Birmingham — It was a Plum Crazy Dream Cruise week.

I drove a Plum Crazy-painted 2023 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Widebody Jailbreak on Woodward all weekend. Plum Crazy fun to drive. And it’s Plum Crazy that this is the last year Dodge will sell this popular, iconic popular sedan.

If Corvette is Cruise King, then the Charger Widebody (and its Challenger sibling) is the Duke of Brawn. As I drove up and down Metro Detroit’s main street last week, few sedans had more presence. Widebody fenders like Dwayne Johnson biceps, dish wheels like Captain America’s shield, sinister LED running lights.

No one was more entertained than young kids. In Pontiac Cruise traffic, I saw the eyes of two boys in a pickup bed widen at the sight of the Purple People Eater on their bumper. Their fingers formed spinning air wheels and I obliged by shoving the Hellcat’s T-shifter into NEUTRAL, then revving the engine.

WHEEEERAWWWRRR! WHEEEERAWWWRRR! WHEEEERAWWWRRR!

The Hellcat’s sinister combination of supercharger and V-8 was intoxicating. More so with open road in front of it. Stoplight challenges from Mustangs, Camaros (even V6-powered Chargers wanting to know how they measured up to Brother Hellcat) invariably ended with their doors blown off into the grass. Plum Crazy.

Since it was introduced in 2015, the Dodge SRT Hellcat has captivated American enthusiasts. It reduced a pack of media to giggling children at its first Challenger coupe test at Portland International Speedway. With more power than Thor and that shrieking, supercharged 6.2-liter Hemi V-8 sending chills up your spine, naming these beasts after a kitty seemed an understatement. Was Godzilla copyrighted? Kraken not available? Smaug?

“The Hellcat has 650 pound-feet of torque,” said Dodge ringleader Tim Kuniskis at the time. “Top speed of 182 mph. Quarter-mile in 11.2 seconds. It’s loud, obnoxious, pure evil.”

And pure gold for Dodge. SRT Hellcat did the improbable: carrying Challenger to No. 1 in segment sales over the iconic Mustang and Camaro. I’ve always preferred the Charger sedan version because I’m a family man: with four doors, you could pick up the kids at school during the day, do launch controls out of Woodward stoplights by night.

No wonder Charger outsells Challenger 3:2, maintaining 80,00-90,000 in annual sales for the last nine years even as other sedans disappeared from the landscape. Kuniskis and his elves kept hammering out new, more outrageous models — Demon, Redeye, Jailbreak (which unlocks a flood of custom options) — dressed in outrageous colors: Destroyer Gray, Go Mango, Sinamon Stick, Sublime, Plum Crazy.

The SRT lineup peaked with the limited-edition, 1,025-horse Challenger Demon 170 that only a lucky few will own. One of them is Jay Leno, who picked up the keys for his 170 at Vinsetta Garage on Aug. 19 to kick off the Cruise.

I asked the comedian what other models in his 180-car, $52 million collection had over 1,000 horsepower. He rattled off four hot-rod mods like the biofuel EcoJet and a Rolls Royce Merlin-powered Franken-Bentley. But the Dodge was the only production car to achieve that distinction.

Heady stuff, but my base 717-horse Charger SRT Hellcat Jailbreak will do just fine, thank you. I chased Leno and Kuniskis up Woodward to Pasteiner’s hobby shop and I swear my Charger got more looks. Paint it green and you’d swear it was the Hulk.

My customized $89,907 model came standard with the latest electronic goodies embedded in a distinct, bezeled carbon-fiber dash display that stands out in this day of hoodless tablet screens.

With goodies like Android Auto, audio controls on the back of the steering wheel, shift paddles, blind-spot assist, and rear-backup assist, Charger lacked few of the gizmos found on the $153,000, 617-horsepower twin-turbo-V8-powered BMW M8 that was also in my driveway for Cruise week.

“Which one shall we take to Woodward?” I asked my motorhead son, who was in town. “We’d be Plum Crazy not to take the Hellcat,” he smiled.

