I've been hearing murmuring rumors about the return of an eight cylinder engine for about a week now. While it is genuinely not much of a surprise it raises a bit of concern to me. The first red flag this throws up to me is the financial aspect of all of this. Not only does Stellantis have large sums of money tied up in EPA fines and borrowed tax credits (or however that works) along with the amount of money the company has lost with a bad few years of sales and all, but the fact that stellantis is burning through money at an alarming rate with all of the money they've put into the Daytona EV with the technology that is baked into that car along with the rest of their EV mission, plus the failure that is the hornet and then the introduction of this new hurricane powertrain and everything else they're going through, and now they're bringing something else to market. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for a V8 option but an obscene amount of money has been wasted by stellantis with no real positive results. These knee-jerk reactions are more of Carlos putting band aids on leaks that are springing instead of shutting off the water feed and actually addressing the source of the problem.
As I've said. I'm ALL FOR the return of a v8 engine, especially in the Dodge brand vehicles, but the question is seriously where does it fit in the new Mopar lineup and quite honestly how do you market this along with the hurricane and EV powertrains? Now to me, it's quite simple and it goes back to what I've said several times about repurposing the brands to their rightful positions under the Mopar umbrella and utilizing the proper STLA platforms with the proper powertrain combinations to make things work. Simply put, Jeep would go back to being the Jeep brand that it was before with the Cherokee & Grand Cherokee going back to the SJ days on the STLA Large platform with 32" tires, 10.2" of ground clearance, the Cherokee would have the 420hp 3.0L S/O Hurricane and the Grand Cherokee would have the 510hp variant of the Hurricane H/O engine, while both would have a hybrid variant of the upgraded 2.0L Hurricane with the hybrid 880RE transmission for the next generation of 4Xe. The Wrangler, Wrangler Unlimited & Gladiator would have all three of those powertrains on the STLA Frame platform with the gladiator moving to being a full size 1500-series truck that would have a variant to take on the F150 Raptor (not Raptor R), putting Jeep back in the forefront of off roading. The Ram brand moves forward with the Hurricane powertrains & Ramcharger EV technology only in the 1500 series pickup and moves to the Cummins 6.7L Inline-6 turbo diesel as the sole engines for the brand. A High output hybrid setup for the 1500 series truck utilizing the 550hp Hurricane engine and a plug in hybrid variant of the 880RE adding roughly 250hp for a total of 800hp will put the RHO G/T ahead of the Raptor R in power, utilizing electrification for performance. The Ram brand needs to also bring the Dakota back as America's best midsize pickup truck and offer the Dakota R/T with a 550hp Hurricane powertrain and bring back the street performance truck and then bring the Rampage back as the best American subcompact pickup on the STLA Large Platform and make it wildly customizable and fun like the old S10 Extreme with a 400hp Hybrid 2.0L powertrain. It's time to accept the fact that outside of Cadillac, American luxury is a lost cause and instead of gut stabbing Chrysler to carry on as an EV only brand and wallow in the same cesspool as Lincoln and Buick, maybe it's time to retire the brand and put the big focus on Dodge, the place it should have been from the start. Now the fact is not lost on me that even though the EV push is being greatly relaxed, electric vehicles are still a very real and relevant thing and that does need to be a focus of the Mopar brands as well, but well balanced and better thought out.
As I've said, I'm all for the return of the V8 engine, but it needs to be done right or we'll be in the same boat we are in right now. the vehicle lineup I've loosely put together above relies heavily on the Hurricane powertrains and even the next generation of 4Xe. However, this lineup also reduces the Jeep brand down to four models and it also eliminates the Chrysler brand altogether. This puts all of the pressure on Dodge to become a diverse brand again and offer vehicles that keep their fingers on the pulse of several different markets and beats all of them affordably. A Dodge Grand Caravan on the SLTA Large platform coupled with the 800V architecture and the option of a dual motor or tri-motor setup with everything being AWD makes alot more sense than a noisy EV Muscle car. I'll give credit where credit is due, I think the team did a wonderful job with the new Charger and I do give them props for the Fratzonic system and all of that and I think that a tri-motor Caravan "Street van" with sportier styling, the wing from the Wagoneer S and a few other things would be pretty cool with a Fraztonic system on it. A vehicle like that with Chrysler level luxury and customization options could actually be a very popular vehicle and would actually outsell the current minivans of today because it's something different and it's electric done Dodge and done right. Give it the three-speed gearbox and the newest EV technology and styling inside and out that doesn't look like an EV and Dodge has a winner on their hands. A Dodge Stealth Banshee four door coupe with the 800V architecture, dual & tri-motor electric powertrains, Fratzonic exhaust system, and muscular styling designed to throw down with the Tesla Model S as a low volume EV wouldn't be a bad idea either. These two and the Ramcharger pickup would give Mopar their EVs so having a place in the EV market would no longer be an issue. This lineup has Ram & Jeep vehicles being powered by the Hurricane engines and hybrid engines so that takes the brunt of the financial burden of the new powertrain off of Mopar's shoulders and allows the brand to have more environmentally friendly vehicles and a smaller reliance on V8 engines, which makes the EPA happy. Scrapping the Hornet and letting all of the issues that the hornet has get fixed over on the Alfa Romeo side as the Tonale also frees up a bit of money for Stellantis to expand the Mopar brand with a better SUV and Crossover lineup on the STLA Large platform and the STLA Frame platform. Moving the Durango to the STLA Frame Platform would definitely allow the three-row SUV to compete directly against the Tahoe and Yukon but it also gives the full size SUV market a true performance vehicle that can have trim packages for both off road performance and on-road performance and still do it without a V8 and also be extremely customizable in both configurations. Back down on the STLA Large platform, the midsize Durango replacing SUV retains the Hornet name and alot of the current Hornet styling, but on a Durango-sized vehicle with a 202" overall length and a 121.1" wheel base. This vehicle should also still be powered by the Hurricane twins and even an 800hp hybrid variant of the Hurricane along with a base 400hp hybrid 2.0L model with every trim package being available in AWD only. With all of this being in place, now we can discuss the possibility of the return of a Mopar V8 in the Dodge Charger.
