Around this same time last year, gas prices were soaring up to a record high - $1.50/litre wasn’t uncommon. Prospective car buyers that were once lenient and forgiving on gas-guzzling vehicles started flocking towards electric vehicles and hybrids – just look at the sales of the Tesla Model S and the Nissan Leaf in the past year. Furthermore, we live in an era where automakers are being constricted by emissions requirements, leading to the inevitability of turbocharging and engine downsizing. So what does Dodge think about all of this? Well, they actually don’t give a damn.

Here we have the Dodge Challenger, soldiering on with unapologetic engines the size of Neptune that serve as a stark middle finger to environmentalists. I’m quite delighted (and surprised) that cars like this are still being made: brash, muscular, bombastic, and unaerodynamic cars with no regard to fuel consumption. We should savour them before the tree huggers render them extinct.

The Challenger is no stranger in the automotive world. It’s iconic styling dates back to the original 1970s Challengers that were hailed as drag-strip kings. Yet, with this 2015 model rolling out the showrooms, a few new features might catch your eye. Throughout our week with the Challenger, we’ve been commonly asked three questions:

“Is that a bumblebee on wheels?” a colleague asked me, referring to the angry cartoon logo on the Challenger’s side fenders. This particular Challenger is the Scat Pack. Tracing its roots back to the Scat Pack performance kits offered on the 1970s Challengers, it was a designation for Dodge vehicles that could run the quarter mile in less than 15 seconds – Charger R/T, Coronet R/T, Dart GTS, and Super Bee. Dodge revived this moniker for the Challenger, strategically slotting the trim between the R/T and SRT, and offering the best of both worlds at an attractive price.

The Scat Pack receives an upgrade from the R/T’s 5.7-litre HEMI V8 to the SRT-sourced 6.4-litre HEMI V8 that delivers 485 horsepower and 475 lb-ft of torque, an increase of 113 horsepower and 65 lb-ft. Poised to square off against the likes of the Chevrolet Camaro SS and the Ford Mustang GT, the Scat Pack also adds an active exhaust that burbles and barks like a wolf, black brake calipers, a black rear spoiler, a performance-tuned suspension, a 300 km/h speedometer, a front splitter and a rear view camera. Think of it like an M performance package – it’s not quite an M car but it’s almost there.

There’s also a special Scat Pack Appearance Group ($695) equipped on our tester that adds on a unique black stripe wrapped around the trunk, gloss black grille surround, HID headlamps and blacked out 20-inch wheels. Rounding out the interior changes include that bumblebee logo on the leather seats, premium floor mats, a high performance steering wheel and an Alpine premium audio system.

The next question that I usually get is, “why is there a hole in the front hood?” referring to that massive black hood scoop embossed with “392 HEMI” peeking out like a game of whack-a-mole. Our particular tester comes with the Shaker trim, which is also available on the R/T, and adds an engine-mounted fully functional hood scoop that draws in cold air. Providing fresh air aplenty to the steaming hot V8 is essential, but any performance advantages are questionable. It doesn’t shake as much as you’d expect either.

Back in the day, hood scoops used to quiver and tremble vigourously with the engine due to hot cams, poor build quality and unbalanced engines. Since then, we’ve gotten better at making engines, piecing them together and bolting them shut. Consequently, the only way to make the new Shaker, actually shake, is to take heavy stabs at the throttle - when idling, the hood scoop is frozen like a statue. But think about it, if you saw your Shaker hood convulsing like a centrifuge, you’d start to wonder if a nut or a bolt came loose. Blame the lack of excitement on good engineering.

The Shaker trim costs $3000 on top of the Scat Pack, but there are plenty of other external and internal upgrades that come with it: a black front grill, the Challenger text is now styled in cursive, the fuel cap and wheels get the black treatment, heated and ventilated front seats are added, and the Super Track Pak comes as an added bonus. The latter lowers the suspension by 12.7mm, adds Bilstein shock absorbers, quicker steering, and high performance four-piston Brembo brakes. The brakes aren’t as large as the Hellcat’s we tested last week, or nearly as sensitive and precise but they do have quite a lot of bite – much needed to stop 1,852 kg of the Challenger’s rolling weight.

The third question we were bombarded with was “is that a Hellcat?” upon which I inform them that it is not - a sigh of dissatisfaction louder than the Challenger’s exhaust filled the room. Yet, having an audience confuse the Hellcat with a less expensive trim isn’t always a bad thing. It just goes to show that no matter the model or engine, the Challenger looks sinister and for lack of better words, badass. Changes for 2015 include a new split front grill and split taillights inspired directly by the 1971 Challenger. The huge rear quarter panels and high shoulder lines are also carried over for that vintage muscular presence.

The Torred paint on our tester pops out like hot red lipstick on a pale face. It actually stands out more than the Granite Crystal Metallic Hellcat we drove last week. The amount of heads we’ve turned and the attention it grabs is insane - all I can picture in my head is Jake Gyllenhaal smoking its rear tires on his way to the next crime scene in Nightcrawler. Sublime Green is still the colour I’d choose. Go big or go home, right?

For better or worse, the Challenger’s body shape and design appears untouched in its 45-year tenureship, but the interior has been drastically brought up to modern standards. Dodge describes the new cabin as a “driver-oriented cockpit” similar to one you would find in the hell-bent SRT Viper. The entire center console, buttons, knobs and gear shifter have all been tilted towards the driver’s side for easier reach. The hard buttons will remind you of those trapezoidal blocks we all used to play with as kids, and those classic concave gauges with huge numbers on the tachometer and speedometer are also a welcome throwback. The praises continue with well-bolstered seats, a decent amount of cargo room in the trunk though it’s not as spacious as the Charger’s, and the roofline is nice and high to accommodate even the tallest of passengers.

