![\"For](\"http:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/-mm-\/519febe36c7a6b70cc10807ca41a2b4a26ba74f5\/c=197-738-1648-2673&r=383&c=0-0-380-510\/local\/-\/media\/DetroitNews\/DetroitNews\/2014\/11\/04\/635507101923899395-DG015-296CH.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The 707-horsepower, 2015 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat goes 0-60 in 3.7 seconds, hits a top speed of 204 mph, and reaches a quarter mile in 11 seconds flat.<\/p>\n
You know, a family car.<\/p>\n
I wink. I smile. But in the Age of the Sport Ute, Dodge’s large sedan is pure genius. It may be the 21st\u00a0century but we Americans still prefer riding high in SUVs like the horse-drawn carriages of the 19th. To compete with these domesticated elephants, Dodge offers the Hellcat and its Charger siblings. Performance sedans for those who want vroom with room.<\/p>\n
The full-size sedan segment is fat with stylish four-doors like the Toyota Avalon, Ford Taurus, and Chevy Impala. But these sedans are an endangered species thanks to stylish, roomy, sport utes produced by their own brandmates. Take the Impala, a stunning divan on wheels which ultimately must compete with a handsome Chevy Traverse SUV that is roomier with better visibility.<\/p>\n
Chrysler fields the most iconic SUV of them all, the Jeep. But you’ll never mistake a Charger for a Jeep.<\/p>\n
Carpool to school and it’ll hunt down Priuses for breakfast. Even the growling, base V6 is politically incorrect. Look in the mirror and its specter is chilling. Where the previous gen Charger bullied with its gaping, truck-like mouth, the new Charger adopts racier family features first seen on the Dodge Dart. Dart, meet harpoon. A narrow, blacked-out grille makes a brooding mono-brow across the Charger’s wide face. Like the pupils of a black panther, the darkened, swept headlights glow with white LEDs. The kids’ll scream for it.<\/p>\n
Behind this fearsome maw is a jaw-full of sharp teeth. Unlike segment competitors that introduce themselves with 4-cylinders, the $27,995, starter SE announces itself with a V6 – the same 292-horsepower mill that premium Chrysler 200s use to terrorize the mid-size sedan class. For just $12k more you’re at the reigns of the R\/T Hemi V8’s 485 horses.<\/p>\n
Key to this inspiration is Dodge’s barrel-chested, drag-racing CEO Tim Kuniskis who spits out facts about the Charger lineup like a Gatling gun. Dodge commercials celebrate the Charger as the natural evolution of a company founded by the speeding, brawling, bare-knuckled Dodge brothers. I bet Kuniskis could whip ’em both.<\/p>\n
He’s certainly punishing the competition. Charger sales have increased 63 percent in five years, increasing market share by over three percent. “We don’t want to compete on a spread sheet,” says Kuniskis, who, at 45, is the average age of the Charger’s much-young-than-segment buyer.<\/p>\n
“I want people to day: ‘Damn, that’s a nice car.'”<\/p>\n
To drive home the Charger’s performance statement, Kuniskis has bred the ferocious, Charger Hellcat. Just as he did the two-door Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat when the iconic two-door muscle car debuted this summer. Two Hellcats? Do we have to choose?<\/p>\n
Steady yourselves, muscle-car veterans. I’d choose the Charger.<\/p>\n
When my speed-starved son sprung for his first car this year he bought a four-door, 200 horsepower, VW GTI hot hatch. Without any sacrifice in performance he can comfortably escort a double date to dinner. The same principle applies with the four-door Hellcat. Indeed, thanks to a slipperier drag coefficient, the Charger actually puts up gaudier numbers than its Challenger stable-mate: It’s\u00a00.2 ticks quicker<\/a>\u00a0down the quarter mile, and eclipses the 200-mph mark while the coupe manages “just” 199 mph.<\/p>\n All that while comfortably fitting 6’5″ ball-players like me in its cavernous, ute-like backseats. Besides, what would the kids rather see you pick them up at school in? A vintage Challenger trying to relive the ’60s, or a rockin’ Charger bod that looks like it jumped out of a Sega Ultimate Street Racing game?<\/p>\n When I tested the Challenger Hellcat at Portland Raceway this June, I thrilled at its raw, asphalt-chewing power.<\/p>\n But at my test of the Charger Hellcat on a rain-soaked drive from Washington, DC to West Virginia, I was treated to a demonstration of the car’s life-saving electronic systems. Purchasers of mega-horsepower muscle cars beware \u2013 these beasts are nitroglycerine on four wheels. Explosive. Unstable if not treated with respect.<\/p>\n As a life-long racer, I’ve developed instincts with high-torque, high-power-to-weight ratio cars. But my drive partner in the 700-plus horsepower Hellcat, a longtime friend and colleague, had not.<\/p>\n Entering an empty four lane on our way to Summit Point Raceway in the wet, he stomped on the throttle and the Hellcat bit back. Suddenly, we were swerving across two lanes like Ahab clinging to Moby Dick. With each wag of the 4,575-pound Charger’s tail, the big fish porpoised further out of the driver’s control. I braced myself. This was going to be a real tank slapper. Like a wayward bowling ball at Star Lanes, we were doomed for the gutters.<\/p>\n And then, like the hand of God, the electronic control system saved us.<\/p>\n Cutting throttle, applying brakes, shaving the car’s pitch and yaw, the Charger’s computer brain took over and brought the beast back from beyond. Riding in the backseat, SRT chief engineer Russ Ruedisueli was quiet \u2013 no doubt admiring his engineers’ handiwork (and saying a prayer of thanks).<\/p>\n Stability control. Don’t leave home without it.<\/p>\n