How many farewell tours has Ozzy Osbourne had? It’s like the boy who cried wolf—at some point, this legacy grandstanding ends up being an eyeroll. Yet Dodge is rumored to bring back the V8 for Ram trucks. Are we supposed to think it’ll end up in the Charger?
If you recall, Dodge made a big fuss about “Last Call” models as the Hemi V8’s swan song, culminating with the Challenger SRT Demon 170. That car was touted as the quickest, fastest, most powerful mass-produced vehicle in the world. But why would Dodge toss away so much equity in its performance marketing?
The truth is the Hemi never left–it’s still available on the Durango. Nonethelesss, blame it on the Europeans and the government. Let’s start off with the former: the erstwhile Chrysler Corporation is known today as Stellantis North America, which is a subsidiary of Stellantis, the company formed with the merger of FCA (Fiat Chrysler Automobiles) and PSA Group (Peugeot Société Anonyme). Merging the most precarious of American automobile companies with Fiat and the French—what could go wrong?
Combine a Euro-leaning multinational with strong Biden-era EPA pollution standards (that would nudge manufacturers to forge a stronger mix of EV and hybrid vehicles) and you have the makings of a quick, painful death for V8 aficionados—certainly any evolution towards that goal would have been slower with an American behind the wheel. “Communists!” said someone from the nosebleeds.
Hasn’t the former Chrysler Corporation been through enough already? Before FCA, it was DaimlerChrysler, what ended up being a soul-gutting “merger of equals” that ended up producing more acrimony than anything else . . . but we also got the Challenger and Charger, so it wasn’t all bad.
Nonetheless, as the lineup aged out of contemporary status, marketing and engineering took over, helping these outdated cars sell better and better than before. Plus, the true believers within Dodge had a their collective fingers on the pulse of Dodge’s heritage so that now every lazy entitled Gen Zer has a grasp what B5 Blue is.
And then, the baby was thrown out with the bathwater. The Challenger is currently history, replaced by a two-door Charger joining a redesigned four-door Charger. The new car is currently at dealerships, and Dodge designers have created a car with fantastic, classic proportions while mining Dodge’s heritage. What’s driving the Charger? Electricity or turbo-six power.
Choice is good. And I am sure both versions will satisfy the needs for modern living, but they are not V8s. There’s something special about a V8, the same way there’s something special about Girl Scout Cookies, Atari, and Yankee Doodle.
So, last week, Dodge announced the Hemi V8 will be returning to the Ram lineup, which will include the 5.7, 392, and supercharged 6.2 Hellcat. Rumor has it that this is due to a good ol’ American—Tim Kuniskis—returning to the ranks of Ram CEO several months ago. Does that create hope for the Charger?
Sure, leaving that question hanging is a lame attempt to get clicks on social media. I cannot profess to know how the new Charger was engineered, especially considering it’s on a platform designed for EVs, but it’s also on a platform designed for ICE.
So, start holding your breath, folks!