#DodgeChargerDaytona

Do you think electric muscle cars are cool? Like rowdy fake exhaust sounds? If so, you’ll be excited to learn that Dodge has opened the order books for its upcoming Charger Daytona R/T. Early adopters will get a “VIP Experience” and exclusive benefits for being part of the automaker’s “First Call” program.

Electric vehicles don’t make much noise. So little, in fact, that automakers are required to install a system that projects sound at low speeds to alert pedestrians and other drivers to their presence. Dodge is dipping its toe into the EV pool with the upcoming Charger Daytona, and we finally got to hear its fabled Fratzonic Exhaust system, now in its third iteration after the car’s debut a couple of years ago.

Dodge is discontinuing the Charger and Challenger after the 2023 model year, but the automaker isn’t doing away with muscle cars altogether. Though a Dodge spokesperson confirmed that internal combustion would not be a part of the next Charger lineup in a 2022 conversation with Motor1, a new report from  Mopar Insiders claims that the next-gen car will get the Hurricane inline-six alongside the electric Charger Daytona.

[Note: A significantly expanded and updated version of this article can be found here]

That air presented the greatest obstacle to automotive speed and economy was understood intuitively, if not scientifically since the dawn of the automobile. Putting it into practice was quite another story. Engineers, racers and entrepreneurs were lured by the potential for the profound gains aerodynamics offered. The efforts to do so yielded some of the more remarkable cars ever made, even if they challenged the aesthetic assumptions of their times. We’ve finally arrived at the place where a highly aerodynamic car like the Prius is mainstream. But getting there was not without turbulence.