Yahoo Autos 2023 Dodge Challenger Black Ghost Road Test: Homage to a ghostly legend
ALONG WOODWARD AVENUE, Mich. — The Dodge Challenger Black Ghost is a rare blend of history and mystery served up in a modern Hellcat muscle car.
The sixth of seven “Last Call” models Dodge built to send out the Charger and Challenger LX cars, the Black Ghost is a Hellcat Redeye widebody with 807 hp. That’s the modern part.
The history is just as compelling. The original Black Ghost is a 1970 Challenger RT SE (Special Edition) owned by a Detroit police officer and Purple Heart recipient named Godfrey Qualls, who raced it on Woodward Avenue through the 1970s. He special-ordered the car with an upgraded 426 Hemi V8, the Super Track Pack that included a floor-mounted pistol-grip four-speed manual, and some pretty distinctive options tailored to his tastes, like a snakeskin-style vinyl roof. It is believed to be the only Challenger so-optioned for 1970.
That we know. The car was a murky presence on Woodward, with Qualls winning illegal street races and then disappearing for weeks or months at a time. The all-black Challenger became known as the Black Ghost, and Qualls prudently kept a low-profile given his day job as a motorcycle traffic cop.
