At SEMA last year, the legendary shifter company Hurst made huge waves with its Hemi Challenger. We've been following Hurst's progress of the cars ever since, and even got the chance to get behind the wheel of the prototype car for a brief stint. We recently made the trip down to Hurst Performance Vehicles' headquarters in Irvine, CA to see just how stock Challengers are transformed into one of their limited edition muscle cars.

You might think that Hurst would be hard pressed to find customers in today's economy, but we were surprised to see their building overflowing with Challengers. There were completely stock cars that had just been delivered, cars getting superchargers and suspension upgrades, and plenty of complete cars waiting to be delivered to their lucky new owners.

Hurst was kind enough to give us a full tour of the facility, and showed us exactly what goes into making one of their Challengers, whether it's a base Series 2 model or a full blown Series 5 with all the bells and whistles. Follow us on our tour in the gallery below, which includes high-res photographs and detailed descriptions that follow a Hurst Challenger from start to finish.



Photos copyright ©2009 Drew Phillips / Weblogs, Inc.

Cars-n-Coffee is a weekly gathering of automobilia in Irvine, California at Ford's former Premier Auto Group parking lot. Every Saturday morning from 6AM, Ferraris, Jaguars, Lamborghinis, Porsches, '50s hot rods, Mercedes, Camaros, you name it, rumble their way into the lot. On one recent overcast morning, Autoblog headed down to the dawn soiree, having been offered a drive in the Hurst HEMI Challenger. Although 6AM is closer to our bedtime than it is to reveille, we stayed up and paid a visit to the Challenger, hoping to find out if it had any hope of being a champion. Follow the jump for the story.


Photos copyright ©2008 Drew Phillips / Weblogs, Inc.

Hurst, makers of those iconic shifters that sat atop four-speed manual transmissions in classic muscle cars, has just announced official pricing for its Hurst/HEMI Challenger that debuted at SEMA in Las Vegas last month. There are 4 "stages" of tune for the Challenger, which are oddly numbered 2 through 5. Series 2 will add exactly $18,350 to the price of a donated Challenger R/T, which means putting a Hurst Challenger in your driveway will cost at least $48,895. For that heady sum, you'll get 352 horses, 20-inch alloys and a special paint and graphics kit. Maxing things out will get you a Series 5 SRT8 Hurst Challenger with 572 raging ponies courtesy of a Vortech supercharged 6.1L HEMI V8... all for a cost of *gulp* $75,395.

The shifty firm has a long history of creating special editions American muscle cars, starting with the seminal Hurst Olds from 1968. It should be noted that some of those vehicles have gone on to become highly collectible. Time will tell if the new Hurst/HEMI will follow in those footsteps, but that may largely depend on how many people are willing to plunk down the extra dough in the first place. See the complete pricing breakdown after the break.


[Source: Hurst Performance]

George Hurst's mission was to make hot rods for gentlemen. The new Hurst, in the body of the new Challenger, has carried on George's mission admirably. This particular blogger isn't wasn't even a Challenger fan, and then we laid eyes on the Hurst Hemi Challenger, and, like the Grinch, our heart grew three sizes. It's available in four levels, from a 5.7-liter HEMI Challenger to a fire-breathing 6.1-liter supercharged HEMI underneath a MOPAR hood. And when you get to those upper reaches, then you can avail yourself of that Hurst paint job and a car that will do those mammoth wheels justice. We were told the Stage 4 puts out 530 hp at the rear wheels. Which means the car will be waiting for you to it justice as well. Check out the gallery of high-res photos below, and see if your heart doesn't grow a bit as well.