2006 Dodge Charger Concept
Powered by a 5.7L Hemi with 350+hp.
The new Hemi makes 345 hp and 375 lb.-ft. of torque with just 345 cubic inches, an iron block, one cam, pushrods and two valves per cylinder. It's every bit the equal of GM's Gen III (LS1)--all it needs is beautiful sheetmetal wrapped around it. The 73-acre Saltillo, Mexico assembly plant can pump out 440,000 Hemis per year. We're biased, but we think it'd be a shame for all of them to end up in trucks and mommy mobiles.
During the production of this story, we heard an unconfirmed report that Dodge was working on a four-door Charger with a V-6 powertrain. We immediately got working on a base variant of our Charger concept with four doors. Dodge's original four-door concept artfully concealed the two extra doors, and that's exactly what we've attempted here. Our conclusion: Charger can indeed work attractively as a four-door.
This two-door Charger SRT-8 in black shows a full-width three-piece spoiler, classic bar taillights and quad exhaust tips. The V-6 four-door had no spoiler and a single exhaust tip.
From above and behind, you can see how the classic Charger roofline was retained. Here, the trunk stops at the rear glass, but a hatch version could be implemented (as on the Magnum) without upsetting the body lines.
The Charger's nose takes styling cues from current Dodge truck and car models. If you squint, there's also a little bit of Mercedes in there too. The classic '68-'70 nose is far too non-aerodynamic to make production and the rendition shown is an acceptable compromise to us.
Since there is no verified confirmation of an actual Charger, we can only guess about performance and cost. The first--performance--we have a little better idea. With a 345hp Hemi under the hood, a close-ratio automatic gearbox and weighing roughly 3,600 pounds, the Charger would be good for mid 13s in bone-stock trim at sea level. With good tires, gears, headers and an aftermarket exhaust, this could easily dip into the 12s. We would expect the Charger to be squarely in GTO territory, both in performance and price. That means an MSRP somewhere in the mid- to low-30s. If an entry-level 3.5L V-6 version (rental, taxi and police fleets) finds its way into the mix, we're looking at something in the Dodge Intrepid R/T range, both price-wise and performance-wise. Quarter-mile performance with a 242hp V-6 should be in the 15s with a price in the high 20s.
What do you think
93 Camaro Z28 (The fast one)
01 Trans Am WS6 (The cute one)
Esla T6 Dog Sled (Not cute, not fast, scary as hell)
Quote
but other thatn that the car doesn't look too bad
