According to Chrysler’s media only blog, The Firehouse, the dealer network is being hit hard with orders for the much anticipated new Challenger SRT8. Day one for ordering was Monday, when more than 4,300 Mopar fans plunked down their deposits. As of now, that number has risen to over 6,000 deposits.

“This is unprecedented,” said Mark Mallie, Challenger Brand Manager – Dodge Marketing. “Customers were actually coming to us and pushing us, so we thought this was a good time to take pre-sale orders.”

The incredible thing here is that nobody has even seen or driven the production version of the car yet. That won’t happen until the car is unveiled at the Chicago Auto Show in February 08. Faithful Mopar fans are so excited to finally have some real muscle sent their way that they are going hog wild over the possibility of scoring their own piece of modern muscle car history.

The car is available in only 3 colors, black, silver or HEMI orange. So far, more than half of the orders have been HEMI orange. Will anybody be surprised if 2009’s hot color is purple?

The car has been priced at $37,995 including destination fee. Rumour has it that the cars are already popping up on auction sites, so real world pricing may be somewhat higher.

Dodge has promised eye candy for later this week, so keep checking back to see what images they reveal.