The Dodge team and their SRT colleagues in Auburn Hills have once again thrown the gauntlet down to their crosstown Motor City rivals in Dearborn and Warren. It's also appropriate they use the 2019 SEMA Show to unveil this newest weapon, whose sole mission is to destroy the competition. Make no mistake, the 2020 Mopar Dodge Challenger Drag Pak is ready to go head-to-head with the Mustangs and Camaros in the hyper-competitive NHRA and NMCA Factory Stock wars. This fourth-generation Challenger Drag Pak has come a long way from its humble roots as a roller package car in 2009 that the customer had to finish. Judging by what we saw, this Mopar monster has new and improved blower package mounted on a GEN III 354ci HEMI that's pushing more power than ever before.

How much you ask? Let's just say it's well above 1,500 hp.

The 2020 Mopar Dodge Challenger Drag Pak also has a revised suspension, a better rollcage, and a new hood, front grille, and facia to help the Challenger's aerodynamics and reduce front end lift and at high-speeds. There are other things inside the new Drag Pak, but we can't talk about them just yet. It's obvious the new race car is nothing like the prior generation Challenger Drag Paks, which have been around for now a decade.

The motivation for the SRT engineers was simple: They saw what happened this past year as the Cobra Jets and COPOs ran roughshod over the few Challenger Drag Paks competing in the NHRA Factory Stock Showdown and NMCA Factory Supercars classes. Forget the fact that back in 2018, Challenger Drag Paks were the first "Stockers" to break into the 7-second zone with drivers Leah Pritchett and Geoff Turk leading the charge. These two racers would also go on to claim the 2018 SAM Tech NHRA Factory Stock Showdown World Championship (Pritchett) and the NMCA Holley EFI Factory Supercars crown (Turk). But all that did was make the Chevy and Ford camps work harder to submit new cars with killer engine packages to the NHRA for the 2019 season, and the latest Cobra Jets and COPOs had a distinct horsepower advantage while the Challenger Drag Pak had to run last year's maxed-out engine combination.

The 2019 NHRA season would not be a good one for the Challenger Drag Paks until late in the year. Once ace tuner Kevin Helms and chassis guru Mike Roth made some tweaks to both Pritchett and Pawuk's Drag Paks, they put them back on the top of the qualifying sheets. But the Chrysler motorsports folks knew that would be short lived.

Knowing that, Mopar went to work earlier this year in creating the new Challenger Drag Pak. Though this isn't a clean-sheet-of-paper design, there are wholesale changes under the sheetmetal and within the chassis and suspension. With the competition's drag cars running e.t. 's of low-7.80s to mid-7.70s, the Mopar team went all in.

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Like previous Challenger Paks, the new car begins life a body-in-white plucked off the line from FCA's Brampton Plant in Brampton, Ontario. Then, it gets trucked across the border to a build facility near Detroit that begins the assembly process. A supercharged 354ci HEMI engine is fitted with a T400 three-speed transmission that uses a Kwik-Shift manual shifter. Connecting the trans to the Strange nine-inch rear axle assembly is a lightweight driveshaft. Adjustable coilover shocks, a four-link suspension, antiroll bar, and wheelie bars to help plant the nine-inch Mickey Thompson slicks. The SRT engineers also created a unique engine crossmember that lowers the center of gravity and improves weight distribution. Mopar also worked with their OEM shock supplier, Bilstein, to develop drag race specific double-adjustable struts. The partnership with Weld Racing is another first for the new Challenger Drag Pak, with Weld V Series 17x4.5-inch front runners and WELD Alpha 1 15x10-inch Double Beadlock wheels out back. Both front and rears wheels are finished in gloss black and machined with WELD and Drag Pak branding.

Strange light weight disc brakes stop the car, and a parachute is also part of the package. Racetech seats offer safety and protection for the driver while a Racepak Smartwire fully programmable power distribution center monitors the Challenger Drag Pak's. The factory power windows are still used and will come handy when rolling across the scales after a run and the tech official hollers your weight.

With hordes of Challenger Demons and Redeyes owners laying rubber at their local dragstrips, hopefully we'll see more Drag Pak Factory Stock racers doing the same at NHRA and NMCA events.

Just a friendly reminder to those of you thinking about buying a 2020 Mopar Dodge Challenger Drag Pak to drive to your local cruise night or car show, the car is not street legal. It might be turnkey and look like an amped up Challenger Demon, Redeye, or Hellcat, but make no mistake, this is a full-on race car. It's also sold under a Mopar part number. For all the collectors out there, all 50 units scheduled for 2020 will have a unique serial number. With hordes of Challenger Demons and Redeyes owners laying rubber at their local dragstrips, hopefully we'll see more Drag Pak Factory Stock racers doing the same at NHRA and NMCA events.

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