Short Take Road Test
"Sssrrriitt?" We struggle for some satisfying pronunciation of this spray-slinging three-letter clump because we know the cars wearing the SRT logo of Chrysler's Street and Racing Technology group will be hot topics in the months ahead.
"Sssrrriitt? Es'ritt? SirTee?" No matter how it comes off the tongue, there's no music in this name, no boogie. SRT comes alive only when you key up the combustion. This newly introduced Dodge Magnum SRT8 is about more than horsepower-it's about moving through traffic with gunfighter confidence. But its 425 Hemi horses tend to dominate the conversation.
Zero to 60 in 5.1 seconds has a way of doing that. Breaking out the far end of the quarter-mile at 106 mph after only 13.6 seconds of hammer-down time gets respect, too, especially in a 4379-pound box full of space for five people and 27 cubic feet of cargo.
"SRT8" will never please the speaker's lips the way "Hemi" does, but nobody will care. Here's why: We went back though the years to the benchmark, a January 1969 comparison of muscle cars in which a 426 Hemi-powered Plymouth Road Runner showed its taillights to all comers with a 0-to-60 of 5.1 seconds. That 3938-pound hardtop cleared the quarter in 13.5 seconds with a speed of 105.
"King Kong." That was the Hemi's nickname. It wore orange paint and black crackle valve covers and was rated at 425 horsepower. And now, four decades after King Kong's debut, what do you see under the SRT8's hood? Orange paint and black crackle. Horsepower just happens to be 425 at 6000 rpm.
Compared with that seven-liter of old, this new one is a 6.1-liter compact, the result of upsizing the bores in today's 5.7 Hemi by 3.5 millimeters. But that was just a small part of the serious performance makeover that includes new, big-valve heads; a beefier block; a forged crank; stronger rods; a billet cam; and even hollow intake- and exhaust-valve stems to lift the useful rev range to 6400 rpm. We'll be hearing a lot about this power pump. Chrysler set up a dedicated assembly line for it, expecting an annual crop of about 25,000 for use in SRT8 versions of the Chrysler 300C ( C/D, June 2005), Dodge Charger and Magnum, and Jeep Grand Cherokee.
For such a heavyweight, the Magnum feels light on its tires around Arizona's Firebird International Raceway. The big 20-inch Goodyear F1 summer tires on 9.0-inch-wide wheels have great cornering stability; you can lean on them with confidence. A 16.1:1 rack-and-pinion quickens the steering compared with the ordinary Magnum's 18:1. The overall balance is stolid and trusty, and if you don't like that, just switch off the electronic stability control. Hoo-wee! Kick the tail out to macho drift angles and flat-pedal it off the turns, knowing all the time that the 14.2-inch-front and 13.8-inch-rear vented Brembos have an amazing capacity to bring you down to grandpa slow in time for the next turn. The firm and easy-to-modulate brake pedal seems to call down the hand of God.
On Arizona's smooth pavement, the SRT8's ride is taut and reassuring; be prepared to think "crunchy" in the frost-heave states. And that's relevant here, because the Magnum SRT8's $37,995 price is within tip-toe reach of regular guys. This is a high-protein package, with deeply contoured front buckets for serious lateral support, a 180-mph speedo to give your son something to brag about in school, and carbon-fiber trim on the steering wheel and dash. Outside, the SRT badges are discreet, but the lowered suspension and big, shiny five-spokers set a purposeful posture. The honeycomb grille and the aero-enhanced nose are relatively subtle, except to the passing air, which finds itself redirected for more engine and brake cooling and less front-end lift. A pair of upsize pipes punctuates the picture for those left behind.
"Sssrrriitt." Translated, it means, "King Kong is back!"
