Manoli Katakis 
In a matter of days, rumors once again of a Dodge Challenger ACR popped up like a garden weed, before being hit with a spray of RoundUp in the form of a new report from AutoWeek. Based on what officials from Dodge are saying, there is no Challenger ACR in the works.
Initial reports claimed that the corner-carving muscle car would have borrowed the most radical aerodynamic bits from the legendary Dodge Viper ACR, and would seek to drastically reduce its standard heft with the help of clever engineering and carbon fiber. It would also pack two engines, as standard 392 Hemi V8, and a 707 horsepower Hellcat supercharged V8.
It seemed odd from the get go. A Dodge Challenger ACR. Just the same, it’s not beyond a brand to snuff out any reporting of a top secret vehicle program in the works. All we can really say is that the LX-platform Dodge Challenger appears to be in its twilight years, and it’s likely see a reboot around 2023, based on a potential easter egg. We know that there’s likely to be electrification involved when it does, as FCA ordered a massive supply of new RWD-application transmissions from ZF that are meant for just that. It could also introduce a new straight-six engine hybrid engine. There’s also expectations of a lower-cost Giorgio platform as the underpinnings for the next-generation muscle car. Oddly, we seem to know more about the distant future of the next-generation Dodge Challenger than we do about the last remaining years of the current one.
We can only speculate that Dodge will properly send off the current-generation Challenger in style, and perhaps the ACR is (or was) on the drawing board. Ruling out a resurrection of the Challenger Demon, there doesn’t seem to be much else to do for the muscle car, besides maybe give it more power, as its fanbase wants. Maybe instead of a Challenger ACR, they’ll stuff a 1,000 horsepower Hellephant engine in a few of them, and send it off in a great, big, smoky burnout.
