Road Test
Follow-Up Test: 2007 Dodge Charger SRT-8 Super Bee
1968 All Over Again
This is a road test of a tape stripe. A black polyvinylchloride appliqué manufactured by Key Automotive in St. Paul, Minnesota, and shipped on thousand-pound pallets to the plant in Brampton, Ontario, Canada, where all Dodge Chargers are made.
If you want to read about the rest of the 2007 Dodge Charger SRT-8 Super Bee, read our review of the Dodge Charger SRT-8. You see, aside from the tape stripes on its hood, flanks and deck lid, plus the contrasting yellow stitching on the seat, steering wheel and shift knob, the Dodge Charger Super Bee is identical to the Charger SRT-8 we tested last year.
Which means it's one hot car. You want a modern incarnation of a traditional big, rear-drive American muscle car? Here it is, 1968 all over again. At least that's what the Dodge marketing people are hoping for anyway.
Cars on Illegal, Controlled Substances
The 2007 Dodge Charger SRT-8 Super Bee is the first special edition of what they call the "Charger on steroids" series from Chrysler Group's Street and Racing Technology (SRT).
"The Dodge Charger embodies modern American muscle, and at the same time, carries on a great performance heritage," says George Murphy, senior vice president of global brand marketing, Chrysler Group. "It was only natural to give a nod to that heritage with the reintroduction of a famous Dodge performance nameplate and a high-impact heritage paint name."
Well, yes and no.
We never really understood why anyone would want the Super Bee option. In 1968 Dodge had a perfectly good pair of muscle cars in the Coronet R/T and, at a higher price point, the Dodge Charger. The only reason the Super Bee option was introduced was to counterpoint the Plymouth Road Runner, which was a low-cost, low-content street machine that delivered a good bang-for-the-buck ratio. At an as-tested price of $47,000, our yellow Bee doesn't exactly continue that tradition.
Later, in 1971, a Super Bee tape package was made available on the Charger itself in an attempt to pump up sagging sales. Meanwhile, sitting right over there was the perfectly fine Dodge Charger R/T muscle machine with a nicer interior.
So, we ask again. Why? Why a Super Bee when, sitting right over there, is a perfectly fine Dodge Charger SRT-8 muscle machine?
The answer is simple. Dodge brand marketers know there will always be drivers who want to be in the face of other drivers.
And the Detonator Yellow '07 Super Bee is, indeed, in your face.
Under the Hood
At least the Super Bee has the bones to back it up. Powering the Bee is the SRT-engineered 6.1-liter version of the Hemi V8 producing 425 horsepower and 420 pound-feet of torque. That's 85 additional hp — 25 percent more — than the 5.7-liter Hemi. But again, this upgraded powertrain is available in any Charger SRT-8.
Our testing at California Speedway netted a best 0-to-60-mph run of 5.3 seconds with the quarter-mile clicked off in 13.6 seconds at 105.8 mph. Numbers, by the way, which would allow the '07 Charger SRT-8 Super Bee to literally run rings around a '68 version. Hemi-powered '68s could run 13s only after hours of tuning and primping by engine preparation experts.
And how about burnouts? After all, who wants a rear-drive muscle car if you're not going to do burnouts? Happy to report the Super Bee excels in the burnout department. Just brake rev it, dump the brake pedal and floor it and you're bouncing the tach needle off the rev limiter and frying the huge 255/45R20 rear tires at will (the fronts are 245/45R20).
One strange quirk is, even when you manually shift the five-speed automatic's selector lever to 1st gear (in normal driving, the transmission starts in 2nd to save gas), you still can't hold there while you accelerate. If you start to approach the rev limit, the computer will override your manual AutoStick selection and shift the trans to 2nd. This is very embarrassing in the middle of a burnout, which quickly turns into a bog once the trans shifts on you.
Hey, SRT engineers! We thought this is the SRT-8 version — the high-performance driver's version of the Charger. If we want to manually hold 1st gear, we should be able to manually hold 1st gear. Don't program the car's computer to override our selection if you've already programmed the rev limiter to save the engine.
Handling and Braking
With an electronic stability program, antilock braking system, plus specially calibrated springs, shocks and stabilizer bars, you'd expect this car's handling to be predictable and stable. And it is. The Bee's 66-mph run through the slalom is faster than the BMW 535i can manage. It also pulls a respectable 0.84g on the skid pad.
Unfortunately, the price you pay for the handling is ride comfort. This car is stiff and jiggly. Of course, the SRT engineers will tell you that an American muscle car is supposed to ride stiff and jiggly — and they all did. But this isn't 1968 and there's a point where this heritage crap goes too far. It's just not necessary, and much of the blame has to go to the Bee's low-profile 20-inch tires.
Despite its gigantic Brembo brakes, the Detonator Yellow Charger stopped from 60 mph in a rather long 135 feet, against Dodge's claim of "approximately 110 feet." We attribute the pedestrian braking performance to this car's rather porky 4,262-pound curb weight with more than 54 percent of those pounds over the front wheels.
Out on the Street
And so it performs, but when you drive this car, you have to be ready to accept compliments — or indignities, depending on your perspective. Some examples garnered from our four days with the car in the Los Angeles area:
If you want to read about the rest of the 2007 Dodge Charger SRT-8 Super Bee, read our review of the Dodge Charger SRT-8. You see, aside from the tape stripes on its hood, flanks and deck lid, plus the contrasting yellow stitching on the seat, steering wheel and shift knob, the Dodge Charger Super Bee is identical to the Charger SRT-8 we tested last year.
Which means it's one hot car. You want a modern incarnation of a traditional big, rear-drive American muscle car? Here it is, 1968 all over again. At least that's what the Dodge marketing people are hoping for anyway.
