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The 2021 Dodge Durango SRT Hellcat Makes Horsepower a Family Affair

Photo credit: Dodge
Photo credit: Dodge

From Road & Track

The hippopotamus is one of the world’s deadliest creatures. It’s shockingly fast and agile despite looking like a 4000-pound sweet potato. To anyone unfamiliar with Fiat Chrysler's habit of putting supercharged Hellcat V-8s in everything, the 5710-pound 2021 Dodge Durango SRT Hellcat offers the same kind of surprise as a hippopotamus. Nothing with seating for six and a profile like this—not just bricklike, but an entire brick building—should be able to accelerate from 0-60 in 3.5 seconds, run a quarter-mile in 11.5 and hit 180 mph flat out. If you see one in the wild, try not to make any sudden movements or loud noises. Not that the Durango will hear you over itself. The sound of this thing! The hilarious, annoying, Philip Glass symphony of supercharger hum. You’ll hear it for days after driving the Durango, in your head, in your dreams.

Some people—people who don’t enjoy things—might say there is no justifiable need for a 710-hp, three-row, six-passenger SUV. Those people don’t realize the importance of torque in a young child’s life, or more accurately, in the life of a young child’s guardian. Until Chrysler offers a Hellcat Pacifica, family types who aren’t ready to give up being hooligan types will find the 2021 Dodge Durango SRT Hellcat the quickest way to get the high school robotics team to the science fair, without being accused of maturity. The only thing square about the Durango is its roofline.

Photo credit: Dodge
Photo credit: Dodge

It’s easy to get distracted by the engine specs on anything Hellcat-powered—a 6.2-liter Hemi making 710 hp and 645 lb-ft of torque, topped by a supercharger that, at almost 2.4 liters, has more displacement than many family SUV engines. The V-8 sends that ranchload of ponies to all four wheels via the familiar TorqueFlite eight-speed automatic and all-wheel drive with variable torque split for the best possible traction. The only way you’re going to get wheelspin out of the optional Pirelli P-Zeros is if you hook two Hellcat Durangos together and drag one with the other, which you could do without exceeding the 8700-pound tow rating.

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There’s more going on in the Durango than just reality blurring straight-line acceleration. All 2021 Durango models get plastic surgery for more aggressive road presence, so that you can better intimidate other parents in the parking lot. "Aggressive," in automotive design terms, means long horizontal lines for a sense of width, narrow headlights for a glaring visage, and numerous openings in grille, hood, and lower fascia, to cool a raging temper. The SRT Hellcat gets all these ‘roidy improvements as well as a two-piece front splitter which improves downforce, in combination with a rear spoiler and Gurney flap, which gives you the excuse to say "Gurney flap" on a more regular basis.

The Durango’s chassis is beefed up to handle the increased power, with stiffer front springs, retuned Bilstein shocks with more rebound, and larger sway bars. I’d like to make fun of Dodge for applying race-car tuning to a family hauler, but I spent time on track in the Hellcat Durango, and it was planted and well-balanced in corners and under heavy braking. The Brembo six-piston front and four-piston rear calipers and vented rotors, 15.75 inches front and 13.8 inches in the rear, are identical to what's found on the Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk. Somehow, the Durango stops and turns like a much lighter machine—even though it weighs nearly 400 pounds more than the Trackhawk. It may be funny to witness on the track, like somebody’s carpool got lost on the way to softball practice, but the Durango’s abilities are no joke.

If your needs for an SUV involve hauling ass comfortably and with style, the Durango offers an attractive interior with plenty of the luxury and technological geegaws we have come to expect. Poke away at a 10.1-inch touchscreen, conveniently angled towards the driver. The new UConnect 5 is one of the best, easiest-to-use infotainment systems out there, and now it’s got new graphics and more customizing options both for the vehicle—like steering feel and throttle response—and the infotainment system itself. The Hellcat Durango gets a unique flat-bottom steering wheel with a red glowing SRT logo and Hellcat cartoons embroidered in the seats—just in case the rocket response under your right foot fails to remind you what you’re driving.

Photo credit: Dodge
Photo credit: Dodge

An option in upper-trim Durangos, standard on the Hellcat, is forged carbon fiber along the dash and door panels. I don’t care if Lamborghini uses it, forged carbon is the head-cheese of composites. It’s ugly, and there are better materials with which to justify an $80,000 price tag. That’s really my only dislike about the interior, which has room for adults in all three rows and easy-to-fold seats if you decide you’d rather carry several minibikes as opposed to your family.

There was a time, back in the first days of Hellcat power, when folks might have asked, "Why do you need 700 horsepower?" The Durango, with room for all, makes this argument: Do it for the kids.

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