2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and 2015 Alfa Romeo 4C Receive Popular Mechanics Car Awards – 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat named “Best Muscle Car” & 2015 Alfa Romeo 4C wins the Car Award for “Best Sport Car”
The new 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and Alfa Romeo 4C made lasting impressions on the automotive editors of Popular Mechanics, each being chosen as recipients of Popular Mechanics 2014 “Car Award.”
The Dodge and SRT brands now offer the most complete lineup of muscle cars in the market, including the new 2015 Dodge Challenger SXT with its standard powerful and fuel-efficient Pentastar V-6 engine combined with the TorqueFlite eight-speed transmission that delivers 300 horsepower and an estimated 30 miles per gallon; the 2015 Dodge Challenger R/T with the high-torque 5.7-liter HEMI now paired with the TorqueFlite eight-speed or six-speed manual transmission; and the all-new 6.4-liter HEMI Challenger Scat Pack that delivers 485 horsepower and 475 lb.-ft. of torque with the TorqueFlite eight-speed or six-speed manual. The new Dodge Challenger SRT 392 adds an exclusive wheel design, adaptive damping suspension and SRT Drive Modes to the same 6.4-liter naturally-aspirated HEMI powerplant while the Challenger SRT Hellcat with its 707 horsepower supercharged 6.2-liter HEMI V-8 engine is most powerful and fastest muscle car ever.
For this year’s Car Awards, the editors at Popular Mechanics got their hands on as many makes and models as they could and drove them all. The editors were looking for new cars that raise the game and standouts that are both excellent to drive and important this year. After lots of deliberation, they arrived at their favorites. The editors noted that “this year was particularly challenging because there are so many incredible cars and trucks.”
The new 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat was named “Best Muscle Car.” The 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat is the fastest and most powerful muscle car ever with its 707 horsepower supercharged HEMI® V-8 engine and a National Hot Rod Association-certified ¼-mile elapsed time of 11.2 seconds at 125 miles per hour (mph) with stock Pirelli tires. Editors at Popular Mechanics said it owned the greatest model name of the past decade and called it “the wildest muscle car Detroit’s ever built.”
The all-new 2015 Alfa Romeo 4C received the “Best Sports Car” award for its groundbreaking and functional Italian design, ultra-lightweight design with a Formula 1 derived unilateral carbon fiber monocoque and responsive all-aluminum 1750 turbo engine mated to the paddle-shifting Alfa TCT (twin-clutch transmission). Popular Mechanics editors noted “on a twisty road, you think you are driving something that costs three times as much” and called the Alfa Romeo 4C “mid-engine Italian driving nirvana.” The all-new 4C marks the return of “the great Alfa Romeos” and represents the purest formation of the brand’s DNA with its supercar-levels of performance and innovation, all while focusing on making the driver an integral part and completion of the machine.
Marking the Italian brand’s highly anticipated return to North America, the all-new 2015 Alfa Romeo 4C offers driving enthusiasts a technical, mid-engine design inspired by the brand’s legendary racing history and represents the essential sportiness embedded in the brand’s DNA: hand-crafted in Modena, Italy: ground breaking and distinctly Italian style; an innovative 1750 all-aluminum, direct-injection, turbocharged and intercooled engine, delivering 237 horsepower and 258 lb. ft. of torque; a class-exclusive power-to-weight ratio thanks to its state-of-the-art carbon fiber monocoque influenced by Formula 1 and advanced technological solutions all for supercar-level performance at an attainable price.
