2012 Dodge Charger SRT8 Super Bee

2012 Dodge Charger SRT8 Super Bee - Photo by Brian Vance

As I browsed through the magazine rack, the February 2012 issue of Motor Trend caught my eye. What caught my eye? The bright yellow Super Bee on the cover. I read the article with great joy, as I thought a stripped down, affordable, fast modern muscle car was long over due. This seemed to fit the bill, and the label "knuckle dragging beast" shortly into the read seemed right up my alley. Then, I got to the end of the article and was rather disappointed.

This Super Bee model does succeed in omitting many of the "luxury" items I personally could live without. Gone are the leather seats, front and rear heated seats, heated/cooled cup holders, 19 speaker premium audio system, LED reading lights, adaptive damping suspension, and navigation system (though a smaller touch screen, I could do without, remains). Other items were also deleted, though that's all the article listed. So far, the car sounded promising, dropping nearly 100 lbs of weight.

The 4.4 second 0-60 times are impressive, along with the 12.8 second 1/4 mile times, the curb weight is where my disappointment set in. So, how much does this Charger placed on the Jenny Craig diet weigh? Even after dropping nearly 100 lbs, she still weighs 4,271 lbs! There is nothing light weight or stripped down about that. While the car has plenty of power, I am sure that it lacks the seat-o-the-pants acceleration a muscle car needs to have in my book. Having test drove the Dodge Challenger R/T a few years ago, I came to the same conclusion. The Challenger is sharp, rides as comfy as a family car, and it's 370 hp gets the car going. Yet the quick acceleration of the needle in the dash just didn't put a big smile on my face. Is it fast? Hell yeah. Does it feel fast though? Nope, not to me.

I will give Dodge credit though, as they may be on to something. Perhaps in the near future, in an effort to meet the mpg standards put forth by the government, all future models will be put on a serious diet. Then, when a "stripped down/luxury void" model goes into production, that 100 lbs less will mean something. It doesn't need to be a feather weight, as it is still a 4 door family car, but give me a 3,600, or even a 3,700 lb Charger with 470 hp, AND A MANUAL TRANSMISSION!, then we can talk. Two tons of fun? Ain't gonna happen.



2012 Dodge Charger SRT8 Super Bee