since its birth in 1937, Mopar has evolved from the name of an antifreeze product to a global customer-care brand," said Pietro Gorlier Head of Mopar Parts and Service. "The Mopar '17 Dodge Challenger, our latest limited-edition vehicle, is a testament to this philosophy, showcasing how Mopar assists owners in personalizing all FCA US vehicles."

We dig where the brand's coming from and evolving to, and the Mopar '17 Challenger is a great indicator of good things to come.

For example, under the Shaker hood of the Mopar '17 resides pure Hemi goodness in the form of 392 cubic-inches that puts out 485 horsepower with 475 lb.-ft. of tire smoking torque. All Mopar '17 Challengers get the Tremec six-speed manual transmission, so you'll have to row it around town, but that's okay. After our weekend with the Mopar '17 Challenger, we racked up over 1,000 miles heading to and from the Motor City to Maple Grove Raceway for the Dodge NHRA Nationals. From the super highways of the Ohio and Pennsylvania Turnpikes, to the country roads that we shared with Amish buggies, the Mopar '17 was a blast to drive.

Looking at that Shaker hood for our weekend road trip to Maple Grove was even better sitting in the performance seats that are customized with Tungsten Mopar logos and stitching that includes the Mopar logo embroidered on the seatbacks. The Challenger's interior stands above the other domestic performance coupes in its class.

We did turn many heads on the road with the Mopar '17's two-tone custom painted Contusion Blue and Pitch Black livery. The inherent bodylines of the Challenger provided a seamless segue point for the colors. The custom Mopar 392 logo also gets hand-painted at the Mopar Custom Shop. The rear deck spoiler gets the Pitch Black treatment, and the Mopar Design badge on the spoiler tells the world your Challenger is special. Speaking of badges, a special serialized Mopar '17 80th Anniversary plaque gets installed on the radiator core support under the hood.

The only available wheel and tire package on the Mopar '17 is the 20 x 9-inch aluminum wheels with semi-gloss accents and center caps featuring the Dodge logo. Grip comes from 245/45R20 Goodyear F1 Supercar tires. Our complaint is the tires need to be taller and wider to fill up the wheel wells and give the Mopar '17 a more aggressive stance and better handing when pushed hard (although we've admittedly been spoiled by the looks of the new Widebody Hellcat.) The four-piston Brembos are good, but the red painted six-piston versions would be better and look much cooler.

The limited-edition Mopar '17 Challenger sold for $55,790, excluding taxes and destination fees. Will it be a future collectable? It's hard to say. With late-model Challenger production numbers soaring compared to the original E-Body, it probably won't be in our lifetime, but that's okay, as it gives us more of an excuse to drive them harder and harder.

Turnkey Mopar Vehicle History

The Mopar '17 Dodge Challenger is part a limited club of modern muscle cars, and what you may not have known is that it's the eighth limited-edition Mopar-modified vehicle series. It was about seven years ago when the marketing folks at Mopar came to the realization that since they develop, test, and sell performance parts and accessories, why not do a limit run of specialty vehicles to showcase their parts in action while promoting the brand?

It made perfect sense, and since many limited-edition Chrysler, Dodge, and Ram vehicles (such as the Ram Rumble Bee, Ram Daytona, Charger Daytona, Charger Police Pursuit, and Challenger Shaker) had unique Mopar content installed at approved tier-one up-fitters, the logical thing was to do a Mopar-branded vehicle.

That's what happened when the first fully branded Mopar-modified vehicle debuted in 2010. It was known as the Mopar '10 Challenger, and it was a rolling canvas to demonstrate to diehard enthusiasts how they can customize their personal vehicles and make it their own with Mopar parts and accessories. So here's a quick overview of the Mopar Edition vehicles.

Mopar '10 Challenger R/T

Being the first Mopar edition vehicle, the team learned a lot when developing the Mopar '10. The Chrysler Design Team worked with the Mopar guys and went through the performance parts shelves to fortify the already potent 5.7-liter Hemi by adding a fresh hood air venting system, cold-air intake, a front strut-tower brace with shock caps, and a unique engine cover. Under the decklid, they installed a rear strut-tower brace to stiffen the chassis and improve the handling characteristics of the Challenger. It even had the functional, vented T/A-style hood with vintage hood pins and Mopar logos and graphics splashed all over.

Mopar '11 Charger R/T

Mopar went the four-door route and chose a Charger R/T for their Mopar '11. Like the Challenger, it was black and packed a 5.7-liter Hemi for motivation, but the Mopar engineers swapped out the stock differential with a 3.91:1 LSD unit that dramatically improved 0-60 and quarter mile times. Under the hood a Mopar strut tower brace came standard as did larger, vented brake rotors. The interior was wrapped in Katzkin leather.

