Dodge SRT4: Honey, I shrunk the muscle car

Torque steer is always a problem with front-wheel drive cars, especially ones like this with high output engines. It's the tendency for the engine's power, as it rises, to begin twisting the wheels to one side instead of just spinning them.

As you're accelerating, it feels as if as if someone besides you is pulling at the steering wheel, causing your car to veer off course.

In the SRT4, torque doesn't begin to be a problem until the engine is really screaming. At least it comes on gently and predictably, but when it hits, the pull can be strong.

Among the steps that Chrysler engineers took to limit the problem were various suspension changes and a deliberate blunting of the engine's power output in first and second gears.

All-wheel-drive, available in the SRT4's more expensive Mitsubishi and Subaru competitors, would help lot, too. But the all-wheel-drive system offered on the base Caliber wouldn't be able to handle the power produced in this car, Chrysler says, and developing an all-new AWD system would have been too expensive.