The escalating muscle car wars between Detroit's Big Three have certainly been a boon for the American automotive industry as a whole, leading to revivals and resurrections of cars like the Ford Mustang, Chevrolet Camaro, Dodge Charger and Challenger, as well as the new mid-engined Corvette. It seems like every passing week results in another, more powerful, more limited-edition iteration hitting the web, with no end in sight as four-figure power stats seem to be quickly approaching.
But as wildly powerful as these cars may be, the responsibility of driving them still falls into the hands of average humans, it turns out, as proven by a recent report that police in New York caught a New Jersey man doing 145 miles per hour in a Dodge Challenger.
Pedal To The Metal
No one buys a Dodge Challenger just to commute to and from work during the daily slog. And given that the top-spec Challengers are pushing the 200-mph limit, it seems likely that these kinds of events are only going to increase over time—who remembers that video of a Challenger outrunning a police helicopter? Of course, there's no way Dodge could be held accountable for the actions of someone who owns one of the company's cars, but should they be? Perhaps a setting that unlocks track-only speeds is in order.
Learn A Lesson
As reported by the Times-Herald Record, the incident in question occurred on Route 17, in the town of Wallkill, New York. A trooper was apparently parked on a U-turn at 10:15 am in the morning on February 28, 2020, and caught the 2009 Challenger doing 145 miles per hour. That's more than double the posted speed limit of 65 miles per hour, so when the driver eventually pulled off the freeway, he was charged with "second-degree reckless endangerment and reckless driving, misdemeanors; and issued a speeding ticket." Just imagine how much faster he'd be going in a 2019 Challenger, though.
Source: Youtube, Recordonline