There’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that Jay Leno likes his cars as much as he does cracking jokes and taking back jobs from friends that he previously gave up.

Having said that, we have a deep admiration towards Leno for his longstanding passion for just about anything that has four wheels on it. In the latest episode of his show, Jay Leno’s Garage, a special edition American muscle car showed up that bears the name of one NASCAR’s most iconic drivers in its mantle: the Richard Petty Signature Series Dodge Challenger.->ke249

Leno was joined by both Greg Steadman, the GM of Petty’s Garage, and the icon himself, Richard Petty, as they discussed the finer workings of the special edition Challenger. After the discussion, Leno took the car out for a spin and during the whole time, had nothing but glowing things to say about the Challenger. Heck, he even went out and did a couple of burnouts with the car against “The King’s” orders.

Head on past the jump for more details on the Petty Signature Series Challenger, as well as a video of the vehicle.

2010 Dodge Challenger Richard Petty Signature Series

Specifications
  • Make: Array
  • Model: 2010 Dodge Challenger Richard Petty Signature Series
  • Engine/Motor: Supercharged Forged 5.7-liter HEMI engine
  • Transmission: six-speed manual
  • [do not use] Vehicle Model: Array

Exterior and Interior

The exterior and interior of the car features some notable changes including a new set of 20” inch Forgeline SP3S Custom Finished wheels shod on Pirelli P Zero tires, a rear racing stripe featuring Richard Petty’s signature, a race-inspired rear blade spoiler, Supercharged badges, Arington-Powered badges, an SRT8 Chin Splitter, and full black paint exterior finish that Petty wanted specifically for these 43 cars. Why black, you ask?

Here’s his explanation: “For folks that really know me this will not come as much of a surprise, but the car will be black. A lot of folks instinctively guess that the car will be Petty Blue and while that is a very special color, all of my personal street cars are black. And I mean black! The interior, exterior, wheels, everything is black,” added Petty. “It needs just enough polished accents to set it off, so when you drive it down the road it looks different than any other Challenger on the road, but not so much that it draws unwanted attention.”

For the interior, the additions include a new Hurst Short Throw Shifter that Leno seems to be all giddy about, a custom Petty’s Garage leather interior courtesy of Katzkin, a gauge cluster that also bears Petty’s signature, custom embroidered lean backs with the Petty’s Garage logo, and a custom embroidered Richard Petty branded door panels.

PERFORMANCE

Limited to only 43 models, this particular Challenger comes courtesy of Petty Racing and in Leno’s own words, ‘turned something that was already a good car into something truly great”. To begin with, Petty Racing turned the 425 horsepower and ramped it up to the tune of 610 horsepower and 550 lb/ft of torque, courtesy of an Arrington-powered forged 5.7-liter HEMI engine that’s also been supercharged by Magnuson. The special edition Challenger also has some other items from Petty’s Garage, including an adjustable coilover kit with tunable dampening, adjustable front and rear anti-roll bars, bumpsteer correction bushings, and a four corner weight scale processor. For good measure, there’s also a Cat Back exhaust courtesy of Boria Performance Industries.

PRICING

The base price for the car is $34,930, but if you go all-out with all the packages, the cost shoots up to a pretty reasonable $38,600.99. You can already order the car through Richard Petty’s website.

COMPETITION

Seeing as this special edition Challenger is only limited to 43 units, it’s pretty hard to find a suitable competitor to match the exclusivity of this vehicle. The closest aftermarket tuned Challenger we could think of is the 2010 Dodge Challenger Srt-8 By O.Ct Tuning and even that, with all the work done to improve its power, only spikes to about 550 horsepower, which is well off the 610 horsepower done on the Petty Signature Series Challenger.