The automotive rumor mill has been churning with whispers of Stellantis executives finally coming to their senses, and it seems the Dodge Charger is indeed heading back to its high-octane V8 roots. While efficiency is great for appliances, muscle car enthusiasts don’t wake up in the morning dreaming of fuel economy. They want the earth-shattering roar of a Hellcat.
SRT boss Tim Kuniskis seems to agree. According to recent insights, Kuniskis admitted that sticking a 5.7-liter or even a 6.4-liter engine into the new Charger would be like bringing a knife to a gunfight. Why? Because the latest Charger has put on some significant weight.
Compared to the old Challenger, this new iteration is a heavyweight that would likely be embarrassed at a stoplight by a stock Ford Mustang S650 GT or Dark Horse if it lacked serious muscle.
In the world of Dodge logic, if you’re going to ask customers to pay for an optional HEMI, it only makes sense to go all the way to a Hellcat. This strategy also saves dealerships from a “funny” moment, that breaking point where the lot is so cluttered with mid-tier specs that salespeople lose their minds. By focusing on the top-tier supercharged 6.2-liter V8, Dodge keeps the lineup simple and devastatingly powerful.
We are likely looking at a power output that starts north of 700 HP, potentially creeping toward the 800-hp mark to keep those “pesky” Shelby models in the rearview mirror. After all, this is the same engine architecture that birthed the Challenger SRT Demon 170, a 1,025-horsepower monster capable of a sub-9-second quarter mile and a 0-60 mph sprint in a face-melting 1.66 seconds.
A true Demon 170 successor might be years away, serving as the perfect grand finale for the current Charger generation, but the immediate future looks bright, loud, and very fast.
