Sam CarLegion is back with a quarter-mile showdown between three go-faster machines. On this occasion, it's naturally aspirated V8 muscle versus a turbo inline-six engine with an oil level sensor instead of a good ol' dipstick.
Starting with the rarest and most powerful car of the bunch, the Dodge Charger Super Bee in the video below is no 700-plus-hp Hellcat. Based on the 392-engined Scat Pack with the Widebody option, this Plum Crazy thriller was produced in 500 units for the 2023 model year. A further 500 rolled off the assembly line with the standard body and B5 Blue paintwork.
The heaviest car here weighs close to 4,400 pounds (1,996 kilograms) compared to around 4,000 (1,814) for the less powerful contenders. Part of the reason for this curb weight is the antiquated platform, which dates back to the failed merger between Chrysler and Daimler. There's also the 392-cube leviathan hiding underhood, whose iron block weighs quite a bit more than aluminum. Both the B58 of the BMW M340i and 2UR-GSE of the Lexus IS 500 use aluminum for the blocks and heads.
Be that as it may, it's running Nitto drag radials and it makes 485 mechanical ponies compared to 472 for the Lexus and 382 for the Bimmer. Torque is mistakenly listed as 392 pound-feet by Sam, with Dodge quoting 475 pound-feet (644 Newton-meters) for the 6.4-liter engine.
Over at Lexus, the naturally aspirated 5.0-liter mill of the IS 500 F Sport makes a very respectable 395 pound-feet (536 Newton-meters). It also revs higher than the HEMI engine of the Charger, namely 7,100 revolutions per minute versus 6,400 revolutions per minute. You can thank dual-overhead-cam heads for that, although the 392 sounds that little better than Toyota's NA V8.
Photo: Sam CarLegion on YouTube
The final contender has the least peak torque and liters of displacement on deck, for BMW advertised the 2022 model year M340i with 368 pound-feet (almost 500 Newton-meters) and 3.0 liters. On the other hand, remember that BMW sandbags the crankshaft numbers of six- and eight-cylinder lumps. Furthermore, this M340i rocks xDrive all-wheel drive, which should pay dividends when launching from a dig.
Oh, and we also have to acknowledge that BMW also knows how to calibrate launch control better than pretty much everybody. Given the aforementioned, Sam completely obliterated the others with bests of 3.8 seconds to 60 miles per hour (97 kilometers per hour) and 12.2 seconds for the standing quarter.
The second-fastest car wasn't the Charger, but the blue-painted IS 500. Equipped with an aftermarket exhaust, it posted 4.3 and 12.6 seconds, respectively. As for the stupidly nice-looking Super Bee, its owner could not do better than 4.5 seconds to 60 miles per hour and 12.8 in the quarter mile. Then again, from how the guys are dressed, it's clear the weather was chilly that day. With drag radials not getting up to the right temperature in such weather, launching was especially hard.
Dodge's fastest series-production vehicle to date is closely related to the L-platform Charger, that vehicle being the Challenger SRT Demon 170. Capable of running 8.91 seconds at 151.17 miles per hour (243.28 kilometers per hour) on a strip and with corn brew in the fuel tank, the Demon 170 was produced in 3,300 units, of which 300 were delivered to customers in Canada.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?
Google News