The Dodge brand has been in dire straits since the death of the HEMI and the introduction of the Charger Daytona, an electric “muscle car” that makes fake noises, costs a lot, weighs a lot, doesn’t shift, and seems to have some teething issues. But now the gas Dodge Charger is here to save the day, turning fossil fuels into exhaust noise and burnt rubber — but not at the hands of a V8. No, the new Charger is getting two versions of the twin-turbocharged inline-six engine found in other Stellantis products, and if I’m honest: The specs look good. Like, 550 horsepower for under 55 grand-good. But it’s quite a departure from the old Scat Pack we all know and love.
The fallout from the Charger Daytona EV is largely a result of the brand building its entire image on burnouts, donuts, and growling internal combustion engines. Building a brand around a powertrain in this transition era is playing with fire (just ask Rivian and Lucid); add so-so execution and a weaker-than-expected EV market to this whole brand-identity crisis and you end up with brand new Charger Daytonas that are basically having to be given away.
The discounts here are madness:
But now, after many months of vitriolic anti-Daytona EV comments from Dodge petrol-heads who bought into the whole “brotherhood of muscle” marketing, finally there is salvation in the form of a gas Charger, and it looks to offer good performance at a reasonable price, even if it strays quite a bit from the old formula.
Back in 2016 I drove the old Dodge Charger Scat Pack, and my mind was blown. This was a 485 horsepower, 475 lb-ft 6.4-liter V8 beast for only about $40 grand (its two-door Challenger sibling was only about $38,000). It was a growling, tire-burning, tomfoolery-enabling menace, to the point where my review was titled: “The Dodge Charger Scat Pack Brought Out My Inner Asshole.” And based on the photo below, you know I wasn’t kidding:
The Charger and Challenger Scat Packs both kept those same 485 HP, 475 lb-ft figures until their discontinuation in 2023, by which point they cost about $53,000 and $49,000, respectively. Since then, the world has had to go on without a Scat Pack, and indeed without a gas Dodge Charger or Challenger at all.
But now comes the return of the gas Charger, which comes as either a two-door (replacing the Challenger) our four-door, and can be had with one of two gasoline engine options: a 420 horsepower, 468 lb-ft twin-turbo “Hurricane” inline-six in the R/T trim or a high-output version of that engine making 550 horsepower and 531 lb-ft of torque in the Scat Pack.
The latter engine, which Dodge calls the “Sixpack H.O.” (as opposed to the other engine’s Sixpack S.O.) is essentially the same as the motor in the slightly less powerful (540 HP) Ram RHO I drove recently. I didn’t find it to be a particularly interesting engine to operate, but it was good, and Dodge notes that the high output Sixpack makes 88% of its peak torque at 2,500 RPM and 90% of peak torque from 3,000 to 6,000 RPM. Thanks largely to twin 54mm Garrett GT2054 turbochargers making up to 30 psi of boost and being spun up to 185,000 RPM by Inconel turbines; that’s a pretty flat torque curve, and though I’m not sure 2,500 is quite “low end,” it’s low enough to help get the Charger Scat Pack from 0-60 MPH in just 3.9 seconds, per Dodge.
The old 485 horsepower Scat Pack Charger and Challenger saw 0-60 times in the low to mid-4s, and the delta is largely a product of the new gas Charger — whether the 420 horsepower R/T or the 550 horsepower Scat Pack — coming standard with all-wheel drive.
If you’re a diehard, there may be part of you that just vomited a little. “What? Standard all-wheel drive? This thing is going to be heavy, and I can’t do burnouts anymore!” you might exclaim.
On the first point, you are correct. Though I don’t know what the R/T model weighs, the new Charger Scat Pack tips the scales at 4,800 pounds — that’s over 500 pounds more than the old Challenger Scat Pack and 400 pounds more than the old Charger R/T. On the latter point about burnouts, though, Dodge has you covered, because drive to the front wheels can be completely defeated, and you can lock only the front brakes thanks to a Line Lock” feature. Per Dodge:
The new 2026 Dodge Charger SIXPACK-powered models are the world’s only AWD muscle cars with rear-wheel-drive capability. The robust 880RE TorqueFlite eight-speed automatic transmission features a multi-disc wet clutch system that opens at the push of a button to enable on-demand RWD functionality, capable of sending 100% of torque to the rear wheels.
