2021 Dodge Durango SRT Hellcat review: Fire and brimstone

The 2021 Dodge Durango SRT Hellcat is stupid. Silly rapid, stupid loud, stupid thirsty and, at occasions, stupid exciting. I’m not likely to lie, I kind of like stupid. This 3-row brute will haul ass down a freeway onramp or quarter-mile keep track of as effectively as it hauls your brood of young’uns to socially distanced outdoor routines. With ludicrous electricity and enough poise to manage that mayhem, this Dodge is the ultimate flag-waving, red-meat-ingesting, all-American SUV.

Apart from some fairly considerable enhancements designed to the entire Durango vary, for just one design year only, Fiat Chrysler Cars is dropping its famed six.two-liter supercharged Hellcat Hemi into the prow of this growing older SUV, a battle strategy that to day has worked famously with the brand’s Charger sedan and Challenger coupe. Offering the fireworks, a two.four-liter blower is strapped to the top of this V8, pushing out up to 11.six psi of increase. All that is required is your proper foot to light the fuse. And when you do, the V8 provides an astonishing 710 horsepower and 645 pound-feet of torque. This SUV is completely ready to rain down fire and brimstone on even unique automobiles in the following lane.

Matched to a ZF eight-velocity computerized transmission, which is always on-level, delivering timely shifts equally speedily and efficiently, this drivetrain can provide sixty mph from a standstill in a supercar-rivaling three.5 seconds. The Durango Hellcat can also annihilate your local quarter-mile dragstrip in as tiny as 11.5 seconds and speed up to one hundred eighty mph, a velocity Dodge statements makes the SRT the world’s fastest 3-row SUV. Ensuring this SUV in no way slips or slides (unless you want it to, of study course) is a typical complete-time all-wheel-drive process, which gives unflappable composure, even when executing challenging launches on poor surfaces, like grime roads. The Durango Hellcat just spins all four Pirelli Scorpion Zero all-period tires mounted on trendy twenty-inch wheels until finally it scrabbles enough grip, then rockets in advance, straight as a laser beam, no squirming or lurching for the ditch on possibly facet.

When it can be time to slow your roll, the Durango Hellcat’s Brembo brakes are additional than up to the problem. With 6-piston calipers up front clamping down on 15.eight-inch rotors and four-pot units out back squeezing a pair of thirteen.eight-inch discs, they can drag this SUV down from sixty mph to a standstill in a curt 116 feet. Irrespective of their huge electricity, the brake pedal by itself is easy to control, without grabbing or experience far too comfortable. That stopping prowess also can help grace the Durango with an spectacular tow ranking. When adequately outfitted, it can drag up to eight,700 lbs, a determine Dodge statements is very best in class.

Likewise, the Durango’s steering is nicely dialed in, delivering surprising crispness, which can help this major SUV experience far additional agile than you may possibly count on for anything with 3 rows of seats. The steering’s weighting is also easy to alter by switching through several driving modes, anything you can do speedily on the snazzy new-for-2021 Uconnect 5 infotainment process(additional on that a tiny afterwards). Damper stiffness can be modified, far too, enabling this Dodge’s ride to alter on a whim from sleek to starchy.

With this SUV, you would far better be in like with V8 noises (and intoxicating supercharger whine!) for the reason that when the powertrain eagerly broadcasts an inside-combustion symphony, its exhaust also drones annoyingly at decreased speeds, enough, in simple fact, to make the Durango’s floor pans reverberate. Mercifully, the Hellcat V8 pipes down on the freeway to a peaceful, contented purr. A driver-selectable lively exhaust process would be awesome so you can have that rumble when you want it without finding a headache in hurry-hour website traffic.

Of study course, you would far better not be scared of pumping gasoline, possibly, and tons of it. The Durango Hellcat burns fuel like a cruise ship and it requirements at least 91 octane to be pleased. Formal EPA figures have not still been launched, but count on them to be someplace involving atrocious and appalling. In tests, I averaged just thirteen.nine miles per gallon in combined driving and I wasn’t even terribly irresponsible when driving.

