The LB-chassis Dodge Charger might have the weirdest launch arc of any car in recent memory. First unveiled as a widely panned EV, slow sales of the electric model led to huge discounts. Cleetus McFarland recently bought a brand new one for 50% off. Yeah, 50% off. Roughly a year after the EV’s launch, combustion-powered models joined the party, and they’re strange in their own right. No more V8s, no more Pentastars, only a pair of twin-turbocharged straight-sixes. On the outside, the Charger seems like an obvious victim of the Carlos Tavares era of Dodge parent company Stellantis. A plan that didn’t seem right from the start, hampered by decisions that didn’t seem to focus on the wants of Americans. Well, America seemingly has free rein again, and Dodge is celebrating by reviving a time-honored name: Super Bee.
To create the Charger Super Bee Launch Edition, Dodge started by taking the three-liter Hurricane straight-six and bolting on larger turbochargers. The compressor wheels in these new Garrett units measure 56 mm, up from 54 mm in the Scat Pack’s turbos. Fed by thermal-wrapped intakes and modified intercoolers and serving up more than 30 PSI of boost, these turbos help boost output to 600 horsepower. Granted, peak torque stays at the same 531 lb.-ft. you’d find in a Charger Six Pack Scat Pack, but a 50-horsepower boost isn’t nothing. Dodge claims it shaves three-tenths of a second off the Scat Pack’s zero-to-60 mph time, with the Super Bee boasting a 3.6-second figure. That’s slightly quicker than Dodge’s claimed time for a 2015 Charger SRT Hellcat, although the Hellcat’s purported 11-second quarter-mile time should help it blow by the 11.8-second Super Bee at the top end, provided the older Dodge can actually find traction.
In the real world, the Charger Super Bee might actually have it due to the repeatability of all-wheel-drive launches. Dodge has specced beefier half-shafts to better handle abuse, and you can still flip this large car into rear-wheel-drive mode to clean the marbles off the rear tires. However, smoky stuff is easy in a car this heavy. While Dodge hasn’t released a curb weight for the Charger Super Bee, the Six Pack Scat Pack two-door weighs 4,816 pounds. So how much tire and suspension is Dodge throwing at the problem?
The answer, it seems, is yes. New continuous adaptive dampers team up with stiffer bushings and spring rates, with a 20 percent stiffer rear anti-roll bar also attempting to get a grip on body control. Speaking of grip, 11-inch-wide 20-inch wheels come wrapped in 305-section Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercar 3 rubber. That’s a foot of 220-treadwear tread section at each corner. Add in six-piston front calipers and 16-inch discs at all four corners, and the Super Bee sure seems to be trying its hardest to overcome the mass of its platform.
As for aesthetics, the Charger Super Bee gets a dramatically revised front end that looks more aggressive than the clip on slower models. The tacky light bar’s been ditched for an all-mesh upper grille, the main grille’s now single-frame, and there are chunky corner vents that are actually functional cooling pieces. A prominent front lip caps it off, but it’s easy to miss given the Super Bee Launch Edition’s signature hue of snot rocket yellow-green. Dodge calls this hue Sucker Punch, which yeah, that’s exactly what it does to your eyeballs.
However, that 100-decibel paint comes attached to a bizarre livery. While the stinger stripe down the flank makes sense, a completely contrasting rear bumper looks decidedly strange. Dodge also showed off a four-door Charger Super Bee with the inverse color combination, and I’m not sure if it looks better.
Part of this feels anticlimactic, but what Dodge isn’t telling everyone is just as important as what it is. The Charger Super Bee Launch Edition isn’t an SRT model. It doesn’t have those three little letters in its name that signify the most powerful models Mopar offers. The only SRT badging on the car is found on the six-piston calipers, and that feels like a massive clue. Earlier this year, Stellantis announced plans for a Dodge Charger SRT by 2030. Could something even faster be in the pipeline? It’s looking likely, but only time will tell. For now, the Super Bee Launch Edition is the top-dog Charger, although we won’t know what it’ll cost, when it’ll officially arrive, and what availability will look like until later this year.
Top graphic image: Dodge
10 to 40 mph velocity of mucus. Considering 150 mph plus capability of 27′ Super Bee the term “Snot Rocket” is absurd.
On paper these things are great and I’d love to try one out. It’s serving the 4-door American performance sedan niche that currently only Cadillac is a part of.
I feel like they captured lightning in a bottle with the Hellcat becoming a pop culture icon and now their marketing team has no idea how to do it again. I think it’s car we should root for (and overcoming Stellantis Quality issues)
My far better half rolls in a 17′ Challenger that she factory ordered.
The car has been very reliable, with the only real issue being the infotainment unit needing to be swapped out a few years ago.
She finds the new Charger, and I’ll directly quote her so as to not muddle her words, “ugly”.
As the youths like to say, she’s not wrong.
So they’ve managed to lose her for a repeat customer. Quite the feat Dodge, well done lads.
I think they should have used another “BRAND NAME” for the car itself, It’s no that bad but also I don´t think it is worth the “CHARGER”´s name.
If you believe 3/4 s of the dealer shills on this and other websites, the fact that your wife kept her car for 9 years already means she is not the intended audience of stelantis or any other modern us car company. Right?
This is truth.
I will say this is the first of the new chargers that I actually think looks cool
I always thought that the Lynk&Co 03 was trying to look like a muscle car, now it seems that Dodge is trying to look like that car…
I keep thinking that if the trunk on the Dodge was a bit longer or the C pillar tucked in more the proportions would look much better.
Why is the whole backside the color of the stripe? It looks awful. This could have been cool if not for that…
I wouldn’t be surprised if two owners with the opposite color packages end up doing just that with the big rear bumper piece.
600 HP for a road car is excessive. 2.5 tons for a car is excessive. 3.6 seconds to 60 mph is silly. I’m sure the price tag will also be commensurately excessive.
I like the paint scheme, both the yellow on black and the black on yellow. Cut about 1500 to 2000 pounds and give me 250 hp and I’d be happy.
The current “Scat Pack Plus” starts at $60k. I assume this will be slotted above that.
It’s still a Dodge.
It still a Dodge.
I just want to say that the angle of the car in the image header shows some truly comically bad proportions that I’d never noticed before with this car.
20″ wheels manage to look too small for the body which is an achievement, I guess.
The base models of these really overachieve at looking like base models for that reason. Then you look at the sticker and it is still $55k.