Dodge Killed the Hemi V8 in the 2026 Charger — Then Built a 550-HP Six That Hits 60 in Under 4 Seconds Anyway

The Hemi is gone from the 2026 Dodge Charger Scat Pack Plus, replaced by a twin-turbo inline-six good for 550 horsepower and a 3.9-second sprint to 60 mph. Mopar fans are still deciding whether to forgive the swap — especially once they see the price tag.

Dodge spent six decades building its reputation on a V8 you could hear from three blocks away, and then it walked away from that formula entirely. The 2026 Charger Scat Pack Plus has no Hemi under its hood — not even an option for one. In its place sits a 3.0-liter twin-turbo inline-six making 550 horsepower and 531 lb-ft of torque, bolted to an all-wheel-drive system that can send every ounce of that power to the rear tires at the push of a button. It hits 60 mph in 3.9 seconds and runs the quarter-mile in 12.2 seconds, numbers that would have embarrassed a Hellcat a decade ago. Reviewer Tall Guy Car Reviews spent a week with the car trying to answer the question every Mopar fan is already arguing about online: is this still a muscle car, or did Dodge just build a very fast appliance?

About the Video

The review, posted by YouTube channel Tall Guy Car Reviews, walks through the 2026 Charger Scat Pack Plus from the outside in — the redesigned fascia and Charger Daytona-derived silhouette, the overhauled interior with its wraparound digital displays, the back seat and trunk space, and finally the part everyone actually clicked for: what it feels like to drive. The host, known for testing how well cars accommodate taller drivers, spends noticeable time on cabin space before getting to the performance numbers, and repeatedly circles back to the car’s price tag as the real sticking point for buyers deciding between this new platform and the outgoing V8 Scat Pack.

The video doesn’t shy away from the controversy. The host directly asks viewers whether they’d take the new Charger over the previous-generation Scat Pack, and the comments section — predictably — split hard along generational and brand-loyalty lines. Several commenters flagged sticker shock at fully-optioned trims pushing past $70,000, while others pointed out that a base Scat Pack Plus can be had for closer to $55,000 to $59,000 depending on configuration and incentives.

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A Nameplate That’s Survived Bigger Changes Than This

It’s worth remembering the Charger name has reinvented itself before. The car that started as a fastback coupe in 1966 became the swaggering two-door that starred as the General Lee in the Dukes of Hazzard, then spent years out of the spotlight — including a brief run as a front-wheel-drive hatchback in the 1980s that bore little resemblance to its muscle car roots — before returning in 2006 as a four-door sedan. That return was itself controversial among traditionalists who couldn’t accept a Charger with back doors. That sedan-bodied Charger went on to carry the Hemi V8 banner for nearly twenty years, culminating in the supercharged Hellcat and Redeye variants that pushed past 700 horsepower and turned the nameplate into a drag-strip regular at Dodge’s own factory-backed Roadkill Nights events. Every one of those transformations was met with the same complaint being lobbed at the 2026 car: that it wasn’t a “real” Charger anymore. Each time, the nameplate outlasted the skepticism.

That history matters here because the current backlash isn’t new territory for Dodge. The brand’s bet is that horsepower, drama, and theater matter more to muscle car buyers than what’s technically under the hood — and the Scat Pack Plus leans hard into that bet with exhaust tuning designed to replicate a V8 burble, launch-control theatrics, and the drift-mode button that lets owners stage their own burnout videos. Whether that’s enough to satisfy fans who measure a muscle car by cylinder count and camshaft lope is the exact fight breaking out in the comments of nearly every 2026 Charger review posted this year, this one included.

Why Dodge Killed the Hemi in the First Place

The Hemi V8’s exit from the Charger lineup wasn’t a snap decision. Dodge spent years signaling it was coming, first with the Charger Daytona EV concept and then with the production Daytona’s debut, before finally confirming that the gas-powered Charger would return not with a V8, but with the twin-turbocharged “Hurricane” inline-six first seen in Jeep and Ram products. The move let Dodge meet tightening emissions and fuel economy requirements while still chasing — and in most measurable ways beating — the horsepower figures Hemi loyalists grew up worshipping.

