Dodge has confirmed the most powerful Dodge Charger Sixpack ever built is coming — revealed at Roadkill Nights in Pontiac, Michigan on August 8.
Current Scat Pack: 550 horsepower, twin-turbo 3.0-litre inline-six. No official output for the upgrade yet. Based on what Dodge has signalled, 600 horsepower is within reach.
The Reveal — August 8, Roadkill Nights
The Charger turns 60 this year. Dodge has been running it through a summer tour — Petersen Automotive Museum, Woodward Avenue, NHRA Great Lakes Nationals. Pontiac is the last stop and the biggest one.
Roadkill Nights is the right venue for this announcement. It is a street-legal drag racing event that draws exactly the kind of buyers who care about a more powerful Charger Sixpack — people who want more power from their muscle car and are interested in what it does in a straight line. Dodge knows its audience.
The reveal will happen at the event itself. No preview specifications have been released beyond Dodge’s confirmation that this is the most powerful Dodge Charger Sixpack ever produced.
What the Current Dodge Charger Sixpack Makes
550 horsepower from the Hurricane — Dodge’s twin-turbo 3.0-litre inline-six in the Scat Pack. Already ahead of most direct competitors before the upgrade.
Mustang Dark Horse: 500 horsepower, 5.0-litre V8. The Dodge Charger Sixpack hits 550 from a six-cylinder. Fewer cylinders, more power. That is still a difficult sentence for some muscle car buyers to process.
The upgraded Dodge Charger Sixpack will push that advantage further. 600 horsepower remains unconfirmed but is within reach given the engine’s architecture and what Dodge has implied about the scale of the upgrade.
The ceiling for this configuration is probably around 670 horsepower — the figure the all-electric Charger Daytona EV produces. It would be unusual for Dodge to position the upgraded Sixpack above its electric performance flagship.
The V8 Question — Still Open, Still Complicated
The V8 question comes up every time. Last Hemi Charger: 2023. Current generation runs only the inline-six. The Hemi lives on in the Durango but has not come back to the Charger.
Dodge’s leadership has not closed the door on a V8 Charger. Dodge CEO Matt McAlear floated the possibility at a press conference last year — no confirmation, no denial. Tim Kuniskis, who runs the American brands at Stellantis, said a V8 Charger was not off the table but would require far more engineering work than dropping an engine in.
The problem is horsepower. The 5.7-litre Hemi, in current form, would produce less horsepower than the existing 550-horsepower Sixpack. That makes it commercially difficult — you cannot sell a V8 Charger that is slower than the six-cylinder version already on the market. The only Hemi option that would make performance sense is the supercharged Hellcat variant, and fitting that into the current Charger platform would require substantial engineering work that Kuniskis described as considerable.
So the V8 Charger is possible. It is not imminent. And in the meantime, the Dodge Charger Sixpack is the car Dodge is developing.
Why Dodge Is Staying With the Six
The Hurricane inline-six has turned out to be a stronger foundation for performance than many V8 loyalists expected when it was first announced.
550 horsepower from a twin-turbocharged six is genuinely competitive. The Charger Sixpack already outpowers a standard Mustang Dark Horse, which is Ford’s V8 performance variant. The only Mustangs that beat the Dodge Charger Sixpack are the supercharged Dark Horse SC at 795 horsepower and the track-focused Mustang GTD at 815 horsepower — neither of which is a direct competitor at price or positioning.
From a power-to-displacement standpoint, the Hurricane is more efficient than the engines it replaced. From a fuel economy standpoint, the turbo six returns better numbers than a V8 at equivalent outputs. From a future-proofing standpoint, inline-six architecture is easier to electrify or hybridise than a pushrod V8 if Dodge needs to go that direction.
None of that satisfies buyers who want a Hemi V8 Charger on principle. Dodge understands that audience and is not ignoring it — the leadership comments about a potential V8 are clearly intended to keep those buyers engaged without making a commitment. But the Dodge Charger Sixpack is what Dodge is building, investing in, and now upgrading.
A more powerful Sixpack is the product on August 8. The V8 question stays open until Dodge says otherwise.
What to Expect at Roadkill Nights
The August 8 reveal is an event, not a press release. Dodge will show the upgraded Dodge Charger Sixpack in person at Roadkill Nights — an event where the car’s intended use, drag racing on a closed public street, is the actual activity happening around the reveal.
Dodge typically stages these announcements with the car running. The expectation is that whatever number Dodge puts on the upgraded Sixpack gets demonstrated at the event rather than simply announced in front of a crowd. Roadkill Nights attracts tens of thousands of attendees and significant automotive media coverage.
The specific power figure, any other performance specifications, trim availability, and pricing for the upgraded model will come on August 8.
FAQs
What is the Dodge Charger Sixpack upgrade?
An upgraded version of the twin-turbocharged inline-six engine in the Dodge Charger Sixpack, making it the most powerful Sixpack ever. No official output figure confirmed — expected to approach 600 horsepower.
When is the Dodge Charger Sixpack reveal?
August 8 at the Roadkill Nights festival in Pontiac, Michigan.
How much power does the current Dodge Charger Sixpack make?
550 horsepower. Twin-turbo 3.0-litre Hurricane six, Scat Pack trim.
Is a V8 Dodge Charger coming?
Not confirmed. Dodge leadership has said it is possible but would require significant engineering work. The 5.7-litre Hemi would produce less power than the current Sixpack, making the Hellcat the only viable V8 option — which brings major development complexity.
How does the Dodge Charger Sixpack compare to the Mustang Dark Horse?
550 beats 500. Six-cylinder Charger over eight-cylinder Mustang. The upgrade makes that gap wider.
Will the upgraded Sixpack beat the Charger Daytona EV?
Unlikely. The Charger Daytona EV produces 670 horsepower. The upgraded Dodge Charger Sixpack is expected to stay below that figure.
Where has the 60th anniversary tour visited?
Petersen Automotive Museum, Woodward Avenue, NHRA Great Lakes Nationals. Roadkill Nights in Pontiac is the last stop.
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