Alas, the killjoys in Washington, D.C., have decided Dodge V-8s are mortal enemies of the polar bear. The last Hellcat will roll off the assembly line in Brampton, Ontario, at the end of this year lest Dodge incur the wrath of the pencil pushers (by the way, if you don’t have $90K laying around, let me recommend the $56K Scat Pack. Same Widebody. Same 20-inch wheels. Same Plum Crazy paint).

If only I could have taken the bureaucrats for a ride in the country.

Midweek, I took Hulk up north to M-32 (the gas guzzler’s 18.5-gallon tank meant I had over 300 miles of range), where the beast proved it could tap dance through the twisties as well as obliterate spotlights. Tap the SRT button on the center console and a menu of Drive Mode options appears. I haven’t seen so much red meat since I ate at Fleming’s.

AUTO mode is muscle enough, but TRACK mode takes Hulk to another level.

The suspension noticeably stiffened. Did it paw the earth as I aimed it at M-32? I destroyed a set of S-bends, the 4,500-pound chassis glued to the pavement before torching a short straight leading to another suite of bends. A special nod goes to the widebody fenders, which allow wider 12-inch Pirelli P Zero tires versus the standard body’s 10.8-inchers.

Upshifts were brutal, however, belting me in the back. Electronics to the rescue again. I pulled to the side of the road and accessed CUSTOM mode. I selected TRACK settings for everything but the transmission, which I kept in STREET mode. Much better. Hulk continued to bound through the countryside but without knotting my spine with each upshift. As I grew comfortable with the eight-speed gearbox, paddle shifters worked nicely too.

All this on a dated 2005 chassis. Imagine what Hellcat could have accomplished had Dodge been updated like other sports cars in recent years — BMW M, Ford Mustang, Toyota Supra — with the latest metallurgy and tech.

So the sun sets on the 28^th annual Woodward Dream Cruise — and the last model year Challenger and Chargers. They will live on at the Cruise for years to come, their muscled torsos a reminder of the second golden era of V-8 muscle cars.

My son and I swapped the driver’s seat so he could enjoy Hellcat launch control. WHEEEERAWWWRRR! roared the engine as the 650 pound-feet of torque overwhelmed the rear tires and we laid a patch of rubber down a secondary road. Plum Crazy.

Next week: 2023 Ford Performance 700 HP Package F-150

2023 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Widebody Jailbreak

Vehicle type: Front-engine, rear-wheel-drive five-passenger sports sedan

Price: $81,150 base, including $1,595 destination ($89,907 as tested)

Power plant: Supercharged 6.2-liter V-8

Power: 717 horsepower, 650 pound-feet of torque

Transmission: Eight-speed automatic

Performance: 0-60 mph, 3.5 seconds (Car and Driver); top speed, 196 mph

Weight: 4,594 pounds

Fuel economy: EPA est. 12 city/21 highway/15 combined

Report card

Highs: Bodybuilder good looks; visceral thrills all day long

Lows: No adaptive cruise control offered; pricier than a Corvette

Overall: 4 stars

Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne

Flint — The GMC Sierra AT4X AEV Edition is the truck brand’s summit. X for X-treme.

On a weekend road trip up north, the pickup moved furniture, took the family to the movies and mixed it up off-road with ATVs. Next time, I’ll be sure to ford Lake Huron. What makes the AT4X AEV special is the extraordinary performance capabilities that make it a contender in the V8-powered supertruck wars alongside the Ford F-150 Raptor R, Chevy Silverado ZR2 and Ram Rebel.

I love GM’s other eight-piston performance vehicles — the Chevy Corvette and Camaro ZL1 — but try renting a race track on the way home for exercise. On my way back from Charlevoix, I took a detour off I-75 for fun at The Mounds ORV Park. I paid my $15 Genesee County Parks & Recreation fee. Aired the 33-inch Goodyear Wrangler All-Terrain tires down to 21 PSI (from 42).

Released the Kraken.

ROOOOWWWRRR! The beast roared as it gulped real estate across The Mounds’ sandy trails like a “Dune” movie sandworm. SPLOOOOSSHHHHH! It emerged from a pool of muddy water left by weekend downpours. WHOMP! Its nose plowed into a sea of sandy moguls.