From street to strip, the Charger’s AWD system enhances capability in inclement weather and on various road surfaces, as well as delivering when it comes time to launch at the drag strip. The Charger Scat Pack can be put in Line Lock or rear-wheel drive to perform a burnout to clean and heat the tires before a pass down the strip. When ready to launch, the driver can switch back to AWD and reap the benefits of launching off the line with all four tires, providing extra grip in the rear.
Charger’s standard AWD system also includes a Front-Axle Disconnect feature to provide improved fuel economy. This system uses sensors throughout the vehicle to determine the optimal parameters to disconnect the front axle to reduce parasitic driveline losses.
Being able to choose between an optimal launch — thanks again to AWD, but also Launch Control and a standard limited-slip rear diff — or a big, nasty burnout is, one could argue, the American dream. Or at least it is to people who buy Dodge Chargers.
Disc brakes up front are 380mm pizzas squeezed by six-piston fixed 36 mm Brembo calipers, and in the back, the 360 mm flapjacks have brake pads squished against them courtesy of floating 52 mm-piston calipers. Dodge mentions a “Brake by Wire eBoost intelligent braking system,” a multi-link front suspension, and a four-link fully independent suspension out back. The results, per Dodge?:
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10% improvement in steady-state response for faster and more confident cornering
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15% improvement in lateral response time or how quickly the vehicle reacts to rapidsteering inputs, such as high-performance driving or accident-avoidance maneuvers
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An impressive 25% improvement in steady-state limit handling balance, significantly reducing understeer and delivering a more neutral, planted feel through corners
I’ll have to reserve full judgement until I get to drive this thing, but my initial impressions are mixed. I think the car looks great, and having sat in the EV that shares the same STLA Large platform, it’s really spacious and looks great on the inside.
550 horsepower and all-wheel drive for under $55 grand seems like a decent deal, too, and the R/T’s 420 ponies for under $50 grand isn’t horrible either. Sure, you can get a 480-horsepower Mustang for about $47,000, but good luck fitting anyone in the back. As for cars that can fit folks in the back, I suppose you could look at a BMW 3 Series or 4 Series or maybe a Mercedes C-Class, but to get similar performance figures that either Charger offers, you’d have to drop over $60 big-ones. Is anyone really cross-shopping a German luxury sedan/coupe with a Charger? I don’t know; then what kind of person does want a Charger? I’d guess the same people who liked the old Charger/Challenger.
But the outgoing Challenger cost over $5,000 less, and while it lacked all-wheel drive and was 65 horsepower poorer, its power to weight ratio was actually higher, it had a monstrous V8 engine whose sound made the car, and what’s more: It could be had with a stickshift. It was old, it wasn’t particularly refined, but it was an automotive sledgehammer that could excite you with its yell, and I liked that.
Do I anticipate the new Charger to be better in almost every measurable way? Sure. But I’m not sure the Charger and Challenger twins were ever really about raw figures. They were about soul. I’m excited to see how much this new Charger Scat Pack has in it.
Of course, not all old Chargers/Challengers had growly V8s; there was the Pentastar V6 option, too, but that started in the low to mid 30K range. Is there going to be an equivalently affordable new gas Charger? I sure hope so.
Top graphic image: Dodge
4800 lbs. 78.3” wide (like a battleship). $57,000 to start for the scat pack, $52,000 for the R/T. Tiny 3.0 liter aluminum block with plasma coated sleeveless aluminum cylinders, 183HP/liter, 30psi of boost pressure on pump gas.
Built by Stellantis.
What could possibly go wrong?
Roadkill Nights had both the EV and Sixpack side by side on display and a drift event with a fleet of Sixpacks. It was neat to both see them up close and check out the differences in adapting the Hurricane engine while also being able to hear the car in person. It doesn’t sound bad but if I didn’t see the b o a t whipping around the lot while I heard it, I would have expected the noise came from a Japanese car. V8 guys aren’t gonna like it but a Hemi version is probably around the corner. Either way welcome back land yacht.
In addition, someone ran a stock Hurricane in a Fox body and it actually scoots pretty well when it’s hauling half the weight lol.
Big Vroom Vroom for Little Pee Pee.
They FUBARed the launch of this car so bad, that I don’t think even with a V8, it will recover. Shows a combination of arrogance and incompetence that we rarely see from the established carmakers these days. EV first was a horrible idea for the crowd they were selling to. Over-priced. Over-sized. The design ain’t even that bad, but scale the sucker down by 10% and it would still have tons of room inside but save on weight and cost. An inline-6 is one of those engines that “car guys” tend to love, but not as much as a V8. The endless quality glitches that Dodge/Jeep/Ram are having don’t help matters either.
Suggestion: Bring back the V8. Keep the I6, but consider hybridizing it. At least as an option. Drop the AWD, or at least make it an option. Drop the EV. And double-down on their effort to improve quality. Not just this Charger, but for ALL MOPAR vehicles. I couldn’t recommend a single one knowing how utter shit their quality seems to be.
i didn’t scope the other comments yet but damn if the side view followed by the hatch doesn’t look like a modern Marlin I don’t know what does.
(I dare someone to buy one and Marlin-ize it)
Dodge really screwed up the great chance they had with naming and powertrains. The fact that David writes: “But now comes the return of the gas Charger”. Ironic that the formerly gasoline car went EV with the most appropriate name, and now they can’t really differentiate back to a gasoline one by calling one the EV Charger and the other the ICE Charger. Something tells me that would not go over well. Gas Charger sounds like a vape propellant refill.
It seems likeable, but I keep coming back to the fact that this is a Stellantis product and also has the Dodge d-bag stigma so, that’s a hard no for me.
Maybe I’m easily impressed, but I could make myself live with “only” 420 hp and 468 lb-ft. It’s good looking as hell and I love the giant hatch. I think an R/T without awd would be ideal. I couldn’t care less about awd but I’m in the minority. It’s a big, personal luxury coupe, which is great.
I hope they don’t lock the performance goodies behind the scat pack trim. I’d love to have an RT with the Brembos and active exhaust. I’d also worry a bit about the longevity of 200 Stellantis horsepower per liter in the scat pack, although it has forged internals which might cancel that out.
Ram trucks continually have the worst reliability and ownership costs among full-size trucks. Even when Stellantis has the opportunity to produce long-standing and proven configurations, it fails. They also have not launched a single vehicle that ended up being anything other than the bottom of its class. While anything is possible, there isn’t any evidence that the Charger will break the trend.
I still prefer the looks of the Challenger, but if they end up putting the Hellcat engine and a manual transmission in this, they’d sell me one.
If the engine is fast revving enough I think 2500rpm counts as torque down low. My car makes around 210lb/ft out of 235lb/ft at 2500rpm and holds 70mph at 2000rpm.
This hits. No notes. Now, as I said in the comments of yesterday’s article, do the 700hp HellStorm(TM) version of the Hurricane to get everyone buzzing again.
Also I wouldn’t be mad about a 300 version of this, so that I could drive the luxury version and not feel like a toolbag in a charger.
Yes, definitely on the 300 version.
Good review. Touched points I was curious about. 1) Weight to power ratio and 2) where the power is in the band.
I am torn on this. I naturally look down on people who own these. It screams first military paycheck, or idiot from the city trying to do smoke shows at stop lights. I really don’t know anyone I consider an adult to own one of these. Even guys I know who are all about dodge/ram don’t own these.
But… the screen is where it should be. It’s fast, and the power is where you want it to get up and pass someone in a tight spot. It looks, well if not great to some, its not embarrassing by any stretch and I bet they will look pretty nice in person. There are some things on the interior that are pretty cringy boy racer to me, but that’s the segment.
Anyways, I am interested to see if this is a big failure or turns out to be a hit.
I’m thinking “Sixpack H.O.” is creeping dangerously close to “S.H.O.” enough to probably upset a few Blue Oval diehards.
I don’t know that calling these scat packs over just 6 packs is better marketing or not? I am still unsure why they do not make a NA version of this motor making around 300 HP to give the crowd an STX model or something though.
Considering new base Daytona’s are asking around $35-40k, it will be interesting to see if Dodge dealers can actually sell these.
If I want obnoxious and six cylinders, id get a BMW.
I do parking, and I literally, 30 minutes ago, parked some throaty V-8 BMW M series who’d have a word with you on that.
That is a v8. Different comparison.
30 pounds of boost?! Wow that’s a lot. That plus pictures I’ve seen of the absolute rat’s nest of tubing on that Hurricane engine really makes me question the longevity and maintainability of it.
