Peter Farr's Blog: Review: 1970 Hotchkis E-Max Dodge Challenger causes smiles lasting longer than four hours

Friday, 23 October 2009

Review: 1970 Hotchkis E-Max Dodge Challenger causes smiles lasting longer than four hours

From Autoblog. Thank goodness that in this world of political correctness, where dissent is not tolerated and spin rules, someone has created a real car for real men. This reminds me of the Holden small-block-Chevy-engined Monaro 327 GTS of my youth in Oz where each year it fought it out with Ford to see who preached the Sermon on the Mount (aka Bathurst). They were even yellow too.
Side note for the Top Gear crew: Bathurst is pronounced "a" as in Ack Ack not "ar" as in arse. Extraordinary that neither Jezza nor the Hamster seem to know this - perhaps they've never been to the World's Greatest Saloon Car Race.

Review: 1970 Hotchkis E-Max Dodge Challenger causes smiles lasting longer than four hours: "
Filed under: Classics, Coupe, Performance, Dodge

1970 Hotchkis E-Max Dodge Challenger - Click above for high-res image gallery

Before we begin, we have to state up front that we've rarely - if ever - had more fun with a car than we had with the Hotchkis E-Max Challenger. And the loud yellow Dodge was in our possession for maybe five hours. Why are we cutting to the chase like this? Why not structure this review like any other and start with the basics, describe the vehicle and then state a conclusion? First of all, just look at the bloody thing: 'dripping with sex' is the only proper description. But the truth is that this is more the recounting of an adventure than a plain old car review. Keep reading. You're going to have some fun. Though not nearly as much fun as we did.

This is the type of experience that as a journalist you undeniably have to go through.

But yes, we should start with the basics. Legendary suspension tuner Hotchkis took a 1970 Dodge Charger with a 340 six-pack and built themselves an autocrosser. The list of modifications is not only the stuff of which jealousy is made, but exhaustive. Though, Hotchkis claims the E-Max isn't so wild, 'Even in Auto-Cross trim, E-Max is a relatively stock vehicle compared to many of the auto-cross competitors.' Good to know. That said, it's still a long list.

Here's some of it: Custom Moroso oil pan, Be Cool aluminum radiator, Red Line synthetic oil, Optima Battery, MSD ignition, Classic 5-Speed Tremec TKO, Flowmaster exhaust, Stoptech brakes, Forgeline wheels and Yokohama tires, Sparco Milano 2 seat (as in just the driver seat), Hurst Shifter. Not bad, right? Then you got all the Hotchkis stuff that lies beneath, including tubular A-arms, front and rear sport sway bars, subframe connectors, sport springs, adjustable steering rods with a fancy Flaming River power steering unit and adjustable strut rods. Says Hotchkis of their handiwork, 'The bolt-on system creates a proper negative camber curve, sufficient positive camber for high speed stability and full bump and droop travel without bumpsteer. Prototype Hotchkis-Afco adjustable stocks provide high performance damping.' Got it? Good - let's get to the story.

Gallery: Review: 1970 Hotchkis E-Max Challenger T/A