I was recently part of a group of journalists who were invited to Radford Racing School in Chandler, Arizona, to test the 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona lineup. We had access to both the R/T and Scat Pack models for the on-road portion of the program, but while we only tested the R/T on the street, Scat Pack testing included extensive testing at the Radford facility – allowing us to push the 670-horsepower BEV to its limits in a safe environment.
The newest Dodge Charger Daytona commercial talks about how the brand is saving the world from boring EVs, and after spending a day driving the 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona Scat Pack on the street and on the track, it is clear that the brand is making good on that promise. From styling inside and out to the roar of the Fratzonic exhaust system and the stunning performance capabilities, this is an EV for people who love to drive.
Scat Pack on the Street
My drive time with the 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona Scat Pack began on the roads around Radford Racing School, where we got to experience the civil street manners in normal daily driving situations. My test car was finished in White Knuckle and equipped with the Track Package, the Plus Package, the Sun and Sound package and the Stage 2 Direct Connection performance upgrade that comes standard on all 2024 Scat Pack models – lifting the output to 670 horsepower. In addition to all of that power, the Track Package adds items like the adaptive damping competition suspension system, gigantic Brembo high-performance brakes and a staggered tire-and-wheel package with 20×11 wheels wrapped in 305 rubber up front with 20×11.5 wheels with 325 tires out back.
In short, my test car was equipped with almost every performance-minded feature that is available on the 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona Scat Pack except for the Goodyear Eagle F1 performance tires. The cars that we used for testing on the Radford road course had those premium performance tires, but the road test cars were all equipped with the all-season option. Fortunately, those all-season tires do an excellent job of harnessing the performance of the new Charger Daytona Scat Pack.
One of the key differences between the R/T and Scat Pack models of the 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona is the drive mode offerings. Both models come with Auto, Sport, Eco and Wet/Snow, but the Scat Pack also has Track and Drag modes, and you can experience a major difference between the modes before you hit the street. When you fire up the 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona, the Fratzonic exhaust roars to life very prominently, but in the Auto drive mode, the idle note is very quiet. When you switch to Sport, it gets a bit louder, and that is the loudest setting for the R/T. With the Scat Pack, the Track and Drag modes set the exhaust to its loudest setting, at which point it sounds as loud as my SRT® Hellcat Challenger at idle. On the road, the exhaust note is barely audible at highway speeds in the Auto setting, while Sport mode makes it a bit more noticeable, but in Track or Drag mode, it is very loud on the open road. I like the exhaust note, so I spent much of my drive time in Track or Drag mode.
In addition to the added exhaust sound, the Track and Drag modes lead to more aggressive performance characteristics, making adjustments to the throttle response, suspension settings, front-rear power distribution and steering feel, along with offering unique power levels. In Auto and Sport mode, the Scat Pack offers 630 horsepower without PowerShot, which adds the extra 40 horsepower in 15-second bursts with the push of a button on the steering wheel. In Drag mode, the system lays down all 670 horsepower all of the time, with suspension and power distribution settings that yield the best hard launches. However, while the Track mode has the most aggressive suspension for hard cornering, this mode is designed to maximize a mix of performance and longevity during track time sessions, so it “only” offers 535 horsepower full-time, with 40 extra horsepower being available with the PowerShot system.
The first part of the drive lead us along an array of long, straight roads, so after getting a feel for the Auto, Sport, Track and Drag drive modes, I selected Drag mode. This allowed me to experience all 670 horsepower on hard launches from a stop, and while the advanced all-wheel-drive system does a great job of putting the power to the ground, I found that a hard launch on a dusty street with lead to the Charger roasting all four tires and painting dark, black stripes on the road surface. When you do get solid traction on the street, the new Daytona Scat Pack effortlessly lays down repeated 0-60 blasts in the mid-3-second range with the all-season tires.
When I wasn’t enjoying hard launches, the first part of my on-road test with the 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona Scat Pack revealed that this car is remarkably smooth and quiet. With the windows up and the Auto drive mode selected, the interior is incredibly quiet at highway speeds, with almost no wind or road noise making it into the cabin. Even in Track mode, the ride quality is still fantastic, so the high-tech dampers do a perfect job of combining ride quality and handling performance.
The most exciting portion of the on-road test session was the drive up the tight, twisty road that leads to the lookout at Dobbins Point. This road is composed of repeated switchback turns with short straights between them, allowing us to experience the cornering, braking and acceleration characteristics in a setting that seems more fitting for a lightweight sports car. However, the new Dodge Charger Daytona Scat Pack handled this curvy, mountain road beautifully.
The adaptive suspension system allowed me to push the Charger Daytona Scat Pack very hard through the tight turns with virtually no body roll or understeer. When accelerating out of the turns, the all-wheel-drive system allowed me to put the throttle to the floor without any concern of traction loss, using all 570 horsepower of Track mode to blast to the next series of turns and when I got there, the huge Brembo brakes do a wonderful job of bringing the new Charger down to low speeds in an instant. These are regenerative brakes, but they still offer the stopping power that you would expect from a Brembo system labeled “ultra high performance”. For such a large, heavy vehicle, the new Dodge Charger Daytona Scat Pack’s ability to blast along a tight, twisty mountain road was really impressive, as it comfortably exceeded my expectations on this type of road.
