My own personal Dodge Challenger 500

This little soiree in the South Carolina Pee Dee is known as the Dodge Challenger 500.

Well, fellow writer Steve Wiseman and I embarked on the Dodge Challenger 21 on Thursday morning.

The good folks of Dodge were handing out the keys to two of their many 2008 Dodge Challenger ST8s (which are actually meaner than the one pictured here) for test drives along a 21-mile course in rural Darlington County. After staring glassy-eyed at the 6.1-liter hemi for a few minutes, I had to take the beastie for a spin.

The two models offered up came in bright silver metallic and black crystal pearl. I took the black one. Steve piled into the passenger seat and I pushed the start button (yes, button … it’s 2008).

The Dodge Challenger is not a car to be trifled with. Most of you who are unfamiliar with muscle cars have by now conjured up images of the General Lee. That’s a Dodge Charger. The Charger, too, is a muscle car, but understand this: A Charger is Chris Rock. A Challenger is Joe Frazier.

Well, we got this monster out onto the highway and it became clear the 425-horsepower behemoth was more than capable of doing whatever we desired. We did unspeakable things to the posted speed limit. It handled curves as if they weren’t there.

It was about halfway into the drive that we really got a chance to see what it could do. We fell in behind a farmer in a beatup Chevy pickup. He was plodding along about 10 miles under the 55-mph speed limit.

I mashed the gas to the floor and … you hear people all the time saying they heard an engine roar. The Challenger’s engine does something more than simply roar. Lions roar. Heck, a Dodge Charger roars. What the Challenger responded with was a deep-throated war cry that would spook a T-Rex.

We were pinned to our seats as the Challenger blasted past the pickup. The farmer hung his head out the window and shook his head as we passed.

Head-shaking. That’s what most other folks on the road did when they saw this bad boy roll up on them. On the city streets, people pulled up along side just to admire the car’s lines. You couldn’t take your eyes off it.

And yes, on occasion I played to the audience. I took a few turns sharply. I gunned the engine. And on a particularly straight stretch of highway, I drove about as fast as you could imagine. I can’t tell you where the needle was. It might be a felony. Let’s just say I probably could have ordered a pizza from Domino's while in Darlington and passed the delivery boy on the way to my house in Lexington.

On several occasions, Steve and I just broke out in giggles. Like Beavis and Butt-head. No prompting. No preamble. Just guys being guys playing with a big toy.

It was sad, turning that car over to the Dodge folks upon finishing the drive. They had knowing grins on their faces when we stepped out. Another scribe who took the silver Challenger for a spin told us he was pulled over by a police officer who simply wanted to ask what it was like to drive it.

If you want your own, it will set you back just a shade under $41,000. There will only be 6,400 SRT8s in 2008 and half have already been sold. If I were you, I’d find a Dodge dealer and take one for a test drive. Chances are, the Dodge folks will know what you’re up to. They’ve probably done it themselves.

This car is ridiculous. It's not for you greenies out there. It gets a measly 13 mpg city/18 mpg highway, goes 0-60 in 4 seconds and 60-0 in a skin-stripping 110 feet.

Now I know why kids grow up wanting to be in NASCAR.

Bo and Luke Duke have nothing on Obley and Wiseman. Check out the video below and you'll get a pretty good idea how Steve and I spent Thursday morning at Darlington. What a great job.