The Hurricane in Scat Pack Plus trim uses twin 54mm Garrett GT2054 turbochargers and is tuned to deliver 88 percent of its peak torque by 2,500 rpm, holding 90 percent of it all the way from 3,000 to 6,000 rpm. That’s a very different power delivery than a big, lazy pushrod V8 — it builds boost fast and holds it, rather than relying on displacement and a wall of low-end torque. Power reaches the pavement through an 880RE TorqueFlite eight-speed automatic with a multi-disc wet clutch pack, standard all-wheel drive, and a line-lock feature built specifically for drag-strip launches and burnouts — a feature that would have been unthinkable on an AWD sedan-shaped Dodge a generation ago.

The Button That Turns a Sedan Into a Drift Car

The single feature that gets the most attention in the review — and in the comments underneath it — is the Charger’s ability to disconnect front-axle power entirely and run as a pure rear-wheel-drive car at the push of a button. For a platform that ships standard with all-wheel drive, that’s a notable concession to the car’s muscle-car identity. It means a Scat Pack Plus owner can have the security of AWD traction on a rainy commute and then dial the car back to tire-smoking RWD behavior at a track day or a stoplight, without needing to visit a dealership or flash a tune.

That flexibility is part of why several commenters on the video — including ones skeptical of the price — conceded the new Charger might end up being remembered fondly. One commenter flatly predicted “this will be a future classic,” a notable statement for a car that ditched the engine format the nameplate built its legend on. Others in the comments reminisced about earlier-generation Hellcat-powered Chargers from their own circles, a reminder that this review is landing in front of an audience still processing the end of the V8 era rather than fully embracing what replaced it.

The Price Tag Nobody Can Agree On

If there’s one number that dominates the comment section more than the horsepower figure, it’s the price. The Scat Pack Plus starts at a base MSRP of roughly $58,990, which already sits well above where V8 Scat Pack Chargers used to land. Load one up with the two-door body style, performance packages, and options the way the review car was configured, and the out-the-door number climbs toward $70,000 — a figure several commenters called out as a dealbreaker regardless of how fast the car runs. Others pushed back, noting that incentives and trim selection can bring a well-equipped Scat Pack Plus in well under that ceiling, closer to the mid-$50,000s for buyers willing to skip some of the options.

That price spread matters because it sits the Charger awkwardly between its own past and its future. It’s meaningfully more expensive than the outgoing V8 Scat Pack ever was, yet still comes in under what a Hellcat or Redeye commanded in their final model years. For a brand trying to convince buyers that twin turbos and all-wheel drive are a fair trade for a supercharged Hemi, the pricing conversation may end up mattering as much as the quarter-mile number.

What Makes It Special

Numbers alone make the case for the Scat Pack Plus as a legitimate performance car: 550 horsepower and a 3.9-second sprint to 60 mph are figures that put it ahead of several V8 muscle cars it’s meant to replace, including some Hellcat-badged predecessors. But the more interesting story here is how Dodge tried to preserve the parts of the Charger experience that can’t be measured on a spec sheet — the launch-control drama, the ability to break the rear tires loose on command, the aggressive sheetmetal that still reads unmistakably as a Charger from two lanes over.

Whether that’s enough to satisfy buyers who grew up on supercharged Hemi thunder is still an open question, and it’s the exact debate playing out in the video’s comment section in real time. What isn’t up for debate is that Dodge didn’t quietly retire the performance Charger when the V8 went away — it built something that, on paper at least, outruns almost everything that came before it.

There’s also a generational split worth noting in how this car is being received. Longtime Mopar owners who grew up around Hemi-powered Chargers tend to judge the Scat Pack Plus against what’s missing — the supercharger whine, the ability to rebuild and modify a naturally-aspirated V8 in a home garage, the simplicity of a drivetrain without a computer-managed clutch pack deciding how much torque goes where. Younger buyers and first-time muscle car shoppers, several of whom showed up in the comments section specifically to ask about trim levels and financing, seem considerably less attached to the Hemi as a prerequisite and more interested in whether the car is genuinely quick and looks the part in a parking lot. That split may ultimately decide how this generation of Charger is remembered — not by what critics who grew up on big-block muscle cars think of it, but by whether a new generation of buyers is willing to adopt it as their own.

Watch the full video above and let us know your thoughts in the comments.