As The New Dodge Charger Sixpack Reaches Owners, Let's Honor The Hot Aussie Mopar Six

With nan all-electric Dodge Charger Daytona arriving first, nan reimagined Charger nameplate initially asked enthusiasts to ideate musculus without gasoline. Now, arsenic nan Sixpack models statesman reaching owners powered by Stellantis' twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter Hurricane inline-6, nan speech shifts. For galore enthusiasts, this gas-powered type feels for illustration nan Charger they were waiting for. In nan tone of this caller Charger and its powerfulness train, it's worthy remembering that Mopar has a alternatively absorbing past pinch six-cylinder powerfulness — conscionable not successful nan United States.

Over 5 decades ago, agelong earlier nan Hurricane assumed Dodge's muscle-car torch, Chrysler Australia had already built a straight-6 that punched good supra its weight. Australia's Valiant Charger R/T E-49 (quite nan mouthful of a name) packed what was called a "Hemi Six Pack."

Despite nan name, it wasn't a V8, and it surely wasn't nan hemispherical V8 galore Americans associated pinch nan Hemi badge. Rather, it was a triple-carbureted 265-cubic-inch inline-6 that made complete 300 horsepower successful an era when U.S. musculus cars were opening to struggle for powerfulness nether tightening emissions rules. While Detroit was watching capacity autumn crossed nan board, Australians had conscionable begun.

Designed successful conjunction pinch its American team, Chrysler Australia's Hemi Sixpack utilized a canted-valve combustion enclosure creation alternatively of a existent hemispherical-head motor arsenic recovered successful galore of nan American V8s.

With this motor, nan top-of-the-line Charger R/T E-49 produced a hearty 302 hp and 320 pound-feet of torque — bully for a quarter-mile clip conscionable northbound of 14 seconds. Given numbers that placed nan Charger R/T E-49 squarely successful V8 capacity territory, it was easy for Australians to crown it a homegrown musculus car contempt having 2 little cylinders. Though the Ford Barra from decades later has grown an world cult following, it was Chrysler's Hemi Sixpack that first proved a straight-6 could beryllium a morganatic musculus engine. The 265-powered Charger and its galore variants would proceed to beryllium sold until Chrysler stopped accumulation of nan Valiant Charger successful 1978.

Today's Dodge Charger Sixpack, powered by a twin-turbocharged inline-6, feels for illustration a modern reinvention of nan Hemi Sixpack from decades past. Both nutrient competitory in-class capacity while substituting for nan V8 of years past — though with loosening Americans emissions regulations, we mightiness soon spot nan return of nan Hemi V8 to nan caller Charger. But if you're 1 of nan eager folks taking transportation of a caller Hurricane-powered Dodge Charger, take a 2nd to extremity your chapeau to its Aussie forefather.