The 496-horsepower Dodge Charger Daytona R/T shows off its all-weather capability during extensive … [+]
My first car was a 1977 Dodge Aspen, a giant rear-wheel-drive beast. I drove it on the ice and snow all winter long in Indiana, where I grew up, and it performed well even when I braked for a rabbit and did a 180-degree turn. Dodge has come a long way in its century-plus history, and it has a new stallion in its garage: the 670-horsepower Dodge Charger Daytona Scat Pack and 496-horsepower Dodge Charger Daytona R/T.
Known for its powerful internal combustion engines, Dodge turned the page with its new all-electric Charger Daytona. Looking at the photos in this story, you might have noticed that the new Charger Daytona has two doors. But wait: doesn’t the Dodge Charger have four doors, not two? With this iteration, the new Charger replaces both the old four-door Charger and two-door Challenger in Dodge’s lineup.
Going forward, all of the cars in the new Dodge Charger lineup will include all-wheel drive, like the four-door Charger Daytona and gas-powered Dodge Charger Sixpack models.
Muscle Cars Take The Snow
Dodge says its Charger Daytona EV is the world’s quickest and most powerful muscle car.
The 2017 Dodge Challenger GT was the first American two-door muscle coupe with all-wheel-drive. I drove it on a snowy skid pad in New Hampshire in 2016, testing its capabilities. Feeling the car slip and slide in a barely-controlled chaos was glorious.
In Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, the automaker put the Charger Daytona EV through its paces for winter testing. Dodge added some new features to the Charger Daytona, like a wet/snow drive mode that splits the torque equally between the front and rear wheels for improved weight balance.
Dodge also says the Daytona’s rear electric drive module features a mechanical limited slip differential that increases traction and performance in cold-weather conditions. Its Drift/Donut Mode allows the Charger to switch into rear-wheel drive for winter fun. The Wet/Snow mode, standard on every new Charger, harnesses traction control, Electronic Stability Control, regenerative braking and torque bias logic between the front and rear electric drive modules to get all of the pieces working together.
Winter weather requires a certain amount of skill to navigate safely on the roads, and the vehicle’s tools make a big difference in conjunction. For instance, the new Charger carries a standard mechanical limited slip differential on the rear axle helps maximize traction in wintry conditions.
“When torque is applied from the rear electric drive module, the limited slip differential guarantees power is provided to both rear wheels, whereas a traditional open differential will simply allow a slipping wheel to continue to slip,” Dodge explains.
Why It Works
The Dodge Charger Daytona can tackle ice and snow with all-wheel-drive.
I already knew the Dodge Charger Daytona looks and feels like a close relative to its gas-powered siblings. And it sounds familiar due to its Fratzonic Chambered Exhaust that amplifies piped-in noise that mimic the muscle car sound symphony we know and love. In the quiet snow, the EV’s sounds echo across the frozen ground.
On the pavement, the Charger Daytona R/T zips from zero to 60 mph in 4.7 seconds while the Scat Pack can do it in 3.3 seconds. On the snow in an EV, the instant torque can be a friend or enemy depending on how you control it. Most importantly, for the naysayers that don’t believe an all-electric muscle car can be as enjoyable as the gas-only versions of the past: try one out. It’s the perfect blend of past and present.