In terms of a road car, the 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona Scat Pack is pretty fantastic. It is quicker from a stop than just about anything on the street, it handles beautifully without any compromise to ride quality, the interior is comfortable and gorgeous and, while not everyone loves the sound – I feel that it adds to the overall driving experience. Whether you enhance your driving time with hard 0-60 pulls or by carving through the corners of a curvy road, the Dodge Charger Daytona Scat Pack shines bright in every driving situation on the open road.
Flexing Peak Performance on the Track
While I was able to test the performance capabilities of the 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona Scat Pack a bit during the road test, I wasn’t pushing the car all that hard due to the fact that it isn’t safe or responsible. Fortunately, Dodge provided us with the friendly confines of Radford Racing School to really push the Scat Pack to its limits, with an area designated for drifting, an area for drag strip-style 8th-mile pulls and the large Radford road course. The drifting area was a cool exercise, showing how well the new Charger will smoke all four tires, but I found the road course and 8th-mile acceleration areas to be the most beneficial in experiencing the performance potential of the new Daytona Scat Pack.
First up, we have the “drag racing” portion of our 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona Scat Pack track testing session. I put drag racing in quotes because we weren’t racing side-by-side, we were simply making single-car runs to test the acceleration of the electric muscle car. The drag strip at Radford Racing School was under construction, so we did our testing in an open tarmac area that is usually used for car control exercises. The area was not much longer than an 8th of a mile, so we had to get on the brakes pretty quickly after clicking off the 8th-mile timer, and there was no prep to the starting area, but we were still able to make some pretty solid runs. When you hammer the throttle in Drag mode, the suspension allows loads of weight transfer to the rear wheels, helping with traction and providing the feel of a rear-drive car, although the incredible grip coupled with the instant-on power application allows it to launch harder than just about any rear-wheel-drive car on factory tires. Unlike gasoline-fueled performance vehicles, the power delivery doesn’t build through the RPM range, so as soon as you are out of the hole and moving, the car pulls with the same force until you lift on the top end. It shoves you back in the seat and keeps you there without any shifts or hesitation, leading to incredible acceleration that is unique to a high-performance electric vehicle.
On my first pass, I managed a 7.3 and on my third run, I got to a 7.1, which I repeated on my fourth run before running a 7.2 on my fifth run. On my second run, the dusty tarmac couldn’t hold all of the power of the Drag mode on launch and the tires spun just a bit, slowing me down to a 7.8. The new Charger was easily able to run low-8-second 8th miles without any track prep, so on a sticky track, an 8th-mile time in the 6-second range could be possible, but in less-than-ideal conditions, the Daytona Scat Pack is comfortably a low-7-second 8th-mile car. Those numbers are good enough to beat the vast majority of gasoline-powered performance cars on sale today.
Finally, I took to the Radford Racing School’s main track to test the 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona Scat Pack performance abilities from every angle. I have been fortunate enough to have attended several test sessions and the two-day driving school at Radford, so I am familiar with the track. Most recently, I spent time on the track in a Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye, but I have also made many laps there in a Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and a Dodge Viper TA, so it was interesting for me to experience the different types of Mopar® performance over the past decade. As was the case on the street, the Daytona Scat Pack far exceeded my expectations on the track.
The Radford main road course has a nice collection of tight and sweeping turns, with a few combinations that put the suspension system to the test. For a large two-door that weighs nearly 6,000 lbs, the active suspension system of the Track package keeps the Dodge Charger Daytona Scat Pack remarkably flat through the corners, even when you are transitioning hard from left to right in a tight combination. The car sticks to the track flawlessly in hard corners, allowing me to climb into the throttle much sooner in sweeping turns than I could with any rear-drive performance car. Where they would drift, the new Charger Daytona Scat Pack grips and accelerates out of the turns with incredible ferocity. That allows the big coupe to blast down every straight without any concern of traction loss and when you get to the next turn, the huge Brembo brakes instantly get the car down to manageable speeds. The road course also allowed me to use the Drive Experience Recorder, which records lap times with front-facing video, and at the end of each lap, the infotainment screen flashes green if you got faster and red if you got slower. This lets you know if you got better or worse each lap without having to look at numbers side-by-side, and once you are back in the pits, you can look at all of your lap times and videos on the large center screen.
To be honest, I don’t think that the 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona Scat Pack is going to be the car that many people buy specifically to go road racing, but for those folks who buy the high-performance BEV, they will get to enjoy handling characteristics that are hard to match from any rear-drive muscle car or pony car on the market today. More importantly, the new Charger offers fun-to-drive factor that is practically unheard of in the electric vehicle segment, proving that Dodge truly has made a car that does muscle car things with all-electric propulsion.
If you want an electric car for your daily drive, but you want something that is far more exciting and engaging than the average jelly bean-shaped EV, the 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona Scat Pack is the car for you.
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