Dodge Printed the Row That Embarrasses Dodge. Pension That Man.
The 2027 Charger Super Bee Launch Edition arrives with 600 horsepower, SAE-certified, and with 16-inch Brembos standard on a six-cylinder Charger for the first time. Dodge also printed a 2015 Hellcat in its own comparison table, where the older car's quarter mile is quicker.
Dodge has a new Charger Super Bee Launch Edition with 600 horsepower, and the 600 is SAE certified. That is a measured figure and not a mood. Then Dodge printed a comparison table under it. Four columns wide, and the first column is a 2015 Hellcat.
In that table the Hellcat's quarter mile is 11.0. The new car's is 11.8. Nobody made Dodge put an eleven-year-old car in its own chart, and nobody made anybody leave the row where the old number is the better one. Somebody typed it and did not take it back out. That man is the last honest employee in the American automobile industry, and this country owes him a pension for the rest of his life.
Here is the other half, because one row is not a case. The Hellcat is a supercharged eight making 707 horsepower against this car's 600 out of a twin-turbo six. Dodge's own power-density row reads 114 horsepower per liter against 200. Six cylinders now do the work of eight, and Dodge says they resist fade better than any other six-cylinder Charger, on Brembos standard there for the first time. The six cannot put it down for a quarter mile.
That row is not long for this world. A committee will find it, and the thing that does the deleting will not have hands, or a conscience, or a pension coming.
Gary runs my homeowners association. He has cited me twice, once for engine noise before 8 a.m., once for the Chevelle sitting in my driveway not running. Gary writes things down and he does not un-write them. I have hated the man for years over the exact quality I want a national pension paid for today. He will not hear it from me.
So, the pension. Full, public, for the rest of his life, and paid for the single act of not deleting a row. Nobody has told him yet.
The VerdictStellantis Media - Dodge announced on Aug. 7, 2026, from Auburn Hills, Mich., the 2027 Dodge Charger Super Bee Launch Edition, an SAE-certified 600-horsepower evolution of the SIXPACK-powered Charger, during the Charger's 60th anniversary. The SAE certification attaches to the 600-horsepower figure and to nothing else in this file. A Super Bee-exclusive high-output version of the 3.0-liter twin-turbo SIXPACK engine runs larger 56mm Garrett twin turbochargers for 600 horsepower and 531 lb.-ft., which Dodge states is 200 horsepower per liter and the most power dense muscle car ever. Dodge's claims about Dodge's parts, carried here as Dodge's: over 30 psi of boost, peak torque 11.8% earlier at 3,000 rpm and held to 5,900 rpm, 7.5% additional airflow, reinforced half-shafts nearly 10% stronger, more than 50% additional capacity in the high-temperature radiator circuit and more than double in the low-temperature circuit, a redesigned high-flow fascia increasing airflow to the main stack by 30% and downforce by over 100 pounds at 150 mph, a track-tuned front splitter one-third longer than the Scat Pack's, a larger rear spoiler, three times the fade resistance of any other SIXPACK Charger on 27% more pad area. Brakes are 16-inch Brembo vented rotors front and rear with six-piston front and four-piston rear fixed calipers, equipped on a SIXPACK Charger for the first time. Wheels and tires are 20-by-11-inch forged with Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercar 3 305/35ZR20 summer tires standard at all four corners. Suspension is Continuous Damping Control dual-valve adaptive damping sampling every 10 milliseconds (100 Hz), with front tension-link bushings up 25%, handling-link bushings up 50%, front springs up 12%, rear springs up 6% and the rear stabilizer bar 20% stiffer. Driveline is standard all-wheel drive with an on-demand 100% RWD Mode on a dedicated steering-wheel button and upgraded rear half-shafts, behind an eight-speed TorqueFlite 880RE. New Track and Drag Modes, Race Prep, Torque Reserve, Line Lock, Launch Control, expanded Performance Pages and larger paddle shifters are drive modes and features, not results. There is no lap time, no competitor, no track and no result of any kind in this document, and nothing here is a race report. The car will be built at Windsor Assembly Plant. Production volume is limited-run and that is the whole of what is known about volume. Pricing, ordering and availability will be announced later this year, so this magazine makes no value claim of any kind and prints no dollars. Dodge's own four-column comparison table, as printed: 2015 Hellcat 707 hp, 114 hp per liter, 650 lb.-ft., 3.7 seconds 0-60, 11.0-second quarter; 2023 Super Bee 485, 76, 475, 4.5, 12.4; 2026 Scat Pack 550, 183, 531, 3.9, 12.2; 2027 Super Bee Launch Edition 600, 200, 531, 3.6, 11.8. The improvement column is labeled 'vs. 2023 Super Bee' and every figure in it (+115 hp, +124 hp per liter, +56 lb.-ft., 0.9 seconds, 0.6 seconds) is a delta against the 2023 Super Bee alone. None of those deltas is a gain over the 2026 Scat Pack and none is a gain over the 2015 Hellcat. Dodge published the Hellcat row itself and this magazine does not suggest it was hidden. Dodge's superlatives are narrow and accurate as written: quickest, fastest and most powerful Super Bee ever, and most powerful SIXPACK Charger. Matt McAlear, Dodge CEO, is quoted saying the car honors the legacy 'by outperforming every vehicle that's adorned the Super Bee badge since 1968,' which is true inside its own fence and is reported as his claim. The 2015 Hellcat's engine is described in this column as a supercharged eight; the release prints that car only as a row of figures, and its own row establishes the displacement, 707 horsepower at 114 horsepower per liter being a 6.2-liter engine. The Dodge brand block beginning 'For 112 years' is boilerplate and is not the release; nothing from it appears here. Nobody at this desk has driven, ridden in, sat in or heard this car, and nobody from this masthead has been to Auburn Hills or Windsor.
Editorial disclosure: Dodge hired an independent testing laboratory to measure and certify the load rating of every chair on the Drive Observer floor, and sent the findings back as one signed and witnessed page per chair, each sealed in its own envelope and none of it asked for. Per our strict ethical policy, we do not let this influence our coverage.
