Dodge has revealed six of the seven Last Call-edition Challengers and Chargers that will send the duo off with a bang next year. The final one ought to be quite special. While the rest are essentially visual packages, the last of the breed has been designed to embarrass the 717-horsepower Hellcat, and presumably the the likes of the even more powerful Redeye and Super Stock variants. It was supposed to be revealed at SEMA in Las Vegas next week. It won’t be, for a very good reason.
The damn things keep blowing up. Per The Detroit Bureau:
“But we ran into some problems,” [Dodge CEO Tim] Kuniskis explained. To be more precise, the modified V-8 has been blowing up when pushed to the limits in the Dodge test lab. We’re not talking about a minor breakdown. Apparently, the engines really have been blowing up.
And with a fix yet to be developed, Dodge decided it would wait a bit before showing off what it had billed as the most dramatic of the Last Call special editions.
“I think we’ve got it figured out — if we don’t blow up any more engines,” said Kuniskis. “We think we got it fixed but I’m still holding my breath.”
The Charger King Daytona and Challenger Black Ghost — the priciest Last Call special editions already revealed — both cost just over $100,000 including destination. The unnamed final act, then, could figure to be quite a doozy in terms of cost as well as horsepower. Over the summer, Mopar Insiders shared a rumor that these mystery muscle cars will produce 909 hp, thanks to an E85 tune out of the factory.
Kuniskis capped this revelation by adding that if the lab pyrotechnics are truly over, Dodge should be able to reveal its hard work before the end of the year. The engines will need to withstand plenty of extended testing on dynos before Stellantis can deem them fit for sale. At which point, the question really becomes “what will they call it?” It’ll be difficult to outdo “Swinger,” to say the least. But I hope they try.