TEST DRIVE

All-wheel-drive is groundbreaking in this category, but does it break enough ground?

For a car that burns the back tires as easily as the Dodge Challenger, a new all-wheel-drive option seems obvious, if not downright necessary. By driving the front wheels as well as the rears, the car has enough grip to actually be useful when there’s snow on the ground. The Challenger GT is the first of the pony-car group — that includes the Chevrolet Camaro and Ford Mustang — to drive all four wheels. This is indeed groundbreaking, but also incredibly frustratingly as the system is only available with the base V-6 and not with any of the V-8 models, which could really use the traction. Dodge refers to the GT as an “allwheel-drive American muscle coupe,” but Dodge is really only pushing all-wheel-drive as a way to make the V-6 Challenger more bearable — perhaps even useful — in winter climes. Visually, Dodge is keeping the news pretty much to itself. There’s no big fender flairs or “AWD” call-out letters. In fact, distinguishing the GT from the rest of the Challenger pack could prove, uh, challenging, but standard fog lights, rear deck-lid spoiler and unique 19-inch “Hyper Black” wheels are giveaways. The specially tuned dual exhaust system also makes more of a rumble. A Challenger that drives all four wheels does keep alive the Dodge tradition of creating unique specialty models. Count the 707-horsepower Hellcat and upcoming Demon among the models that cater to buyers who believe that “muscle”’ means a V-8 under the hood. It’s undoubtedly a missed opportunity to only offer the 305-horsepower 3.6-liter V-6, especially when the 372-horsepower 5.7-liter V-8 can be had in the related all-wheel-drive Dodge Charger fourdoor sedan, although only authorized police departments can get it. Still, the hardware exists and would make an obvious transfer to the Challenger.