Cars on Illegal, Controlled Substances
The 2007 Dodge Charger SRT-8 Super Bee is the first special edition of what they call the "Charger on steroids" series from Chrysler Group's Street and Racing Technology (SRT).
"The Dodge Charger embodies modern American muscle, and at the same time, carries on a great performance heritage," says George Murphy, senior vice president of global brand marketing, Chrysler Group. "It was only natural to give a nod to that heritage with the reintroduction of a famous Dodge performance nameplate and a high-impact heritage paint name."
Well, yes and no.
We never really understood why anyone would want the Super Bee option. In 1968 Dodge had a perfectly good pair of muscle cars in the Coronet R/T and, at a higher price point, the Dodge Charger. The only reason the Super Bee option was introduced was to counterpoint the Plymouth Road Runner, which was a low-cost, low-content street machine that delivered a good bang-for-the-buck ratio. At an as-tested price of $47,000, our yellow Bee doesn't exactly continue that tradition.
Later, in 1971, a Super Bee tape package was made available on the Charger itself in an attempt to pump up sagging sales. Meanwhile, sitting right over there was the perfectly fine Dodge Charger R/T muscle machine with a nicer interior.
So, we ask again. Why? Why a Super Bee when, sitting right over there, is a perfectly fine Dodge Charger SRT-8 muscle machine?
The answer is simple. Dodge brand marketers know there will always be drivers who want to be in the face of other drivers.
And the Detonator Yellow '07 Super Bee is, indeed, in your face.
Under the Hood
At least the Super Bee has the bones to back it up. Powering the Bee is the SRT-engineered 6.1-liter version of the Hemi V8 producing 425 horsepower and 420 pound-feet of torque. That's 85 additional hp — 25 percent more — than the 5.7-liter Hemi. But again, this upgraded powertrain is available in any Charger SRT-8.
Our testing at California Speedway netted a best 0-to-60-mph run of 5.3 seconds with the quarter-mile clicked off in 13.6 seconds at 105.8 mph. Numbers, by the way, which would allow the '07 Charger SRT-8 Super Bee to literally run rings around a '68 version. Hemi-powered '68s could run 13s only after hours of tuning and primping by engine preparation experts.
And how about burnouts? After all, who wants a rear-drive muscle car if you're not going to do burnouts? Happy to report the Super Bee excels in the burnout department. Just brake rev it, dump the brake pedal and floor it and you're bouncing the tach needle off the rev limiter and frying the huge 255/45R20 rear tires at will (the fronts are 245/45R20).
One strange quirk is, even when you manually shift the five-speed automatic's selector lever to 1st gear (in normal driving, the transmission starts in 2nd to save gas), you still can't hold there while you accelerate. If you start to approach the rev limit, the computer will override your manual AutoStick selection and shift the trans to 2nd. This is very embarrassing in the middle of a burnout, which quickly turns into a bog once the trans shifts on you.
Hey, SRT engineers! We thought this is the SRT-8 version — the high-performance driver's version of the Charger. If we want to manually hold 1st gear, we should be able to manually hold 1st gear. Don't program the car's computer to override our selection if you've already programmed the rev limiter to save the engine.
Handling and Braking
With an electronic stability program, antilock braking system, plus specially calibrated springs, shocks and stabilizer bars, you'd expect this car's handling to be predictable and stable. And it is. The Bee's 66-mph run through the slalom is faster than the BMW 535i can manage. It also pulls a respectable 0.84g on the skid pad.
Unfortunately, the price you pay for the handling is ride comfort. This car is stiff and jiggly. Of course, the SRT engineers will tell you that an American muscle car is supposed to ride stiff and jiggly — and they all did. But this isn't 1968 and there's a point where this heritage crap goes too far. It's just not necessary, and much of the blame has to go to the Bee's low-profile 20-inch tires.
Despite its gigantic Brembo brakes, the Detonator Yellow Charger stopped from 60 mph in a rather long 135 feet, against Dodge's claim of "approximately 110 feet." We attribute the pedestrian braking performance to this car's rather porky 4,262-pound curb weight with more than 54 percent of those pounds over the front wheels.
Out on the Street
And so it performs, but when you drive this car, you have to be ready to accept compliments — or indignities, depending on your perspective. Some examples garnered from our four days with the car in the Los Angeles area:
- In El Segundo, a homeless guy with a five-day growth of beard and wearing filthy, torn pants went to the trouble of putting down his sign (which read "Will do anything for money"), and walked over to our test car at a traffic light: "Nice car, mister. Can you spare some change?"
- In Manhattan Beach, several busboys poured out of the China Grill restaurant howling their approval as we pulled up to get our takeout order.
- On Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills, an older silver-haired woman in a Lexus RX 400h looked over at us at a light with a sneer demeaning enough to curl her lip up to her eyebrows.
- In South Central, a carload of gangbangers pulled up next to us at a light in a customed-out Honda Civic sporting a 10-foot-high spoiler on the back and scissor doors. How do we know they were scissor doors? They were open. "Hey dawg, nice car, mon! Yeah, bitchin' wheels, bra! You got it goin', dawg!" they shouted until the light turned green.
- But the greatest compliment (or indignity depending on your perspective) occurred as we cut through Los Angeles International Airport in an attempt to avoid some construction traffic on Sepulveda. Twice, guys on curbs with luggage tried to hail us down, mistaking us for a taxi cab as we went by — and the second one gave us the finger when we failed to stop for the fare.
Like we said, in your face.
The manufacturer provided Edmunds this vehicle for the purposes of evaluation.
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