The late 1960s and the early 1970s, as everyone knows, the roads were ruled by throaty eight cylinder engines packed into lumbering, chrome laden straight line warriors. Names like
Camaro,
Firebird,
Mustang, GTO, 'Cuda, and Charger, were the hot cars to have regardless of your age; if you were into performance back then, a high horsepower, gas guzzling muscle car was the way to go. While suspension performance was crude then, some people would attempt to modify these cars in order to handle the turns a bit better, but in the end, the specialty of these vehicles was basic brute horsepower. Even in the movies, these are/were nearly always shown in a drag racing scene, if racing at all.
Chrysler corporation even went so far as to introduce what was basically a race engine into their street cars, and that engine was so cripplingly powerful and dominant, that it would go down in history as one of the most well known engines in automotive history. That engine is, of course... the Hemi.
Cars from the muscle car era which came with a factory Hemi in the modern market are demanding well into the six figure range, especially for one well kept over the last 35 or so years. A few cars from that era which were synonymous with high performance were also known for coming packed with this popular engine, those being the Hemi 'Cuda and the Charger, with the much more rare Hemi Charger often stealing the show at modern day car shows. It was with this ideal of the glory years that the engineers kept in mind while developing their new car. A car that personified all of the qualities of the muscle car era, but with the addition of modern technologies, was what they were shooting for when they set out on this development, and in the end, not only had they created a modern day muscle car, but they had even gone so far as to give it a muscle car name, and fit it with an engine which ruled the muscle car era. That new car is the 2006 Dodge Charger. While working on this new Charger, engineers and designers wanted a vehicle which would suit the needs of today's driver, but would also give that driver the feel similar to that of a real muscle car. Unlike Ford's new Mustang, which has a retro style to resemble the Mustang of old, Dodge went with a whole new style of car, and in doing so, a completely different look. The product that they came up with is a four door sedan, which in the RT model comes packed with 340 horsepower and in the Daytona model 345 horsepower, that will handle as well as the retro style Mustang. But as with all good performance car drivers, there is never enough horsepower, so that is where the basic Charger left the hands of the development team as Dodge, and entered the hands of the design team of Daimler-Chrysler's (DCX) SRT Program.
SRT stands for Street and Racing Technology, and their function is basically to take a good vehicle from DCX, and turn it into a vehicle that is not only perfect for everyday driving, but for a romp down the drag strip or through the autocross course. Built similar to the Chrysler 300C SRT-8, this Charger comes packed the SRT version of the Hemi, which is enlarged from the 5.7 liter Hemi in the RT and Daytona to a beefier 6.1 liters. Along with that increase in size, comes an increase in horsepower, from 340-345 in the 5.7 to a whopping 425 in the 6.1. But like the other SRT vehicles, such as the SRT-4 Neon, the SRT-6 Crossfire, the SRT-10 Viper and Ram, and the relative cars to the Charger, the SRT-8 Magnum and 300C, the Charger SRT-8 comes equipped with reworked suspension and braking systems to assist the car in the event of the need to turn or stop suddenly, whether on the track or just driving to the grocery store. Along with race inspired suspension and braking upgrades and the 425 stock horsepower, the new Charger SRT-8 comes packed full of all of the modern amenities someone would expect in a mid price performance sedan. Overall, while this new Charger SRT-8 may offer asphalt shredding performance, what the SRT people have done is effectively recreate the Dodge Charger spirit, and pack it into a family sedan.
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