This supercharged SUV’s protected managing and straight-line effectiveness are certainly praiseworthy, but the novelty of 710 horsepower can certainly dress in off following a when. And the moment you start off thinking about other facets of the Durango, its charm does fade a tiny.

This is an outdated car or truck and in some approaches it feels it, from the higher-exertion exterior door handles to some of its unconventional secondary controls. Underscoring this level is considerably less-than-stellar little-overlap crash-test effectiveness and an iffy headlamp ranking from the Insurance Institute for Highway Security. I try to remember examining a Durango virtually ten several years and two employment ago and it was typically the same as this instance, which, even with its age, even now sells amazingly effectively. To its credit history, FCA has finished an admirable occupation holding the Durango refreshing and this 2021 design is the nicest ever. Its dashboard has been redesigned to be additional driver-centered, the centre console and upper portions of the doors have been improved and you can get an classy wrapped-and-stitched instrument panel, a quality touch.

The Durango Hellcat’s front seats seem way overstuffed, but they’re amazingly organization and supportive. This instance is fitted with comfortable 2nd-row bucket seats and an optional centre console, a mix that is roomy enough for adult travellers (a skosh additional legroom would be awesome). As for the third-row bench, it can be shockingly roomy and comfy, with an elevated place so you can see the street in advance. As for cargo space, you get seventeen.two cubic feet powering the third row, 43.three aft of the 2nd and eighty five.one cubes all-in. These figures are comparable, if just a whisker powering what the Ford Explorer delivers.

My tester’s cabin is nicely created, the stitched dashboard seems and feels great and all four doors are trimmed with leather. The weather controls are strong and couldn’t be easier to use, comprised of chunky knobs and buttons. Regrettably, all is not excellent, as the Durango’s A-pillars are ginormous, hampering outward visibility, and the under-armrest storage cubby in the centre console is virtually worthless, typically taken up by the accessible Blu-ray player. The reconfigurable monitor in the instrument cluster ain’t great, possibly. It really is gritty-on the lookout and lethargic, taking ages to cycle involving screens.

Thankfully, FCA’s new Uconnect 5 infotainment process is a winner. This accessible multimedia array is displayed on a bright and colourful ten.one-inch touchscreen that is angled a little toward the driver. The person interface is wonderful, thoroughly clean and extremely easy to use, moreover it delivers a number of really customizable residence screens. It also wirelessly supports Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a attribute that pairs nicely with the freshly extra wi-fi charging pad. For the most element, this process is extremely responsive to inputs and I like some of the little SRT-unique touches designers provided, like the weather-handle graphics that display an picture of a man or woman sporting a racing helmet. Decrease-close Durango products arrive typical with an eight.four-inch Uconnect process, which is even now a strong arrangement.

This SUV’s infotainment offerings are outstanding, but its other tech falls quick. Options like keyless entry with push-button start off, trailer-sway handle and hill-start off aid are typical across the Durango vary and my tester is fitted with blind-place monitoring as effectively as front and rear parking sensors (the latter of which keeps supplying wrong warnings when stopped at website traffic lights), but other state-of-the-art driver aid programs (ADAS) are conspicuously absent. Options like adaptive cruise handle, forward collision alert with lively braking and lane-departure warning are all optional, even on this $91,455 (like $one,495 in place costs) Hellcat.

And that, proper there, is perhaps the most significant issue with this SUV. Although it can be an complete riot to drive and it can be graced with a comfy interior, the Durango does not experience like it can be worth virtually 6 figures. Even the Hellcat’s foundation cost of around $eighty two,500 appears to be a little bit ridiculous. I imply, the design shown in this article is virtually as pricey as a base BMW X5 M, which is far nicer and virtually as powerful.

Continue to, if you’ve got certainly got to have just one of these red-scorching kitties, you would far better act speedy. Dodge is only featuring the Durango Hellcat for 2021. The buy textbooks are open now and deliveries are envisioned to get started early in 2021.