Since buying my Challenger Rt I have gotten quite intimate with them and learned alot. My Rt ran 13.12 @ 108 bone stock (with the air filter removed). Several people from this board were even there to see it run that day. On the same token my friends with an SRT8 6 spd are having the same issues you described. The wheel hop is unbearable and the car ran low 14's at just 100 mph. They added some drag radials and ran a 13.30 @ 106...but still not where my 5.7 ran stock. Something seems wrong to me with this.
Like you mentioned "getting a good one" can be elusive. There does seem to be a wide variation of performance in these cars.
Knowing what I know now, if I was to buy another one I would definitely get an automatic, and buy used from a guy that has some performance numbers to back the car up. Plus you won't take the $9K+ hit.
As mentioned, the RT's seem to be running with the SRT's and sometimes better. It is becoming more common to see the RT running low 13's with the auto.
