Dodge’s “Entry-Level” 2026 Charger R/T Has No V8 and Costs $50K – It Still Runs a 13-Second Quarter Mile

MotorWeek put the 2026 Dodge Charger R/T through its full road-test treatment, and the numbers it turned in are hard to ignore: a roughly ,000 price tag, a 13-second quarter mile, and not a single cylinder of V8 under the hood. Host John Davis treats the twin-turbo six-cylinder Charger with the same measured scrutiny he’s applied to Mopars since the 1980s, but the comments section isn’t nearly so calm. Is this really what “entry-level” muscle looks like now, or has Dodge just redefined the term?

For decades, the muscle car argument settled itself the moment someone popped the hood. V8 or nothing — that was the whole debate. Dodge just spent two years quietly building a car that breaks that rule, and MotorWeek’s John Davis, who has been reviewing cars since the days when “entry-level” still meant a base V8, just put it through its paces. The number on the window sticker is close to ,000. The number on the timing slip is a 13-second quarter mile. Neither number should surprise you by itself. Put them together with what’s actually under the hood, and the muscle car faithful are still arguing about which one matters more.

The Six That’s Trying to Replace the Eight

Dodge’s answer to a V8-less future arrived when the seventh-generation Charger returned for 2024 with two body styles and, eventually, a full spread of powertrains — including a fully electric Daytona and a twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter Hurricane inline-six that now anchors the gas-powered “Sixpack” lineup. The R/T tested here sits at the bottom of that six-cylinder ladder, the badge Dodge has used since the 1960s to mark a genuine performance trim rather than a base model. MotorWeek’s crew notes the R/T still gets both two-door and four-door options, a first for a Charger nameplate that spent fifty years as coupe-only, and treats it as the car most buyers will actually cross-shop rather than the flagship.

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John Davis Still Asking the Right Questions

MotorWeek has been putting new cars through the same disciplined road-test format since 1981, and host John Davis — the only host the show has ever had — walks through the Charger R/T with the same unhurried, consumer-first tone that’s kept the PBS program on the air longer than most of the manufacturers it covers have existed in their current form. One commenter put it simply: “Been watching him since the 80s.” That continuity matters here, because MotorWeek isn’t chasing clicks with a turbo-six-versus-V8 hot take; it’s measuring the R/T against the same yardstick it’s used on Chargers going back to the LX-platform cars, and the show still publishes a full written transcript of every test on its own site for anyone who wants to check the numbers.

MotorWeek’s Own Checklist, Applied Here Too

MotorWeek’s road test format hasn’t changed much in over forty years: a 0-60 run, a braking distance test, a walk through interior technology, and a closing “Below the Surface” segment that digs into engineering details most reviews skip entirely. Applying that same checklist to the Charger R/T gives the car a fairer hearing than a pure enthusiast reaction video would, because the show is measuring it against the exact same criteria it used on the Hemi-powered Chargers that came before it, not grading it on a curve for being a six-cylinder car.

A 13-Second Car for the Price of a Loaded Truck

The headline figures are blunt: roughly ,000 for a Charger positioned as the entry point into the new lineup, running a quarter mile in the 13-second range. For a nameplate that built its reputation on Hemi V8s costing thousands less, that price tag has become the video’s real flashpoint. One viewer did the math out loud in the comments: “,000 for a 13-second car that sounds like a side-by-side” — a reference to higher trims once options are added — and another simply called the price “bonkers.” MotorWeek doesn’t dodge the sticker shock; the review frames the R/T as competitive within Dodge’s own new pricing structure rather than against the discontinued Hemi cars it’s replacing.

What “Entry-Level” Used to Mean

It’s worth remembering that “R/T” — Road/Track — has marked Dodge’s performance tier since the 1968 Charger R/T and Coronet R/T, cars that came standard with a 440 Magnum V8 and offered the 426 Hemi as an option. Being the “entry-level” R/T in 2026 means something structurally different: it’s the cheapest way into a badge that used to guarantee a big-block, not the cheapest car in the showroom. That gap between the badge’s muscle-car-era meaning and its 2026 usage is arguably the single biggest hurdle Dodge faces in selling the new Charger lineup to buyers who grew up associating R/T with a big-block under the hood, not a turbocharged six — a tension summed up by one flat one-line comment: “‘Entry level’ 🤣.”

The Sound Problem

A turbocharged straight-six, no matter how quick, doesn’t produce the low-frequency rumble that sold Chargers for sixty years, and MotorWeek’s cabin-noise commentary during the road test touches on exactly what viewers keep flagging: the exhaust note reads as thin against a Hemi’s signature burble. It’s the same complaint that trailed early turbocharged Mustangs and Camaros a decade ago before software-tuned active exhausts became standard equipment, and it’s a reminder that horsepower and acceleration numbers only solve part of what a muscle car buyer is actually shopping for.

Echoes of the Stealth Era

This isn’t Dodge’s first rodeo with turbocharged performance replacing displacement. One commenter drew a direct line to the early-1990s Dodge Stealth R/T, a Mitsubishi-built, twin-turbo V6 coupe that arrived at a moment when Dodge buyers were just as unconvinced that boost could replace cubic inches. The Stealth eventually built a cult following once people stopped comparing it to the Hemi-powered cars around it and judged it on its own terms — a pattern the new Hurricane-six R/T may be about to repeat, especially as more of Dodge’s dealer network gains experience servicing turbocharged sixes rather than treating them as an unfamiliar detour from small-block and Hemi V8 work.

Where the Charger Lineup Goes From Here

The R/T’s real job isn’t to be the fastest Charger; it’s to be the floor. Dodge has already signaled higher-output Hurricane six variants and a Scat Pack-badged version sit above it in the new lineup, with MotorWeek’s test suggesting the R/T’s 13-second timeslip is the conservative end of what the twin-turbo six can do in this chassis. For buyers who grew up wanting a Hemi and are being asked to accept a six instead, the R/T is less a final answer than an opening argument — one MotorWeek, at least, seems willing to hear out.

Check out the full video above and let us know what you think in the comments.