The 2009 Dodge Challenger SRT8 is muscle car nostalgia brought into the 21st century complete with a 6.1-liter, 425-horsepower Hemi V-8 and all the tire smoke you can make.

This long-nose, short-tail coupe might not be politically correct in this day of budget crunch and fuel economy, but it sure looks like the 1970 Challenger Trans Am racers I watched in my high school days.

It's obvious Dodge remembers that car, too, and a new version of a classic is here to compete with Ford's Mustang and Chevrolet's soon-to-revive Camaro.

LOOKS: Parked next to my buddy Ivan Crocco's 1971 Challenger R/T, the new car is a modernized version of the classic with a slim nose, four headlights glaring out, flanking a chrome-trimmed grille.

The front bumper is designed into the lower fascia, which gets a wide-mouth lower intake and separate spoiler with brake cooling ducts -- a nod to the original.

The hood's center power bulge that widens to incorporate working hood scoops is just like the R/T. The long front fenders get a design line that carries over the subtly rimmed wheel openings that showcase five-spoke alloy wheels with red Brembo brakes inside and wide, low-profile 20-inch Goodyear performance rubber inside.

That side design line matches the original, rising gently as the rear fender line bulges with muscle. The doors are a bit taller at the belt line, and flatter than the rounded 1971 R/T. The side window opening is slimmer. Fit and finish were as good as I have seen on a Dodge. The bumpers were tightly integrated into the clean shape, much like the 1971 model.

It got tons of reaction on the street -- "Man, they made that sweet," "That takes me back to the '70s" and "A re-creation of the original" were some of the best lines.

"The power is there," Ivan said. "I love it and would love to have one. The shape? They hit their mark." Consumers, even in these budget-crunch times, seem to like it.

Debuting in showrooms as a 2008 model in April, 11,457 were sold as of October -- 3,014 of those in October alone. That's healthy sales for a niche car, says Dodge.

LIVING: The interior is a more modern look. A padded gray dash top covered an inset white-faced 180-mph speedometer, 8,000-rpm tach, gas and temperature gauges. Heavily bolstered leather seats with suede inserts and a red accent offered comfortable and supportive accommodations.

The steering wheel tilts and telescopes, with stereo, trip computer and voice-command satellite navigation and telephone function buttons. A touch-screen display operates the navigation system and good 13-speaker AM-FM-CD-SiriusXM surround sound system. Via uConnect, you can hook up a cell phone for hands-free use, upload photographs for screen display, plug in a thumb drive to upload music, or hook up an MP3 player via a dash input.

In back, room for two people for short trips, and the striped seat backs fold to access a huge trunk.

DRIVING: Performance was easy to gauge with performance displays in the trip computer -- 60 to zero braking, g-forces, stopwatch and quarter- and eighth-mile times. It said we did 0-60 in 5 seconds; quarter-mile in 13.79 seconds at 105.6 mph; and stopped from 60 mph in a decent 129 feet.

Our 4,000-mile-old car had a hefty 6.1-liter, 425-horsepower Hemi, although a 250-horse V-6 and a 372-horse Hemi V-8 are available. With 420 pound-feet of torque funneled through a precise, quick-shifting Tremec manual with dual-disc clutch, it's fast, the exhaust sound intoxicating. The rpm limiter kicked in at 58 mph in second gear, necessitating a sprint-slowing shift to third to hit 60.

Despite the transmission kicking in a first-to-fourth shift sometimes to save gas, it managed only about 11 mpg (14 mpg city/22 mpg highway EPA) on our test loop. It had a gas-guzzler tax on it, but likes regular.

Based on a Dodge Charger sedan with a few inches chopped from the wheelbase, the Challenger is big (4,100 pounds). The SRT8 rode a half-inch lower than the R/T and SE models, with specific spring and shock rates, limited-slip rear differential, a multilink short/long-arm front suspension and independent rear suspension.

The result, with stiff body shell, was a composed, firm ride that never felt harsh. Longer and wider than the original, it stuck in turns with no drama, the power ready to steady the bit of understeer. The stability program lets the SRT8 burn rubber in a straight line, but kicks in subtly whenever it shows a sideways twitch. The car feels its weight, but handles it very well.

Reach Dan Scanlan at dan.scanlan@jacksonville.com.