As much as he loves his Italian exotics, Jay Leno is also a muscle car fan. In his wide (and wild) collection, there are two Dodge Challengers: a 1970 R/T and a 2008 SRT, the latter being the fourth car that rolled off the production line.
His 1970 Dodge is fitted with a Hurst pistol-grip lever, something that apparently increased the car’s “cool” factor. The Hurst name remained dormant for some time but now it has been resurrected, so Jay had to find out what the company was up to.
As it turns out, Hurst Performance Vehicles has got its hands on Dodge‘s muscle car and made Vortec build them a custom supercharger. Power is up to 570HP and torque is 525 lb-ft (711Nm), a welcome (if not as great as Hennessey’s HPE tune) increase from the stock SRT’s 425HP and 420 lb-ft (569Nm).
Available only in white and gold or black and gold, the tuned Challenger also features an Eibach coilover suspension, Hurst gold and chrome alloys and, of course, a pistol-grip shifter.
Despite being touted as a “gentleman’s hot-rod”, the comedian/TV host couldn’t resist the urge to perform a rather un-gentleman-like proper burn out at the end of his test drive, as you can see in the video right after the break.
By Andrew Tsaousis
VIDEO