Moguls, of course, are meant for nimble dirt bikes, not 18-foot-long pickups. Happily, the AT4X AEV was armed to the teeth with five Boron steel skid plates that absorbed the brutality of the impact from my overzealous driving. Modulating the throttle, I negotiated the remaining moguls thanks to quick-reacting triple-spool-valve shocks — tools developed by IMSA race shop Multimatic, for goodness sake.

After a half-hour of this nonstop violence, I stood back to admire my beast of burden. For all its ruggedness, it’s hardly a spiked, post-Apocalyptic warthog from “Mad Max: Fury Road.”

Standing 11.2 inches off the ground in a black-and-blood-red suit — its handsome mug framed by a steel jaw and C-clamp LED running lights — Sierra AT4X AEV commands respect. Like Shaq walking through your dinner party, the truck turned heads all weekend in Charlevoix, a pickup-choked county with no shortage of head-turning rigs.

GMC’s partnership with AEV (American Expedition Vehicles) adds serious details to the AT4X’s already formidable toolbox, as well as $6,895 to its bottom line. X for X-pensive. They include twin locking differentials, steel bumpers (with optional front winch out front) and a front approach angle of 32.8 inches. But it’s the underbelly Boron plates that are truly impressive. They look as if they could survive a cruise missile hit.

None of this weaponry detracts from the GMC’s interior luxury. I performed my off-road stunts with my luggage intact — computer bag, suitcase, tennis bag secured behind the front seats. There’s more storage in the rear seat backs.

I love a good V-8, and, when I picked up the GMC, my ears were still ringing from the supercharged, 710-horse 5.0-liter Revology Shelby Mustang GT500 V-8 I’d flogged a few days before in Ann Arbor (my apologies to residents for their shattered windows). A throwback to the Dream Cruise glory days, the Mustang retro-mod’s engine fills the cabin with unfiltered sound.

AT4X’s V-8 has even more displacement (6.2 liters), yet is a velvet hammer by comparison. Reflecting GMC pickups’ status as a new breed of 21^st century luxury, the V-8 is muffled by layers of sound-deadening that make the cabin a sanctuary over long road trips.

My driveway is a rotating buffet of meaty test vehicles, and my road trip choices were the four-wheel-drive Sierra AT4X or an electric AWD Toyota bZ4X Limited. With furniture moving on my Charlevoix agenda, the pickup got the nod — but it also proved more convenient.

With a family dinner to make up north, the 355-mile range Kraken made the trip in 4.05 hours (including a 10-minute pit stop for gas), while the 228-mile range Toyota would have required 4.5 hours due to an anticipated 55-minute stop at a fast charger (assuming no waits at the Shell charger in West Branch, which has but two ports). Credit the EV as cheaper to fuel over the 250-mile journey at $30 in charging fees versus $73 for the thirsty, 14-mpg pickup.

Encased in the Sierra’s inner sanctum, I enjoyed an easy journey despite stormy weather. Rain and wind battered the truck, which stayed the course like a four-wheeled ocean liner. Twin digital screens are state-of-the-art — as are the head-up display and wireless Android Auto that guided my journey.

As a GM product, the GMC also benefits from industry-leading ergonomics. All the controls I needed were at my fingertips on the steering wheel. Volume control and radio station controls? On the back of the wheel at 3 and 6 o’clock. Adaptive Cruise Control buttons? Use the scroll button in the left quadrant. Vehicle information like tire pressures? Scroll-wheel in the right quadrant was at the ready. These ergonomics are shared across other GM brands, and all benefit.

Absent was GM’s SuperCruise self-driving feature, which would have made the interstate drive even easier, but Sierra did have GMC’s Swiss-Army-knife-like MultiPro tailgate ($1,200 addition).

The gate has six configurations depending on your tailgating needs — and we used its step feature to walk into the tailgate and load the pieces of a bed. The AT4X model is available only in Crew Cab/short box configuration.

As the sun set, we set off for the movies in Petoskey with plenty of room for four. My wee wife and daughter-in-law, it should be said, struggled a bit with the beast’s height — kinda’ like trying to climb on Shaq’s shoulders. The AT4X eschews the running boards of other expensive trucks to maximize off-road ground clearance, and Mrs. Payne practically had to pole-vault into the front seat.

