Dodge Durango R/T

Dodge Durango R/T Dodge Durango R/T
Road Test

Picture some future explorers digging up the preserved remains of a Dodge Durango R/T. They will have no problem dating the specimen to the height of an epoch when herds of behemoths with similar body-on-frame skeletons and voracious appetites roamed the continent of North America.

Like most of them, the Durango R/T has five hinged orifices, a prodigious interior cavity, and a standard full-time four-wheel- drive system. That seems to slot it into a genus of docile leviathans known for nesting around soccer fields and shopping malls. However, the Durango also has 17-inch alloy wheels and a brooding 360-cubic-inch V-8 with a menacing snarl. Perhaps the Durango R/T was a predator that used its swiftness to run down the larger creatures of its habitat.

Either conclusion would be valid. The new-for-2000 R/T version of the Dodge Durango shares enough of its vital specs with Dodge's more family-oriented Durango SLT to remain useful as a kiddy carpooler. But it also packs enough tweaks of both the shiny and dirty variety to inch up the Durango's otherwise modest entertainment quotient.

Amazingly, the performance angle of the proletarian sport-utility segment is still largely untapped. Remember the bumptious GMC Typhoon of 1992-93, of which just 4601 were built? It reached 60 mph in less than six seconds and needed just 14.1 seconds to cover 1320 feet driving all four wheels (C/D, March 1992). Mercedes and BMW both build high-powered, high-dollar utes, but so far nobody in Detroit has dared step forward to fill the breach.

Unfortunately, nor is Dodge. It is using a fairly restrained formula in the latest attempts to leverage the historic R/T moniker. The equation behind the Durango R/T, Dakota R/T, Neon R/T, and Intrepid R/T goes like this: base vehicle plus top trim-level package plus largest available engine plus special R/T equipment group. The latter varies from car to car and includes some sporty interior and exterior trim plus a dash of spice sprinkled on the engine and suspension.

For the Durango, this means a snortier exhaust, a reprogrammed engine-control module, fatter tires, and revalved shock absorbers. It's hardly 1967 all over again, and the factory mods won't even make the R/T the hottest Durango ever to grace these pages. That title belongs to the Shelby SP360 Durango (C/D, October 1998), a $54,000, 360-horsepower tuner rocket with a Kenne Bell supercharger strapped to its iron block.

For those who prefer a factory warranty and a price south of a BMW's, the Durango at least looks good in its R/T costume. It has handsome five-spoke alloy wheels ringed by bulky P275/60SR-17 Goodyear Wrangler HP street radials and chromelike embossed "Durango 5.9 R/T" logos on the front doors. Body-color running boards are part of the package.

The interior treatment is somewhat skimpy: R/Ts feature suede door-panel bolsters and two-tone front and rear leather-faced seats. The front buckets have suede inserts bearing a small, embroidered "R/T" logo. From behind the wheel, payment makers will be hard pressed to identify their Durango R/Ts from lesser models. One more bauble on the otherwise school-bus dash, such as off-color gauges or an R/T dash plaque, would nicely rein-force the message.

Underneath the R/T's styling lies a thin but noteworthy layer of substance. At the core is the familiar 5.9-liter Magnum V-8 puffed up in the R/T by 5 hp and 15 pound-feet of torque to 250 hp at 4200 rpm and 350 pound-feet at 3000 rpm. The power increase is due mainly to some software rewrites in the engine module with the end result being more aggressive ignition timing. It's basically the same controller Jeep used on the '98 Grand Cherokee 5.9 Limited (the one with the hood louvers). With this controller fitted, the Durango R/T demands premium fuel. It also comes with a freer-flowing muffler wearing a chrome tip.

The muffler plays a thumping concerto lifted directly from the Hemi gold album. Better like it, because the four-speed automatic transmission is one overdrive short of being able to quiet down the cabin on the highway. There, the 3.92:1 final drive forces the big pushrod motor to turn almost 2100 revs at 65 mph-enough so that the niblets in back are sure to whine if they're trying to watch videos.