While I was disappointed when they first said they were going to drop all V8 engines in the Dodge lineup, I truly grew to love the idea of the Twin turbo I-6 3-liter, reminiscing on how awesome the 2JZ-GTE powertrain was in the MK-IV Supra and the huge aftermarket following that powertrain had. The feeling of being in a boosted 2JZ when the turbos spooled and feeling that roller coaster "big hill drop" sensation of acceleration is something that I fondly remember from nearly 20 years ago. I've been in various cars with V8 engines both Domestic and Foreign and I've loved them all. But there was truly a unique, entoxicating magic that the Supra's powertrain had in both power and sound. Now I can't say that about any other non-V8 but a 3-liter twin turbo will always have a special place in my heart. Now then, with that being said, what does it take for a V8 engine to fit into this next Chapter of Dodge? A DOHC 5.2L V8 would make sense in both N/A and Supercharged form, staggering between the Hurricane SO and Hurricane HO powertrains. To me, both the two door and four door should receive the full arsenal of powertrains and all of them should have all wheel drive and none of these models can be over $65K fully loaded. As far as power is concerned. With the SO Hurricane making 420hp in an R/T Six Pack trim level (which to me should be 440hp so we could have the Charger R/T 440 six pack) and the HO making 550hp, an N/A 5.2L "Roadrunner R/T" should sit at 500hp making about 440lb-ft of torque, giving it a major advantage over the Mustang GT's 5.0L torque output while putting out the same horsepower as the Dark Horse. A Charger "Road Runner" R/T should have the Hellcat stylized Roadrunner head on it's fenders with the R/T badge on the trunk. The 550hp 3.0L Super Bee six-pack should sit above that with the new Scat Pack Bee on the fenders, while a Supercharged 5.2L Charger Daytona sits and the top of the ICE engine powertrains with 785hp and AWD. The Charger lineup would also include a Hybrid GT putting out roughly 400hp and 450lb-ft of torque from an improved 2.0L Hybrid powertrain with the new Gen 4 880RE hybrid transmission system and still would be AWD with a Direct Connection GLH package that would add things like a high flow exhaust, cold air intake, graphics, suspension upgrades, Brembo brakes and other styling and aero upgrades. Now you have a Charger lineup that makes sense and covers a huge performance market from top to bottom. But it gets even better with Direct Connection. That 5.2L V8 in the N/A roadrunner package can get an upgraded cold air intake manifold package along with a wide oval throttle body and a tuned intake manifold along with Tri-Y mid-length exhaust manifolds that are 50 state legal and replace the factory 6.2L style manifolds with tuned length primaries and a scavenger spike that mate to the factory high flow catalytic converters along with a few different catback exhaust systems, all valved and are 50-state legal with a tune that can bump power up to a total of 530hp and bump torque up another 15-25lb-ft. Those two Hurricane powertrains can receive Direct Connection kits that bump the base 440hp up to around 485-490 and that 550hp variant over the 600hp mark. The Supercharged 5.2L could easily see the mid 800hp range with 50-state legal bolt on stage kits from Direct Connection and all of this would still be backed by the factory warranty and go along with other Direct Connection upgrades such as aero upgrades, wheel options, brake upgrades, suspension upgrades and various styling upgrades and options that can be utilized through the entire Charger range. That same level of customization should be available for the Jeep vehicles and while high speed performance may not be a thing for Jeep, upgrades for All terrain capability need to be a must for the brand while Ram trucks should get upgrades from Direct Connection for every facet of what a Ram truck can be. Styling and performance for the Dakota & Rampage along with proper upgrades for the 1500 and 2500 series Ram pickups. All of this surpasses what Stellantis currently has with 3 different engine families with variations, 2 platforms, 2 EV systems & 1 transmission with variations. This may seem like a lot but this is how Stellantis can successfully bring a V8 back to Mopar without running into the same issues it has today.
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