Once inside, the cooled GMC’s thrones were cozy on a warm June summer’s night. And GM has adopted Mazda-style, single-action vents for easy HVAC.

For all of its off-road macho, the AT4X AEV was a gentle giant to ride on-road thanks to its talented shocks and chassis. In keeping with its Camaro and Corvette performance brethren, GMC and Chevy trucks sport highly-engineered chassis dynamics that allow for spirited driving on country roads.

Assuming you have the permission of the other passengers.

And when you’re the only one aboard the Sandworm, well, don’t be shy about taking a detour to an off-road park. Maybe I’ll explore Silver Lake dunes next time.

Next week: Class of 1997 – the New Dream Cruise Classics

2023 GMC Sierra AT4X

Vehicle type: Front-engine, four-wheel-drive four-door pickup

Price: $83,595, including $1,895 destination charge ($91,085 AEV as tested)

Powerplant: 6.2-liter V-8

Power: 420 horsepower, 460 pound-feet of torque

Transmission: 10-speed automatic

Performance: 0-60 mph, 6.1 seconds (Motor Trend); towing, 8,900 pounds; 1,420-pound payload

Weight: 5,974 pounds (as tested)

Fuel economy: EPA est. 14 mpg city/17 highway/15 combined

Report card

Highs: Formidable off-road; easy interior ergonomics (once you’ve climbed a ladder to get in)

Lows: Big footprint in the city; big price tag

Overall: 4 stars

Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.

Charlotte, North Carolina — Heaven is riding a Ford Mustang Dark Horse at 7,500 RPM.

Coming off the 24-degree Turn One banking at Charlotte Motor Speedway, I banged the manual Tremec shifter from 4^th to 5^th gear at redline, all 500 ponies roaring in front of me. Down the back straight we thundered until a tight 180-degree hairpin interrupted our reverie.

But for all of the V-8’s glorious aria, the infield course on Charlotte’s 2.3-mile “roval” (road oval, combining Charlotte’s oval track with a tight infield course) is where the Dark Horse really shows its stuff.

Building on the seventh-generation Mustang I recently tested in the canyons of Angeles Crest Highway north of Los Angeles, Dark Horse is the new-gen Mustang’s first performance variant.

It’s no GT350 – the screaming, 526-horse, 8,000 RPM, V8-powered Shelby variant that Ford introduced with its 2015 sixth-gen coupe – but it’ll do. Credit Mustang’s entry into IMSA’s new GT3 and Mustang Challenge series with a pair of snorting, earth-pawing race cars – both flying the Dark Horse banner. Win on Sunday, sell Dark Horses on Monday.

Dark Horse is one mean-lookin’ filly.

You’ll know it by the black mask enveloping the grille and headlights. Black stripes flow up the hood (there are graphics options, typical of Mustang customization) like striping on a stallion’s nose. Get Dark Horse in red or Grabber Blue to highlight the black trim.

The visual allows for instant differentiation from the yellow GT that I flogged in California. And the Dark Horse picks up where the loaded $60K GT lets off: performance package with upgraded P-Zero summer tires, sway-bars, brakes and spoiler out back.

Decelerating into Charlotte Motor Speedway’s hairpin, these elements combine to bring the two-door missile back to earth, just as they teamed up in the GT to conquer California Route 2 with precise handling and instant toque. Indeed, Dark Horse destroyed the rolling North Carolina country roads leading into the Motor Speedway of Charlotte.

But the track is Dark Horse’s natural habitat. I encourage owners to spend time there to explore its envelope. Here the engine, brakes, tires and transmission are pushed to the limit of heat and grip. It’s why Ford upgraded Mustang’s manual transmission from a Getrag unit in the GT to the Dark Horse’s Tremec — the latter equipped with two coolers to withstand sizzling temps.

It’s why you’ll want to upgrade to the $4,995 Dark Horse Handling Package and its sticky P-Zero Trofeo RS rubber (or buy a new set of rims and take slick tires to the track). The Handling Pack comes with goodies like an adjustable rear wing and front splitter — but it’s the tires that are the secret sauce.

