DODGE HEMI CHARGER: THEN & NOW!

With 470 horsepower and enough torque to pull tree stumps, Dodge’s 2012 SRT8 Hemi Charger is a serious, sophisticated road warrior.

During Motown’s golden era of Supercars (now known as Musclecars), Dodge’s original Charger was better appointed, bigger and more powerful than many of the high-performance standard bearers. And, unlike all the rest, the Charger, introduced as a mid-year model in January 1966, was a true fastback. Powered by engines from Six to Eight including the 426/425 Street Hemi, it was essentially a boxy Coronet with fastback styling, hidden headlamps, fender-to--fender taillights and a killer four-bucket-seat interior. The ’66 Charger paved the way for the outrageous NASCAR-destined winged Charger Daytona and slick fastback (backlight) Charger 500. All had one thing in common: two-door coupe styling. Since 2006, the latest iteration of the Charger is available only with four doors. Sadly there’s no coupe in sight!

Thanks to advances in technology and engineering, the latest Charger delivers more performance, comfort and convenience, and better handing, braking and fuel economy than the original. There are some tradeoffs.  You might say, “There is no free lunch.”



In order to get the SRT8 Charger’s level of performance, technology and safety, packaged to hold four-five people and a trunk for traveling, you have to pay the piper. That means a curb weight of approximately 4,400 pounds, $1,000 Gas Guzzler tax and a combined 17-mpg EPA rating. And since 91-octane fuel is recommended, SRT8 owners will be pumping 93-octane liquid gold at the pumps. The window sticker on our Tungsten Metallic Clearcoat test car was $50,260, which included $4,465 in options.

In 1966, the Charger’s first year, you could buy a well- equipped 425 horsepower, 426-inch Street Hemi Charger for $4,500, left. That’s approximately the cost of options on our 2012 SRT8 tester! I was Editor of Hi-Performance CARS magazine in 1966 and named the Dodge Hemi Charger our Top Performance Car Of The Year.



Fast-forward four decades. I was at the 2006 Dodge Charger introduction at the Detroit Auto Show and remember bitching to Mike Accavitti, Dodge’s marketing head, about the Charger having two too many doors. Not a typical Detroit brand marketing “suit,” Accavitti is a real car guy. At the time he owned a restored Dodge 340 Six-Pack T/A Challenger, the limited-production street version of Dodge’s awesome Trans-Am competitor. We talked about Plymouth and Dodge’s legendary small and big-block performance products and Mike felt very strongly that the new Charger would evolve into a profitable mainstream sedan as well as a serious Musclecar. I wasn’t buying it. However, time has proven him right.  The Charger is a very successful model in Chrysler’s portfolio. Last year Mike Accavitti was named Vice President, Marketing at American Honda. Chrysler’s loss is Honda’s gain!

At the time Chrysler was hardly in a position to invest in another Dodge coupe bodied version of the Chrysler 300 platform, also used for the Challenger and the Magnum station wagon. They needed a volume model that would also appeal to business fleet buyers and law enforcement agencies. Today you can buy mild Six to wild Hemi Chargers, even a Super Bee variant which channels the original 1970s cartoonish models. Law enforcement agencies are buying copious amounts of both economical V6 Patrol versions as well as high-performance Pursuit Hemis.

Our SRT8 Charger was fitted with Chrysler’s excellent 6.4-Liter (391-cubic-inch) Hemi, above, that pumps out 470 horsepower at 6,000 rpm and 470 pound-feet of torque at 4,300. Like the original 426 Street Hemi (which evolved from the 1950s Chrysler 6.4-Liter, 392-inch Hemi), it too is a two-valve design with hemispherical-shaped combustion chambers, plugs firing close to the centers of the chambers and a cross-flow valve layout that’s perpendicular to the crankshaft’s centerline.



The original carbureted 426 Street Hemi engine, a $907 option in 1966, weighs considerably more than today’s fuel-injected SRT8 version and was rated at 425 horsepower at 5,000 rpm and generated a ginormous 490 pound-feet of torque at 4,000 rpm. Once you got a factory stock Street Hemi to breathe by re-jetting its dual Carter AFB four-barrels and adding headers and low-restriction exhausts, and then re-curving its distributor, it really came alive. Then all you had to do was install four-series gears and cheater slicks to turn your Hemi-Charger into a kick-ass 12-second street machine!

Compared with the modern Charger, the original, above, is three inches longer overall, three inches shorter between the wheels and weighs in at under-3, 500 pounds. While it holds just four adults in four bucket seats, the rears fold for hatchback/SUV-like stowage. In 1964 Dodge showed its first Charger Concept: a chopped roadster built off a 119-inch Polara chassis. Powered by a 426 Ramcharger Wedge, it was a hit on the auto show circuit and two years later morphed into the smaller production Charger.



 As delivered, a good running ’66 Hemi Charger could go from 0-60 in the mid-to-high-6s with quarter-mile times of mid-to-low-14s with 96-98-mph trap speeds. With some of the above tuning mods, typical 0 to 60 times dropped into the mid-low 5s and mid-13-second quarters at 105-plus mph. Top speed was in the 140s. Actual performance was obviously dependent upon transmission and rear gearing choices. Fuel consumption, 8-12 mpg, was never an issue as Sunoco 260 was less than 50-cents a gallon! The fuel consumption range on our test SRT8 Charger, according to EPA stats, is considerably better at 14/23 mpg, but 93-octane fuel now costs over $4.00 a gallon!

We put almost 500 miles on our 2012 SRT8 Charger, above, marveling at some of its technologies, especially the program that seamlessly deactivates cylinders during cruising so that you’re feeding just four cylinders. Now the program includes an active component that engages cylinder deactivation over a wider range for improved fuel economy as well as access to all eight cylinders when you hit the gas pedal. Under load, the exhaust system alters flow for straight-through efficiency and a throaty exhaust note.

It’s hard to argue with the SRT8 Charger’s performance. But there is room for improvement. Even with paddle shifters and multiple shifting modes, the five-speed automatic Charger seems to cry out for transmission upgrades. Maybe a few more speeds would help? Or, an available six-speed manual? They could also play around with rear-end gearing for improved performance. However, it might end up being at the expense of an even higher Gas Guzzler tariff. Stock is a 3.08 Getrag limited-slip differential that in Fifth gear works out to 2.54. With this setup top speed is electronically limited at 175 mph, a solid 25-plus miles-per-hour faster than the original 426 Street Hemi Charger.

When driving our SRT8 Charger around town it was hard to forget that it feels like a candidate for Weight Watchers. However, on the track or the open road, you quickly appreciate the Charger’s nicely weighted steering and overall solidity with minimal body roll. Considering that it tips the scales at 4,400 pounds and spans 120 inches between its wheels and 200 inches from bumper-to-bumper, the SRT8’s high-speed handling and performance numbers are unquestionably impressive.

Between its two-mode adaptive damping suspension and Goodyear F1 Supercar (245/45R20) tires on nine-inch-wide 20-inch wheels, above, an SRT8 Charger can deliver impressive track numbers. Typical 0 to 60 mph runs were in the sub-to-mid-five-second range and quarter-mile blasts in high-12s, low-13s at 108-110 mph are to be expected. Its sticky tires and substantial Brembos can bring the Charger down from 60 to 0 mph in around 120 feet, according to Chrysler track tests.

 In 1971 I presented the 11th annual CARS Magazine Top Performance Car of the Year award to Dodge General Manager, Bob “Captain Crunch” McCurrey, above, for the 1971 Charger. Available with both (425-horsepower) 426 Street Hemi and (375-horsepower) 440 Six-Pack Wedge engines, it was a fearsome street machine. McCurrey, a three-time Michigan State football team Captain and a take-no-prisoners car guy, was the guiding force behind the winged Daytona street and NASCAR programs. CARS editors chose the ’71 Charger, left, because of its wide range of models and options, from bland to Super Bee with 375 and 425 horsepower engines. It was bigger, heavier and more luxurious than the original, offering something for everyone, including hardcore racers.



The latest Charger from Dodge also offers something for everyone, from six-cylinder grocery getters to SRT8 Hemis. Not only have technology and powertrain progress enhanced the Charger’s appeal, so has quality. Interior appointments - seats, instrumentation and console/dash trim, below, - are excellent. Overall quality has improved a quantum leap since the original Charger.

Back in the day, automaker’s media test cars were often cycled in and out of service at 5,000 to 6,000 miles. That was done to preserve resale value of the vehicles but also to prevent an accumulation of failures and wear and tear issues. Test cars were subjected to hard miles, logged one week at a time, by the media. Our test Charger had over 11,000 road-testing miles and it looked ready for an auto show turntable! No squeaks, rattles or sloppy controls. Fit and finish were excellent. When Prestige Auto delivered the Charger, my first reaction was that this car looked brand new and I might be the first to test it!

Before returning our tester we made a 400-mile round trip from Sarasota to South Florida, cruising I-75 (Alligator Alley), I-95 and some secondary roads. On the return trip I checked out the SRT8’s Adaptive Cruise Control option that includes Forward Collision Warning and Adaptive Speed Control. At $795 extra, this is must-have technology. We paid our toll getting on Alligator Alley at Weston and set the cruise control at 83 mph. We ran the full length across Florida (84 miles), passed a few State Troopers in unmarked Hemi Pursuit Chargers at 13 mph over the limit, then headed North at Naples. (They must have had their radar set at 15 mph over the limit!)

I never touched the brakes until we reached Southwest Florida International Airport in Ft. Myers! The Charger’s computer and brakes automatically slowed the car down when we got too close to the car in front for approximately 115 miles, much of it during rush hour traffic. When I changed lanes to pass, our high-tech ride accelerated back to 83 mph. The Charger’s Blind Spot/Rear Cross Path Detection with audible plus warning lights on side mirrors, kept us from getting too close to vehicles next to us, especially when passing.

Our tester also had the superb, easy to read and use built-in Garmin GPS navigation system. Integrated with the large screen infotainment system, right, it’s one of the most intuitive and pleasant to use in-car Nav systems available.



The SRT8 Hemi Charger is not an inexpensive car, but if you need four doors and a big trunk and you want a real performance car, there are few choices you have in this price range. If the Charger has a weak spot, it’s the five-speed automatic transmission and the lack of a six-speed manual. Now if Dodge could figure out a way to offer the original Charger’s positive shifting three-speed TorqueFlite shifter.  And, drop two doors!

BREAKING NEWS!

SRT Motorsports unveiled the 2013 Dodge Charger, above, that will compete in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series next season at Las Vegas Motor Speedway today. Just as they did with the Dodge Challenger when it was introduced in the NASCAR Nationwide Series two years ago, SRT Motorsports designers and engineers have created a race car fans will have no problem identifying on the race track. The defining features of the street Charger have been expertly incorporated into the racing version.





For more information on SRT8 vehicles, please visit, http://drivesrt.com/