Mopar = Motor Parts
Reaching back into the technology that made Mopar (a contraction of the words MOtor and PARts) famous in the 1960s muscle-era the new Mopar Dodge Challenger Drag Pak was revealed today at the Fiat Chrysler Auto (FCA) LLC Chelsea Proving Grounds.
The Mopar Drag Pak Challenger is not to be confused with a street-legal Dodge Challenger. This Mopar Drag Pak edition is truly post-op, a true transgender race track vehicle. This car could never be certified for street use.
I talked to Edward Hessell, Performance Parts manager for Mopar, and he gave me a brief history (along with the press release) of Mopar’s Drag Pak.
Mopar uses a body in white from the Brampton plant (no make-up) and you, the customer, have the ability to pick the engine, and everything else is ready for your specific racing program. The main ingredient is having the fundamentals for the race car, and then you can adapt/add any way you wish. It is already legal for racing by NHRA standards.
Mopar’s Drag Pak was the first to introduce a 500-plus cubic-inch V-10 drag-race package car in 2011. Today’s Drag Pak is the most powerful Drag Paks to date. The pak is built on the Dodge Challenger platform, competing in the quarter-mile arena as Mopar continues to lead the way in the street, track, and off-road performance.
In 2008, Mopar delighted speed lovers by announcing the first drag race, factory-prepped package cars in 40 years – the first V-8 Mopar Dodge Challenger Drag Pak. The return of the Mopar package car was a hit with racers, and the 2009 program saw a first-year sell out of all 100 factory-built vehicles.
Building on that success, the 2010 Mopar Dodge Challenger Drag Pak program offered racers an available 6.4-liter HEMI engine. Then in 2011, Mopar introduced a race-ready V-10 package car, becoming the first original equipment manufacturer (OEM) to offer a 500-plus cubic-inch V-10 drag package car.
The Mopar Dodge Challenger Pak will come with the option of either the brand’s first-ever offering of a supercharged 354-cubic-inch Gen III HEMI engine or a naturally aspirated 426- cubic-inch Gen III HEMI engine. In racing circles, there is a segment just for naturally aspirated machines, and the 426 Drag Pak was the first naturally aspirated package car to make an eight-second-range quarter-mile pass at an NHRA national event.
According to FCA, during the 2014 season, while celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Gen II Race HEMI, the 426 Drag Pak won a majority of the factory stock naturally aspirated class races and has posted national event class wins in recent years.
To give you an idea, a regular Dodge Challenger Hellcat supercharged would run you $60,000-70,000 whereas a Mopar Drag Pak Challenger Supercharged would run you $109,354.
The Dodge Challenger 392 SRT naturally aspirated would run mid-$40,000s whereas a Mopar Drag Pak Challenger naturally aspirated would run $99,426.
Some of the people that purchase this vehicle are real-time racers, such as NHRA’s David Barton, but 80-90 percent of these vehicles will be for the gentleman’s racing regional events.
Mopar will be producing sixty total, 35 will be supercharged, 25 naturally aspirated. Orders open in late July, with information on the new Mopar Dodge Challenger Drag Pak.
To see the burn-out from this event click here.
