Depending on who you are, you may think it either stinks in Pontiac or it smells like heaven.
The scent — regardless of how you feel about it — is due to the rubber burned by Dodge while showing off an all-new Dodge Charger Super Bee — a muscle car with a six-cylinder engine which, the CEO said, is quicker than the 707-horsepower Hellcat Charger of legend.
The new Super Bee was unveiled Aug. 7 at an event for the news media at M1 Concourse in Pontiac, the site of the upcoming Roadkill Nights drag race festival on Saturday, where plenty more rubber will melt. Matt McAlear, the CEO of Dodge, said the Super Bee is the "most power-dense muscle car ever," claiming that title because of the vehicle's 200 horsepower-per-liter squeezed out of the 3-liter
engine.
To be clear, the Super Bee doesn't have more horsepower than the Hellcat, but it does run a slightly faster 3.6-second 0-60, McAlear said. The vehicle, set for the 2027 model year, comes in three colorways: A chartreuse yellow with black accents, a black version with yellow accents and an all-black version.
The new vehicle is fine-tuned for both daily driving and track performance. It will be available in four- and two-door configurations and comes with performance-recording software, stronger turbos, more powerful engine cooling systems, massive brakes and the choice to toggle between all- and rear-wheel drive instantly.
Dodge officials did not say exactly when the Super Bee will be released, nor did they put a price tag on it. Those details, McAlear said, will come later in the year.
The release of a new muscle car was the highlight of many announcements made by Dodge during the media preview event. The automaker also showed off a few new paint color options for the Durango and Charger, and took the tarps off of 10 custom-built, one-off Chargers made especially for the Roadkill Nights event — two of which are purpose-built drift cars set on cambered wheels with whining engines and whistling turbos.
Those drifters, of course, also cast big plumes of white smoke over the crowd.
Dodge CEO: This car is 'absolutely incredible'
McAlear, in an interview with the Detroit Free Press, said the Super Bee housed the most powerful Hurricane twin-turbo six-cylinder engine Dodge engineers have ever designed for mass production.
That Hurricane engine has been highly regarded by some, though other Dodge fans are still married to the HEMI V-8, which is unavailable in the current Charger model. McAlear hopes that anyone hesitating to try an inline-six engine in their Charger visits a dealership to take one on a test drive.
"Experience what this car is capable of," McAlear said when asked what he'd tell the V-8 faithful. "Drive it in all-wheel drive. Drive it in rear-wheel drive. Use the launch control. These vehicles are absolutely incredible."
Stellantis, the parent company of Dodge, announced in May that it would be significantly restructuring its business. The company's "FaSTLAne 2030" strategic plan made Jeep and Ram the company's newly christened "global brands," which will be receiving the most attention and research and development funding in the North American market. Dodge and Chrysler, now deemed "regional brands," are taking a backseat and receiving less funding.
Nonetheless, McAlear is unfazed, saying that Dodge will keep doing business as usual.
"If you dive into the details of FaSTLAne 2030, we're investing in every brand, not just Jeep, not just Ram, but also Dodge and Chrysler," McAlear said, adding that more new vehicle announcements are pending.
The CEO added that the Durango, Dodge's top-selling three-row SUV, is getting a refresh soon, and emphasized previous news that Dodge will soon release a speedy hatchback called the GLH. Soon, too, Dodge is bringing the Hellcat back to the Dodge Charger.
"This isn't the finish line," McAlear said earlier when unveiling the new Super Bee. "We haven't even started talking about what SRT is working on."
In May, the Free Press got a brief first look at the new Hellcat Charger, which has not been shown in any official Dodge images. The Hellcat Charger featured a new, aggressive hood scoop and sharper front end, along with a tall Richard-Petty-Superbird-esque wing on the back end. Of course, it wore an SRT badge.
McAlear briefly addressed the Hellcat-shaped shadow cast upon the reveal of another new six-cylinder Charger.
"We're not abandoning what came before," McAlear said. "But we're not being trapped by it either."
Liam Rappleye covers Stellantis and the UAW for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him: LRappleye@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Dodge reveals new Charger, claiming it is quicker than the OG Hellcat
