In the late fifties, as Grand Prix racing teams began switching to a rear-engined layout, Enzo Ferrari stubbornly insisted on keeping the engine up front, as God intended. “The horses pull the carriage, not push them,” he purportedly said.
Of course, he changed his mind once his beloved red cars started falling behind the competition, agreed to change the layout, and returned to the front of the grid. And it’s been smooth sailing for Scuderia Ferrari ever since. Ahem.
I thought about that when the Mustang Mach E was announced, and car enthusiasts shrieked about this fabled performance car being turned into an electric (nooo!) crossover (nooooooooooo!) vehicle. My response was that the automotive world moves extremely quickly, that the Mustang has always adapted to its time (especially in the seventies, blech) and that the Mach E is a continuation of this legacy.
Also, it’s fast and I actually like how it looks. And sales have been strong, though plagued by recalls. This is an American car in its first year on the market, of course.
Now Dodge is getting into the act with a concept car that might very well be the new, electric-powered Charger:
It seems like the days of proud American muscle cars with forceful V-8 engines and growling exhausts will soon slip gracefully into the past. Dodge's Charger and Challenger models will take their final bow after 2023, and electric models are encroaching on classic nameplates such as the Chevy Camaro and the Ford Mustang, too.
Still, Dodge doesn't want you to mourn the muscle car just yet. The new Dodge Charger Daytona SRT Concept is an electric performance coupe set to carry Dodge's brash legacy forward and become "the future of electrified muscle."
The heart of the Daytona SRT is its 800-volt electrical architecture christened Banshee. This is double the voltage of the 400-volt architecture used by many other EVs and allows for faster charging, better cooling for the electric motors, and lighter wiring. The Porsche Taycan, Audi e-tron GT, Hyundai Ioniq 5, and Kia EV6 also use 800-volt architectures.
That’s all well and good, but surely it will be no match for the gas-powered Hellcat, right?
Though Dodge hasn't yet shared any performance or powertrain details for the concept, it claims that the Daytona SRT will be faster than its Hellcat V-8–powered cousins "in all key performance measures." We assume this means both acceleration and top speed. For reference, the 2023 Charger SRT Hellcat Redeye with the Jailbreak package has a monstrous 807 horsepower, and the Redeye we tested raced to 60 mph in 3.5 seconds. A push-to-pass button called PowerShot will provide a temporary power boost.
Fine. But it probably looks like an anonymous transportation appliance, being an electric car and oh my sweet Lord in Heaven-
They even brought back the sixties Dodge logo and made it sound like a classic Charger:
However, the most unique aspect of the Daytona SRT—and the most brazenly gratuitous—is its exhaust. No, Dodge hasn't found a way for an electric car to pump equal parts engine noise and CO2 into the air, but it did design its Fratzonic Chambered Exhaust to amplify the electric motors' near silent hum into a 126-decibel cacophony worthy of the SRT badge.
The name "Fratzonic" is a variation on Fratzog, the moniker given to the logo featured on Dodge muscle cars in the '60s and '70s. That logo makes its return on the Daytona SRT, one of the many ways Dodge has tried to instill the concept with the brand's history.
I was going to say “shut up and take my money!” but then I remembered the last Dodge I owned, a Grand Caravan minivan that ate its transmission after three and a half years. (Warranty: three years.) So I’m not getting burned again by purchasing another Chrysler product oh who am I kidding:
It’s electric so it doesn’t have a transmission. And surely Dodge has learned some lessons in reliability from its new Stellantis corporate partners like (checks notes) Fiat and (checks notes again) Peugeot.
Ahem.
Well, it looks and sounds amazing, anyway. Even if they actually mass-produce this thing, I’ll keep my Mazda and give the new Charger a few years on the market so they can get the bugs worked out. (The “Chevy Cavalier rule.”)
Will electric muscle cars be the same as internal-combustion-engine ones? No. The driving experience will be completely different, even with “Fratzonic Chambered Exhaust,” whom I’m pretty sure I saw open for The Tragically Hip back in the nineties.
Its impact on the environment will be completely different, too. There’s a debate about just the degree to which electric cars are cleaner than ICE-powered ones - it often comes down to whether the power comes from clean energy or coal, so it might not make much difference in Germany - but it’s definitely a step in the right direction.
I love classic muscle cars as much as anyone. But there were once people who were obsessed with classic horse-drawn carriages, too. Times change and so do the vehicles. Had some of these historic carriage makers transitioned to motorcars earlier, they might still be around today.
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Mind you, considering that a tradition in my city going back decades has been forced to an end because some meatheads just couldn’t keep the noise down just this once, maybe it’s better if future sports cars don’t make any sound at all:
A 45-year-tradition has come to an end. A recent post making the rounds on local car enthusiast social media feeds serves as an open letter to the community, and calls out a few bad actors that caused the 45-year storied car meeting’s demise. The event took place in the parking lot of the (now closed) A&W restaurant on Pleasant Street in Dartmouth. The local car community not only used the event to show off their classic and vintage vehicles, but also served as a social gathering for car fans in all of HRM and beyond. It’s unclear if the meetup will be relocated.
From the post:
“(The car shows are being cancelled after many years and the last one was this week, because of too many recent complaints. Most people knew Thursdays were that day, however of course theres always a karen to complain and a kyle who has no respect for what was ours)”
“To the groups who couldn’t respect the lot, to the entitled azzhats who thought they were above the law and rules of the lot I truly hope you are happy. I hope you realized what you just did. You completely ruined a 45 year tradition that was well known, and loved by many.
You have disgraced the entire car community, you have disgraced the late Scott Jordan who started Cruisin the Dub (Thursdays were a big day for us)
All you had to do was respect the lot and follow the rules just like we did, and all would have been well but no, you felt blasting your music, roastin your tires and disrespecting everything that was built was great and acceptable.
Well it wasn’t, transit has put out many warnings and I can guarantee that they didn’t want to do this but you forced their hand, and now because of YOUR actions, a tradition is dead. Transit will not condone that behaviour, which has proven to cause injuries as we recently found out..
Just remember one thing, you did this. And we will NOT forget this. Respect is out the window now and you have no one to blame but yourselves.
They say life isn’t like high school, but decades later, the whole class is still being punished because of what one or two students did.
Hopefully a new location is found soon. Meanwhile, some memories from my Instagram:
Have read some of the buzz about the up-and-coming e-muscle. Can't get excited about it for a number of reasons, but this is about the best thing I've read in that vein so far. Really enjoyed it and am still smiling from the writing.
As a fan and once-owner of Detroit muscle from the 60s and 70s, I'd suggest that if Dodge is going to play around with fake exhaust audio to supposedly enhance the driving experience, maybe they should go whole-hog and install some techy little device that would have the aroma of raw 93 Octane, hot motor oil, hot rubber, hot antifreeze and hot exhaust wafting about in appropriate amounts at appropriate times.
And if they don't want to go hi-tech so as not to add too many extra $$ to what will no doubt be an astronomical sticker price, maybe they could just offer a few complimentary and similarly scented air-fresheners for those old enough to remember such things.