Hard on the brakes into the hairpin, the Pirelli gumballs gripped the pavement with confidence compared to the slipperier summer P-Zeros. Rev-matching with the manual shifter help make for smooth corner entry — BRAP! BRAP! BRAP! — as I shifted from fifth to second for the tight left-hander.

Sticky as they are, the Trofeos couldn’t contain the 5.0-liter Coyote V-8’s 415 pound-feet of torque, and the rear end briefly stepped out as I stomped the throttle up into Infield Turn 3. Sliding across the 90-degree Turn 3 apex, Dark Horse was remarkably balanced for a 3,900-pound land shark that has swallowed a V-8 boat anchor — but uphill Turn 4 would be a bigger challenge.

A long 180-degree left-hander, Turn 4 is essentially half a skid pad — an opportunity to get to the sports car’s true character. And Mustang likes to, um, understeer.

Ford’s chief muscle car competitor, Camaro, has shown up the Ford pony in such exercises given the Chevy’s neutral handling (credit a chassis shared with the corner-carving Cadillac CT4-V). Sure enough, Dark Horse — like a pack horse distracted by some delicious grass on the side of a trail — was stubborn about turning into Turn 4, its nose plowing straight ahead.

Patience, Payne. I back off the throttle and rotate the big coupe into the apex. Once it sniffed the apex, Dark Horse responded, the Trofoes absorbing power. I get back on throttle again — only to face yet another 180-degree Turn 5. And another for Turn 7. And again in Turns 8 and 9.

The inherent push is always there, but I learned to coordinate V-8 torque and sticky rubber to hit my marks. It’s what makes track days so much fun, and why eight-holers like Mustang are track favorites. The Coyote’s wail echoed off CMS’s walls as I pounded around lap after lap.

Dark Horse options leather Recaro seats, which were both supportive and comfortable — unlike the back-crippling carbon-fiber seats I recently experienced in the BMW M3.

With its gorgeous 19-inch display screens housing digital instrument and infotainment displays, seventh-gen V-8 Mustangs can now be credibly considered peers of the Bimmer, which boasts a similar display. In past generations, interiors weren’t Mustang’s strength, but that has changed and you’ll enjoy customizing Dark Horse’s track modes — augmented by Unreal Engine gaming graphics that are BMW’s match.

One thing Mustang could learn from Bimmer is to put its horizontal RPM tachometer (TRACK mode) in a head-up display for maximum driver visibility. Especially since the Dark Horse tops out at a nose-bleed $72K. That’s $15K shy of a loaded, 500-horse M4 Competition, but still a lot of coin considering that the Corvette C8 and Porsche Cayman start in the mid-$60,000 range.

But add a proper, howling V-6 to the Cayman and price soars to $93K. The Corvette is stiffer competition. Add a Z51 performance package and the Chevy is competitively priced with the Ford while providing its own 495-horse V-8 and high-tech interior. Especially if you equip the Mustang with the $1,595 10-speed automatic, which rivals the ‘Vette for smooth motoring. The ‘Vette doesn’t offer a manual, however.

Rotating out of the last 180-degree Turn 9 back up onto CMS’s banking, I grabbed the blue shifter knob and shoved it into third gear at redline. Then 4^th gear, the cannon-sized quad pipes out back exhaling with a snort. Coyote howling toward redline.

I grabbed for 5th. Heaven.

Next week: 2023 GMC Sierra AT4X

2024 Ford Mustang Dark Horse

Vehicle type: Front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, four-passenger sports car

Price: $60,865 base, including $1,595 destination ($67,510 manual and $72,800 automatic as tested)

Power plant: 5.0-liter V-8

Power: 500 horsepower, 418 pound-feet of torque

Transmission: Six-speed manual; 10-speed automatic

Performance: 0-60 mph, 3.8-4.3 seconds (Car and Driver est.); top speed: 165 mph

Weight: 3,949 pounds (manual); 3,993 (automatic)

Fuel economy: EPA 14 mpg city/22 mpg highway/17 mpg combined (manual)

Report card

Highs: Looks wicked; Trofeo RS tires grip like glue

Lows: Understeer at the limit; Mustang GT with slicks gets you to the same place for less coin

Overall: 3 stars

Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne