"It's time to get loud again." That was the edict from Dodge surrounding the recent return of the SRT brand.
The same three letters that graced the backside of the Viper, Charger, Challenger, and many others before it return to the lineup as the company announces major changes to its performance strategy moving forward.
But what exactly does SRT's return mean?
First and foremost, it means that Tim Kuniskis will now oversee all North American brands—including SRT. Kuniskis will report directly to Stellantis CEO and COO Antonio Filosa.
Beyond that, Kuniskis explains how the new SRT performance division will work:
'SRT is another box we needed to check as we head into a product launch cadence, enabling more performance than we’ve ever seen before. We’re working with our product development and technology organization to select the best engineers in powertrain and vehicle dynamics to build a team worthy of the SRT name.'
Those cherry-picked engineers will join forces as one dedicated team, overseeing Dodge's Direct Connection division alongside Stellantis's North American motorsports initiatives. As we've already seen, Ram is returning to NASCAR—we wouldn't be surprised to see Dodge do the same.
The details beyond that, unfortunately, are still pretty murky. But we have ideas.
The recent return of the Hemi V-8 at Ram has us hopeful for the same at Dodge. As we've already seen: People simply aren't falling in love with the electric Dodge Charger as previous management had hoped. Dealerships are having a hard time getting them off lots, offering screaming lease deals and discounts just to get people in the door.
The good news is that the Charger Sixpack is on the way—eventually. And even though it's down two cylinders on the outgoing Hellcat V-8, we've heaped heavy praise on the brand's powerful new inline-six engine already. Eight cylinders or not, it's a great motor.
Don't expect the Hellcat V-8 or any Hemi to find its way underhood of the new Charger, unfortunately. As we've reported previously, there simply isn't enough room in the engine bay for the old motor. But we wouldn't put it past Dodge and SRT to find a way to extract the most power possible out of that inline-six. And we'd be very happy with a manual (although we're not holding out hope for that one).
For SRT engineers, the rest of the Dodge lineup is essentially a blank slate. As fun as a ridiculously powerful Hornet SUV could be (remember that exists?), SRT will likely focus on the future of Dodge performance.
The company reportedly has a new Stealth SUV on the way to replace the outgoing Durango, which would be a perfect candidate for a new Hellcat treatment. Beyond that, our minds go wild imagining a reborn Challenger or the return of the iconic Viper. But, it will likely be a long time before we see any new ground-up performance cars from the Dodge and SRT brands.
And it's not just Dodge. Kuniskis said that SRT performance will work across all of Stellantis's American brands—Chrysler, Jeep, and Ram included. That means we could theoretically see a new Grand Cherokee SRT, or the return of the 300 SRT. The possibilities are endless.
While there's still plenty of information to glean about SRT's revival, one thing is for sure: This is great news for fans of performance.
