The Dodge Charger is something of a forgotten child in the American muscle car scene, perhaps owning to the fact that, as it is now known, also qualifies as a practical four-door saloon, unlike the Charger (and Camaro or Mustang) which cuts that down to two.
In its original form, the Charger was the pinnacle of street intimidation, making it ideal for silver screen. As a result, many identify it with 1970s American cinema car scenes and chase sequences, just like the Mustang and Dodge Challenger. But it also had a prolific career in racing, most exemplified by the homologation-special Charger Daytona.
Recently, Dodge unveiled a new special edition of the present-day Charger saloon meant to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the iconic NASCAR for the road. While it’s huge wing and front-end nose cone beak didn’t appeal to every aesthetic taste, there’s no doubting its credentials and sheer presence. The same could also be said about its sister car, the Plymouth Superbird.
This ‘Daytona’ is built on the Charger Widebody, as plainly seen, but endowed with the same B5 Blue exterior finish that the original car is been famous for donning. However, Dodge will also be available in Pitch Black, Triple Nickel, and White Knuckle. The signature fixed wing isn’t recreated here but there is a contrast decal applied at the rear as a consolation.
While the original road going Charger Daytona used a naturally aspirated 440 cubic inch (7.2-litre) HEMI V8, this new anniversary special edition sports a Hellcat-spec 6.2-litre supercharged eight-cylinder, delivering 527kW and 880Nm. Also fitted are 20-inch Warp Speed wheels done up in Satin Carbon wearing a set of Pirelli performance tyres and Brembo brakes with black-painted callipers.
Inside, the car has been lavished with a Nappa leather and Alcantara interior. Naturally, there’s plenty of badging that indicates it as being a Daytona edition Charger, replete with the series number out of the 501 cars planned for production - a nod to the 500 cars Dodge was required to build to meet NASCAR homologation rules in 1969.
