2023 Dodge Challenger Black Ghost Induces Nostalgia for the Present

The saber-toothed tiger went extinct around 8000 B.C. as, in part, the last of its ice-age prey died off. Now, 10,000 years later, Hellcats are once again on their way out, this time thanks to humans—specifically, the humans who came up with electric powertrains that make supercharged V-8s look like glorified Briggs & Strattons. The Hellcat successors will be electric, but for now, you can still buy a Challenger stuffed with 807 of the most thundering troglodyte horsepower ever extracted from lit petroleum. Behold the 2023 Challenger Black Ghost, the penultimate special edition in Dodge’s Last Call series.

Not to be confused with the Rolls-Royce Ghost Black Badge, the Black Ghost is like an amped-up Challenger Redeye that pays tribute to one of the original 426-powered badasses, a 1970 Hemi Challenger RT/SE that dominated the Detroit street-racing scene back in the day. The Black Ghost, as it was called, had a distinct gator-grain vinyl roof and a white stripe at the tail, and earned its nickname because its owner, Godfrey Qualls, wasn’t prone to stick around to chat after a race—understandable, since Qualls was a city cop. Qualls died in 2015 and left the car to his son, who recently sold it at the 2023 Mecum Indy auction for a tidy $1,072,500. While there’s only one original 1970 Black Ghost, Dodge is building 300 of the 2023 tributes, and for the bargain price of $103,010, including the $2100 gas-guzzler tax.

The Black Ghost is the sixth of seven Last Call cars—the final one is the Challenger SRT Demon 170—and it’s something more than a tape-and-stripe package on a Challenger Redeye. Not much more, granted, but when your special edition is based on a car that already has 797 horsepower, where are you gonna go? Up the tachometer, it seems, as the Black Ghost wrings an extra 10 horsepower out of its supercharged 6.2-liter V-8 courtesy of the revised powertrain calibration from the Challenger Super Stock. Peak power arrives at the 6400-rpm fuel cutoff, 100 more revs than the less powerful variant. This will certainly come in handy in those situations where 797 horsepower just isn’t enough.

Besides that, the Black Ghost is essentially a Challenger SRT Redeye Widebody that’s almost learned the definition of the word “subtle.” For instance, there are no ruby-eyed Hellcat badges, with the grille, flanks, and rear spoiler wearing simple throwback Challenger script. The paint is Pitch Black except for the white decklid stripe, and black gator-pattern roof vinyl evokes Qualls’s original. Chrome hood pins provide reassurance that the twin-scoop hood won’t fly up in your face as you’re wrapping up a 128-mph quarter-mile pass.

That’s the trap speed we saw in a 2019 Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye Widebody, en route to an 11.6-second quarter-mile, and we’d guess the Black Ghost will be very similar. That’s because it, like all Hellcat Challengers, is ultimately traction-limited. Throw some drag radials on it and head to a prepped surface and it would surely break into the 10s (we’ve seen Redeyes on stock tires clock very low 11s at the strip), but in practice, the Black Ghost is a burnout machine. The Redeye hit 60 mph in 3.8 seconds, but that’s with a lot of discipline at the launch. Indiscriminately mash the throttle and you’ll make leisurely forward progress while the 305/35R-20 Pirelli P Zero All Season tires transform themselves from rubber into heat, noise, and smoke. That also applies even if the Ghost is already rolling at back-road speeds—this is one of the few cars where you might pull out for a pass on a 55-mph road and pause to think, “Better make sure it’s hooked up before I go wide open here.” It’s telling that the Redeye’s 50-to-70-mph top-gear acceleration time, 2.2 seconds, is almost identical to its 2.1-second 30-to-50-mph time. At 30 mph in a Hellcat Challenger, you’re definitely still minding the tires.

The Challenger’s whole schtick is that it’s a muscle-bound goon built to go fast in a straight line and annoy the next-door neighbors with the BMW, but 807 horsepower demands some commensurate competence in handling and braking. And while the Black Ghost isn’t exactly agile, neither is it a one-trick machine like the muscle cars of yore. That chassis-clone Challenger SRT Redeye Widebody equipped with Pirelli P Zero PZ4 summer rubber clung to the skidpad at 0.98 g and leaned on its six-piston Brembo front brakes to stop from 70 mph in just 153 feet—or about the same as a Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Z51. The Challenger hams it up at every turn—check out the Power Chiller mode that uses the air-conditioning system to cool the engine intake instead of the cabin—but it’s serious about more than just horsepower and quarter-mile times.

During those transits between stoplight drags, the Black Ghost prompts the most unsettling brand of nostalgia—not for 1970, but for the present. It’s like how parents can get nostalgic for moments with their kids even as they’re happening, because time moves relentlessly forward and those moments trickle into the past. With cars, it’s unusual to wander onto that train of thought because the next thing is typically supposed to be familiar, but just a little bit better. The Last Call Dodges, though, are something different.

Whatever the outrageous performance and goofy tricks offered by the upcoming electric Banshee models (and super-loud “exhaust” noise is undoubtedly hilarious), the Black Ghost represents the end of an era. Not just for the Challengers or Hellcats, but an entire experience, of rumbling exhaust and whining superchargers and feeling the rear end squirm sideways as the transmission bangs into the next gear. We’re accustomed to planned obsolescence, but not the unplanned kind that abruptly makes 807 horsepower seem outdated. The 2023 Challenger Black Ghost has far more in common with its 53-year-old namesake than it will with its 2024 successor, and whether that makes you feel sad or optimistic, it’s happening. Sorry, folks. You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.