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by Dave Ashton
The latest instalment of the Fast and Furious franchise ‘Fast X,’ may include the new, upcoming electric Dodge Charger Daytona SRT. The long-standing muscle car movie franchise has always had a close association with Dodge vehicles, which may now be moving into the electric era.
The eagle-eyed, car spotting endeavour was done by Fox News, who spotted the roofline of a Dodge Charger Daytona SRT in one of the movie trailer segments outside Dom Toretto’s Los Angeles residence. If Dodge’s upcoming electric muscle car is featured in the movie or not is one thing. What’s more fascinating is the accompanying video interview with Dodge CEO Timothy Kuniskis. In the interview, Mr. Kuniskis explains the workings of the upcoming exhaust/sound system, and the feel of the new car to make it as muscle car-like as possible.
Up to now, the Charger Daytona SRT will be available in 6 different power levels, going from 455 hp to 570 hp, with a Banshee model expected to hit the horsepower levels of the Challenger Hellcat at 807hp. All well and good, but as Mr Kuniskis states in the video interview, the only way Dodge could respectably enter the electric space is for a vehicle to look like a Dodge, and sound and feel like a Dodge vehicle. The new vehicle also had to be a legitimate muscle car, which he admits the team struggled with the concept of for some time.
Once Dodge had figured out the design and basic principles of an electric muscle car, it was now down to figuring out how to replicate that V8 sound and feel. Dodge has dubbed this, the ‘Fratzonic Chambered Exhaust System’ which basically translates all the different sounds from an ICE engine such as acceleration and deceleration, through piping and out the rear of the vehicle. In other words, the system seems to be using acoustics and natural airflow to recreate the accustomed V8 tones, rather than just pumping it out through speakers in the cabin. Apparently, the new system can hit the dB level of the existing Hellcat at 126Db.
To further experience the feel of a traditional muscle car, Dodge will be implementing a gear-shifting experience. Most electric cars have one single gear, but the new Dodge Charger Daytona SRT will have a mechanical system to replicate the surge of energy between gearshifts. At this point, it sounds like Dodge is doing everything it can to make the new vehicle sound and feel just like a traditional muscle car.
The other tasty takeaway from the interview is that the new car, at least with the top-end model, should be able to provide more power and output than the current supercharged models. Getting the performance out of the new design seemed to be the ‘easy’ bit, according to Mr Kuniskis. The hard part was making it ‘fun’.
Watch this space for further developments.
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Electric Dodge Muscle Car: Fast X and The Future,
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