New Dodge Charger Widebody Can Do More That Just Burnouts

The Dodge Charger Hellcat is a great car. It’s a big, sturdy, comfortable family sedan with the power of a supercar. A modern-day Mercury Marauder, on steroids. However, there was always one weak area- traction. With 275-width rear tyres, it was very easy to do a burnout instead of launching. But for 2020, the Hellcat is getting fitted with a widebody as standard, which add 3.5 inches of width to the car. The widebody will be optional on the RT Scat Pack.

This means it’s getting wider tyres too- 305-width all round, and the Bilstein adaptive suspension has been retuned. It also has new front brakes- 6-piston Brembo calipers and 2-piece rotors measuring 15.4 inches ensure it can slow itself down from its 196 mph top speed.

Other features include thicker anti-roll bars, and electric power steering, with selectable modes. But not all the upgrades are for performance. Some new features exist to reduce wear on the vehicle. One of these features is Line Lock, which allows you to do a burnout without cooking your rear brakes. Another feature is Race Cooldown, which runs the intercooler pump and radiator fan to cool the supercharger after the engine is shut off. Launch control also includes Launch Assist, which reduces wheel hop, minimising driveline wear during hard launches.

The end result? 0-60 mph in 3.6 seconds, and the quarter miles in 10.96 seconds. Yes, Fast & Furious fans, it’s a 10 second car. Critics of the Chrysler Lx-bodies like to make fun of them for being heavy, and handling like boats. But that simply isn’t true: The new Hellcat Widebody can pull 0.96g during cornering, and the lighter Scat Pack is even better, being capable of pulling 0.98g during cornering. Try doing that in your Subaru BRZ. And it can stop 4 feet shorter than before from 60 mph, at 107 feet.   

Beyond the mechanical changes, the new Widebody Chargers get an updated front bumper design, and all Chargers are getting 3 new color options for 2020- Frostbite (blue), Sinamon Stick (brown-ish orange), and Hellraisin (don’t know).

But there is one thing Dodge didn’t do- make a Hellcat Redeye variant. But with the Lx-body likely to stay in production for a while yet, there’s still time for that to happen.

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