Mopar '12 300

For Mopar's 75th anniversary, they went upscale and went with a Chrysler 300. Like the previous Mopar special-edition vehicles, it was powered by a 5.7-liter Hemi and was backed by a five-speed W5A580 automatic transmission. Mopar added a unique Mopar shifter that made the Auto Stick more fun. Like the Mopar '11 Charger, the differential got swapped from the 3.06:1 to a 3.91:1 final-drive ratio. Burnouts galore for the 500 units made!

Mopar '13 Dart

Probably not the best plan from Mopar, considering the Dart's lackluster sales, performance, and time on this planet. It did get outfitted with select Mopar parts and accessories that included performance upgrades such as a lowered sport suspension, revised steering calibration, sport-tuned exhaust, ground-effects kit, and premium brake kit with slotted rotors. Five hundred Mopar '13 Darts rolled off the line.

Mopar '14 Challenger R/T Shaker

For 2014, the factory Shaker option returned on the Challenger R/T and since installation was part of a Mopar upfit program, it made sense do a unique branded vehicle. The Mopar '14 Challenger was available in Bright White or Gloss Black exterior paint and they had two Mopar stripe options. Once again, the 5.7L Hemi provided the power and only100 units were built.

Mopar '15 Charger R/T

Taking a break from doing a turnkey limited-run vehicle, Mopar launched the '15 Performance Kit for the 2015 Dodge Charger R/T. The Mopar '15 kit was a street-legal performance package that included the Scat Pack Performance Stage Kit 1 which added 18 horsepower and 18 lb.-ft. of torque to the 2015 Dodge Charger R/T with the addition of a Mopar Performance cat-back exhaust, cold-air intake, Stage 1 premium fuel powertrain control module, and high-flow oil filter.

Mopar '16 Ram Rebel

With a limited run of 500 vehicles, the Mopar '16 Ram Rebel started out as a Ram 1500 4x4 Rebel Crew Cab in either Flame Red/Brilliant Black two-tone or Brilliant Black monotone. Then the cool bits and pieces were added, like an aluminum dual-bezel sport performance hood (embellished with a matte-black hood graphic), off-road wheel flares, special Mopar '16 blue-and-black graphic stripes, power steering box skid plate, black front bumper skid plate, 17-inch satin black wheels, serialized Mopar '16 glove box badge and a set of stainless-steel door sill guards. Optional parts and accessories installed included a cold-air intake and cat-back exhaust system. Only 500 Mopar '16 Ram Rebels are out there so they're also hard to find.

See all 25 photos Happy 80th Birthday Mopar! Our Pitch Black/Contusion Blue Mopar '17 Challenger is an awesome way to celebrate eight decades of this iconic brand, and the best Mopar Special Edition yet!

See all 25 photos Looking sexy from any angle, the Mopar '17 is the brand's eighth limited edition vehicle, offering customers a turnkey, customized, fully warrantied vehicle that will get attention wherever it goes.

See all 25 photos Between the fenders of the Mopar '17 sits a 6.4-liter, 392 Hemi pumping out 485 horsepower and 475 lb.-ft. of torque. While not officially adding to the pony count, the cold-air package does seem to offer some extra grunt once at speed.

See all 25 photos Each Mopar '17 Challenger includes a commemorative owner's kit and serialized Mopar '17 80th Anniversary badge mounted on the radiator core support. Ours was the "pilot" car for the program, hence the "00 of 80."

See all 25 photos Every Mopar '17 Challenger gets the same rear-deck spoiler as Scat Pack and Demon models (Hellcat Challengers get a more aggressive version which is needed for more rear downforce.) The Mopar Design badge is very cool and a nice touch.

See all 25 photos Another cool feature of the Mopar '17 Challenger is the air-catcher duct system via the headlamp. Robbed from the Challenger SRT Demon, Hellcat, and T/A models, it's another source of fresh air coming into the air box.

See all 25 photos Mopar Shaker strut tower braces and caps are silver powder-coated; their increased rigidity improves the handling of the 4,200-lb. Mopar '17 Challenger.

See all 25 photos The Mopar '17 Dodge Challenger comes with this cool Owner's Kit, packaged in a custom Mopar box with content including a "birth certificate" with vehicle specifications, date of manufacture, proprietary vehicle number, a special Mopar '17 booklet, and a Mopar 80th anniversary badge.

See all 25 photos No decal here! A special Mopar 392 logo is hand-painted on the front fenders at the Mopar Custom Shop during the transformation of the Mopar '17.

See all 25 photos Inside the Mopar '17 are comfy yet firm performance seats that are customized with Tungsten Mopar logos embroidered on the seatbacks.

See all 25 photos Here we are showing off the Mopar '17 in the Mopar Alley behind the grandstands at Maple Grove Raceway during at the Dodge NHRA Nationals. It got its fair share of looks and questions from the race fans and Mopar enthusiasts.