MUSCLE MACHINE; A wet-and-wild first drive in Dodge's Challenger SRT8.

Byline: MAC MORRISON

Herb Helbig is dead serious. He's about to turn loose a group of journalists who still don't get why some top-line racing series never recruited them.

"Don't. Wreck. My. Cars,'' says the now-retired chief engineer of Dodge's SRT performance arm. "Don't even put a wheel off, or we're going to have a talk.''

On a cold, wet December day at the Texas Motorsports Ranch road course southwest of Fort Worth, the odds appear good that Helbig-outfitted in his oddly intimidating trademark Viper SRT10 jacket and snakeskin (natch) cowboy boots-might get a last chance to light into at least one of his guests.

Rain and a frighteningly slippery track cause Helbig and company to pull the plug on driving the new 600-hp Dodge Viper ACR ("Track Rat's Snake,'' AW, Feb. 4). But test drives of the 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8-there having its final production settings dialed in-remain on the schedule. That's good news, if you can somehow forget that these cars are worth a great deal more than the production models. It would be bad to bend the $40,158 retail version, catastrophic to write off a $250,000 development mule.

It's difficult, then, to glean much from this first drive, where simply keeping the car stuck to the "rain'' line around the track's perimeter constitutes a job done well and where even straightaway speeds rarely exceed 60 mph. Yet some things are obvious.

Beneath skin crafted in honor of the original 1970 Challenger-note the omission of Dodge's modern-day crosshair grille, a positive change from the 2006 concept car-is the LX platform that also underpins Dodge's Magnum and Charger and Chrysler's 300C. A shorter wheelbase, down to 116 inches from its siblings' 120 (giving the platform an LC internal designation), differentiates the Challenger and was necessary to accommodate the coupe's styling. But don't expect to find a noticeably dartier car or a much lighter one. This Challenger weighs 4140 pounds versus the Charger SRT8's 4160. Likewise, the weight distribution is a nearly identical 55.6/44.4.