From Autoweek:
IF YOU CAN’T FIND something to like about the Dodge Magnum SRT-8, Chrysler’s “performance sports tourer” answer to the Audi allroad, may we suggest you check your pulse? Not since Lee Iacocca roamed the halls of the former No. 3 American automaker has the phrase, “If you can find a better car, buy it,” carried the same urgency and intent.
2003 LOS ANGELES SHOW MAIN PAGE
Consider the goods, as revealed at the Los Angeles auto show (and also appearing on the Dodge stand in Detroit): SRT-8 represents the first rear-wheel-drive car offered by Chrysler in more than 30 years, as well as the first Hemi in a passenger-car since the Nixon administration.
Yet this is no ordinary Hemi. This one takes the garden-truck-variety 5.7-liter Hemi V8 built for the Ram pickup and adds a Whipple supercharger that boosts output from 345 hp to an estimated 430 hp to 450 hp and raises torque from 375 lb-ft to 480. Chrysler says this performance version (there will be a de-tuned model) will go from 0 to 60 mph in 5.5 seconds and top out at 150 mph.
Dodge Magnum SRT-8 concept photo gallery
This is no smoke-and-mirrors “conceptual” rear-drive chassis. Rather, the underpinnings of the SRT-8 foreshadow the next-generation four-door, five-seat Chrysler LX platform. The SRT-8 concept will go on sale in 2004 as a 2005 production model called Magnum, along with sedan siblings like the Hemi-powered rear-wheel-drive Chrysler 300N. The first rear-drive Chrysler LX sedans arrive later this year. Need a topper? Chrysler promises all-wheel drive on the chassis as well.
For enthusiasts used to a steady diet of German engineering, Magnum represents more fruits of the Daimler-Benz/Chrysler marriage, in Mercedes components such as its five-speed automatic transmission, steering, front and rear suspension systems, and electronic wizardry.
Is a Mercedes—and then an AMG—version far behind? It’s enough to make you forget that this is a station wagon.