There’s a few engines pushing lots of boost with relatively good success, like the Chevy 2.7 and the GRolla push only a few pounds less than 30. Of course, Stellantis quality has a reputation to uphold.
They really beefed up the internals on the HO, which essentially has forged everything. I certainly wouldn’t bet on it being dead reliable since…well, Stellantis, but tuners are already getting their hands on RAM RHOs and pushing 800 horsepower without issue…yet.
“On-demand RWD” feels funny to say, but it works.
like on demand 4wd?
Still scratching my head over the rationale for the I6 engine. Fuel savings are in the range of 1mpg city and highway over the hemi. What is the point for downsizing(not that I would buy any post-1974 Chrysler product)?
Emissions. Smaller turbocharged engines emit less and emissions/fuel economy aren’t necessarily related.
I’d guess theres a different transmission in it too, which in theory should add a few mpg’s.
1 MPG is a 5% improvement or about $789 over 100,000 miles. The other part of the equation is that that 6 will yield improved emissions as well.
Oh boy, a whole $789 dollars over 100,000 miles, that’s really worth not having a V8. 😐
They downsized the engine but upsized the entire vehicle, so that also skews the efficiency gap. I didn’t see the MPG numbers in the article, but 500 lbs heavier AND still getting better fuel economy seems pretty rational to me
An all wheel drive RAM 1500 with the standard output Hurricane somehow gets 17/24 and is 1,000 pounds heavier/an aerodynamic brick. I’d be surprised if the RT doesn’t do quite a bit better and flirt with the mid 20s combined. The RAM HO naturally does a lot worse at 15/21, but the Scat Pack should do better.
All in all I think these will provide fairly reasonable fuel economy for the power they produce. They definitely had efficiency in mind when they engineered the engine.
I am for it, give the buyers an option. NA v8 – 500 plus HP or a Small Turbo six, possibly lighter – 500 plus HP.
You really don’t need a V8 these days to get massive burnouts. However, people will want to modify their powerplants for additional ponies, so my primary concern is how stout the block is. The old 2JZ inline-6 block from Toyota could handle 1,000hp applications and more.
Should the hurricane’s block be as sturdy as the 2JZ, this could be a legendary engine for years to come.
However, I do totally understand that there are still people locked into the antiquated, and no longer necessarily true adage that “there’s no replacement for displacement” who will seemingly be nonplussed by any Stellantis engine that goes into a charger that doesn’t have eight combustion chambers.
Yeah I really think this is they key to getting people to accept the Hurricane engine. If it’s reliable and tunable, people will mourn the death of the Hemi V8, but embrace the I6.
Boomers and the boomer-adjacent will probably hate it forever though.
I just think the V8 sounds better, and sound is a big deal.
V8’s aren’t the only good sounding engines… Most Porsche I6’s sound terrific even when stock… Same for the rumble of the GT-R, or the screaming sound of a Wankel. Some even clamor for the clatter of a diesel no matter it’s cylinder count. It’s all subjective at the end of the day.
Sound is HUGE, and I know this puts me in the minority, but I dig Dodge’s efforts to make the Charger EV sound special. It brings personality back to the car. I quite like the 80s-tastic synth noises.
Yep. I just have an Challenger R/T, so only about 380 hp, but it’s fun to drive and sounds great with the six-speed manual.
Insane that a performance-oriented coupe weighs more than my 8-passenger, hybrid minivan and a full ton more than my BRZ. Hell, it weighs as much as two of my old Honda Fits. I know it will be fast anyway, but how much better could it be if they dropped some of the weight.
OR they knew their audience and added a lot of safety and padding into the vehicle so they wouldn’t end up with a bunch of deaths.
I’m over here drooling to see these show up at ASP chases and PITS on YouTube. Either running or chasing they are gonna be fast but they are pretty heavy. Maybe the AWD will keep the perps on the road if only they don’t have it turned off with bald tires.
You could buy a 1969 Charger with a six. But it only had 140 (gross) HP. Probably weighed 1500 lbs less, though.
Seem like this has all the right stuff to be a hit! Surprised I have not see these at the dealership, unfortunately I’ve been there a lot lately for warranty work.
Despite all the modules, connectors, and diagnosis, RAM cant seem to figure out why my truck keeps going tits up when you press the start button. Maybe I should have saved 60k and got a truck like DTs K1500