On the other hand, I’m not a fan of the foot brake; having to reach down underneath the steering column and blindly lunge for the release lever can get annoying. Dodge engineers fit a proper handbrake into the Viper, why not the Challenger too? Who cares about cup holders? You also sit fairly high up in the car, mildly exacerbating the Challenger’s large footprint. That massive Shaker hood doesn’t mind impeding your view either: naturally with this option, I assume most people appreciate the high seating position.

This leads me to the Challenger’s main weakness, driver visibility. Peeking out of the Challenger is slightly tragic and marred by high shoulder lines that dangerously hide the blind spots. All that safety technology – blind spot detection and cross path detection ($495), rear view cameras and rear park assist systems – are all highly recommended options if you don’t want your Dodge to limp out of the grocery store parking lot with battle scars from a Toyota Prius.

As we mentioned before, the Challenger Scat Pack Shaker uses the same basic powertrain as the more expensive Challenger SRT 392, but it lacks the SRT’s bigger six-piston Brembo brakes, which are fantastic I might add, a butterfly exhaust system and the adaptive suspension. But for $3000 more, it’s not exactly a hard sell. Keep in mind that the SRT 392 and the SRT Hellcat are not available with the Shaker hood scoop.

Now you might be wondering why there’s a big “392” on the front hood. Most people will attribute it to “only” having 392 horsepower; Dodge still prefers to use imperial units of measurement - 392 cubic inches equals to 6.4 litres of engine displacement. Aha! That’s actually more displacement than the Hellcat’s own 6.2-litre HEMI V8. The result is an engine that barks to life with a snarly growl, followed by a deep seat-vibrating thrum at idle. In fact, it’s so loud that I wished there was a mute button for the exhaust - some days you're just not in the mood to stand out from the crowd. Lesson learned: don’t expect to ninja your way into the garage in the middle of the night without waking someone up.

Dodge’s ubiquitous 8-speed TorqueFlite automatic transmission finds its way into the Challenger as a standard option but to get a 6-speed Tremec manual, Dodge is asking you to fork over $1,000. Isn’t it usually the other way around? Aren’t automatics supposed to be the extra option? This is one instance where I’d actually be tempted to blow the extra cash. Maybe Dodge knows me too well and hence charges for it, but it’s just so much fun revving a big naturally aspirated muscle car.

Before stepping into the Challenger, I expected a heavy inoperable clutch that would require ten minutes of pre-warmup stretching. Yet, I found the clutch to be surprisingly light. The pedal travel is incredibly short, the uptake is quick and on-point, and it has that sort of smooth, German feel to it. It’s also hard to stall with that much torque at your disposal, and I found myself starting in second gear more often than most. I must admit however that it’s not as good as the Mustang’s or as creamy as BMW’s own 6-speed, but it certainly ranks up there with the best.

One of my minor complaints was with the way the gear shifter was tilted and angled towards the driver. I understand that having a driver-oriented console is convenient, but it’s initially quite frustrating. At first glance, it’s hard to figure out what gear you’re actually in. In other manual vehicles, when the shifter is tilted to the left, you’d assume the car was either in first or second gear but with the Challenger, every gear looks like they’re in first and second. So instead of “looking” to see what gear I was in, it was much easier to “feel” the shifter travel through the gates. I somehow wished there was a little display on the gauges to show me the selected gear, kind of like they do in the MINIs. It’s a minor gripe that will undoubtedly fade and dissipate over time behind the wheel, but beginners might have some trouble coping.

Regardless, the 8-speed automatic is the way to go if you’re looking for straight-line speed and quick drag strip times. The automatic will return better fuel consumption numbers too but it won’t provide you with that rewarding experience of rowing your own gears and perfectly matching those downshifts.

The Challenger is your paragon dragster but it’s not a corner carver by any means. The Goodyear Eagle F1 tires are a gem and the chassis is stiff as a tree but there’s nothing you can do to mask the Challenger’s weight. We found that the best method to drive fast is your traditional slow-in and fast-out approach. Let off the gas early and let the weight-transfer settle before resuming on the throttle. Just like the Hellcat, you can tailor your vehicle with the Dodge Performance Pages and Sport mode: you can customize how much traction you want, the weight of the steering, and the throttle response. In spite of this, it’s hard to consider the Challenger as a comfortable car. Interior cabin space is adequate for the front passengers, but fairly cramped for the rear passengers. Bumps and crannies on the road are somewhat unforgiving on the chassis, making it rattle and undulate with each passing pothole.

Fuel consumption is also one of the Challenger’s shortcomings, but that’s the price you pay for owning a car like this. At this point in the review, if you’re worried about the fuel economy, you’re in the wrong market. Muscle cars aren’t going to be frugal or efficient. That’s not their mojo. They want to burn fuel as quickly as possible but give you the time of your life doing so. It’s a tradeoff that many are willing to take, a point proven by yearly increases in Challenger sales. Over the course of one week, we filled up twice. One full tank lasted us around 350 km, each fill-up of premium 91-octane fuel cost us around $95. We averaged 10.5 L/100km on the highway, 20.8 L/100km in the city, and an overall average of 16.8 L/100km.

It’s a shame, though grimly inevitable, that these snarly muscle cars will become extinct one day. With fuel regulations becoming ever stricter, natural aspiration will be a thing of the past. What’s the saying again? “There is no replacement for displacement.” The same goes for #savethemanuals. Whether it’s the unwarranted good looks, the colossal street presence, that harrowing exhaust, or its defiance of the common trend, this Challenger has won me over. Having just stepped out of a Hellcat last week, I thought the Challenger Scat Pack Shaker would have had a tough act to follow. But it has given me more smiles, grins, and laughs that I could have ever imagined. It’s no Hellcat, but it’s damn close enough.