Dodge performance has come in some unlikely shapes: a full-size sedan built for drag strips, a pickup with a Viper V10 and a family wagon with a Hemi. Each of the seven below gave rival makers a real problem on the street, the strip or the spec sheet.
None of these cars faced an actual ban. Instead, the headline is about how these Dodge performance machines felt to the people trying to beat them.
1. 1962 Dodge Polara 500 413 Max Wedge
Dodge called its 1962 drag engine the Ram-Charger 413, and it went far beyond a standard 413. Its Max Wedge heads also had 25 percent larger ports and bigger valves. In addition, a special intake with 15-inch runners fed twin Carter AFB 650-cfm carburetors, and compression reached 13.5:1.
Output landed at 410 to 420 hp with about 500 lb-ft of torque, EngineLabs reports. The site lists the Max Wedge for the Dodge 330, 440, Polara and Polara 500 across 1962 to 1964. For comparison, the same 413 in a Plymouth Savoy, the “Melrose Missile,” ran an 11.93-second quarter mile in July 1962. That made it the first factory stock car in the 11s.
2. 1963 Dodge 440 426 Ramcharger
For 1963, NHRA capped factory Super Stock engines at 427.2 cubic inches. Dodge answered with a 426 Max Wedge, which it sold as the Ramcharger, written as one word. Both versions wore the Stage II name, because there was no Stage I.
Sales code 08 ran 11:1 compression for 415 hp, according to EngineLabs’ Max Wedge history. By comparison, code 09 went to 13.5:1 and 425 hp with 480 lb-ft. Meanwhile, the code 08 engine cost buyers a $445 option. Factory-stock cars could run the quarter mile in the low 12s at about 116 mph.
3. 1969 Dodge Coronet Super Bee A12 440 Six Pack
The A12 package skipped the chrome and went straight to function. Instead, buyers got a 440 big-block on three two-barrel carburetors, a lift-off flat-black scooped hood and black steel wheels on G70-15 tires. Out back, it also carried a heavy-duty Dana 60 axle with 4.10 gears.
Silodrome credits the 440 with upwards of 390 hp. Of roughly 37,715 Super Bees in the first two years, only 1,907 carried the 440 Six Pack, according to Silodrome. In other words, that works out to about one early Super Bee in 20.
4. 1978 Dodge Li’l Red Express, a Dodge performance pickup
In 1978, passenger cars needed catalytic converters in their exhaust. Dodge found a gap in the rules, because the Li’l Red Express counted as a truck and could skip those restrictive converters. So it breathed through two 2.5-inch chrome exhaust stacks rising behind the cab.
Under the hood, meanwhile, sat a modified version of Dodge’s 360 police engine with a four-barrel carburetor. As a result, Car and Driver’s testing that year found it the fastest American-made vehicle, Best Selling Cars Blog notes. Even so, Dodge sold just 2,188 in 1978.
5. 1991–1992 Dodge Spirit R/T
Lotus beat two other firms in a contest to design the cylinder head for this sedan’s engine. The result was the Turbo III, a 2.2-liter turbocharged four with dual overhead cams and 16 valves. It made 224 hp and 217 lb-ft, and every car also came with a manual gearbox.
Dodge advertised the Spirit R/T as the fastest sedan made in America, and 60 mph arrived in 5.8 seconds, The Truth About Cars notes. The R/T lasted only for 1991 and 1992. In its first year, however, Dodge sold only 774.
6. 2004 Dodge Ram SRT-10
Dodge announced a Viper-engined Ram concept in 1996, but that truck never reached showrooms. Nearly a decade later, SRT revived the idea with the 8.3-liter Viper V10, rated at 500 hp at 5,600 rpm. Outside, a front splitter, a big single hood scoop and a rear wing also set it apart.
In July 2004, NASCAR driver Brendan Gaughan drove one to 154.587 mph, Motorious reports, a world record for the fastest production truck. Motorious also quotes 0–60 mph in under five seconds and a 13.7-second quarter mile.
7. 2006 Dodge Magnum SRT-8
This one could haul a family and its luggage. The Magnum SRT-8 put the new 6.1-liter Hemi V8 into a station wagon, rated at 425 hp and 420 lb-ft, Auto123 reported.
Supercars.net’s launch report quotes 0–60 mph in the low five-second range and a quarter mile in the high 13s. Four-piston Brembo calipers handled the stopping, with 60–0 mph in about 110 feet, according to the same report. Finally, power went through a five-speed automatic with AutoStick manual shifting.
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