If that’s the move, go all in.
First of all, we’re not seriously recommending you purchase a Dodge Charger SRT, least of all because they’re not officially sold in Australia. Secondly, there are no shortage of fast four doors you could splurge on that are better for your wallet and sanity in the long run.
All that said, though, maybe this new Widebody kit for the 2020 Charger shakes things up enough to waive the unabashedly brustish demeanour and potential ownership costs because, well, the car looks capable of devouring you and/or any other car you compare it against if the mood strikes.
Buyers Stateside can opt to have the kit installed if they choose either the Charger Scat Pack or as a no-cost selection on the Charger SRT Hellcat, where the visual additions are accompanied by mechanical upgrades as well.
Once equipped, the kit adds massively flared front fenders along with a new fascia elements to accommodate the 89mm in extra girth, handy for slotting in the 11-inch wide 20-inch diameter wheels which, handily, are shod in 305 section Pirelli P Zeros.
Telling the Scat Pack from the fire breathing Hellcat is most easily done by spotting the mail slot ram-air inlet on the bonnet. However, the range-topper also comes with a revised suspension that’s 32 percent stiffer at the front, beefier front and rear sway bars, and a set of adaptive dampers from Bilstein.
Surprisingly, the Charger Hellcat is also fitted with electric power steering that can vary the resistance depending on which of the SRT Drive Modes are selected - Street, Sport, Track, and Custom, which also has bearing on the aforementioned dampers.
Meanwhile, brakes have been upgraded, as they most definitely need to handle the additional unsprung mass from those larger wheels and tyres, to Brembo two-piece rotors measuring 391mm and supplemented by six-piston callipers at the front and a four-piston stopper at the rear.
Dodge says the system provides exceptional stopping power, even for such a large vehicle, able to reach a dead stop from 96km in 32 metres, or 1.21 metres less than the previous Hellcat managed.
Under the bonnet, the same 6.2-litre HEMI supercharged V8 resides, mechanically unaltered from the outgoing revision, putting out the same 707hp (527kW) and 881Nm. Drive reaches the rear wheels via a ZF-sourced 8-speed automatic transmission rebadged as TorqueFlite.
The resulting performance on hand is as impressive as the raw outputs, with the Charger Hellcat capable of 100km/h from rest in just 3.6 seconds and a top speed of 315km/h that has been electronically limited. It’ll even do the quarter mile in 10.94 seconds, if you’re into that.
New for the 2020 update, the car features a Race Cooldown system that, after certain high stress situations, allows the intercooler pump and radiator fan to remain operational even after the car has been shut off.
Meanwhile, the Scat Pack is armed with a larger displacement 6.4-litre naturally aspirated HEMI V8 that delivers 362kW, enabling the lesser Widebody to reach 100km/h in a very respectable 4.3 seconds, even out-manoeuvring the Hellcat to pull 0.98g on the skidpad - or 0.2g more.
