- Reviewers have found that the Dodge Charger Daytona cannot do a burnout
- The Line Lock characteristic, which disables the entrance electrical motor and locks the wheels, was inexplicably lacking from take a look at vehicles on the launch occasion.
- Dodge does not have something to share about future plans to allow or embody Line Lock
The Dodge Charger Daytona is out and the primary critiques are lastly hitting the streets. Critics appear to like the automobile, largely, particularly because it’s one of many first efficiency EVs particularly aimed toward roping in gearheads away from gas-powered, tire-slaying, row-your-own combustion vehicles. That is not a simple feat, however as a lot of those that have already made the swap can let you know—the moment torque delivered by an EV might be removed from tame.
However there’s one explicit quirk concerning the Charger Daytona that we won’t fairly overcome. Regardless of Dodge advertising and marketing the Charger as an electrified muscle automobile, it lacks the power to carry out of probably the most fundamental hooning options that any red-blooded, high-performance American coupe ought to be capable of do: a burnout.
Photograph by: InsideEVs
Information of the lacking characteristic first got here to us whereas skimming by way of MotorTrend’s first drive assessment of the Charger Daytona. Throughout their time with the automobile, MotorTrend observed that (for some unfathomable cause) it was unattainable to get the automobile to do a burnout. No quantity of fidgeting with the controls and fuel pedal might yield a brakestand.
This is what caught our eye from MotorTrend:
The truth is, the Charger Daytona received’t do a burnout. It doesn’t matter what we tried, the electrical Charger stubbornly rejected our efforts to announce its arrival to the world through smoke alerts. It’s most likely able to doing one with a line lock characteristic, however inexplicably that’s the one toy Dodge didn’t program in.
Absolutely that may’t be proper.
Dodge, the corporate that simply stated it was going to save lots of the world from “lame, soulless, weak-looking, self-driving, sleep-pods” by giving the world a battery-powered muscle automobile, would not have made it in order that flagship EV was incapable of spinning its rear tires in a powerful cloud of vaporized rubber… proper?
Possibly there is a good cause for it. Let’s keep in mind right here that the Charger Daytona comes solely in all-wheel drive. Which means twin 335-horsepower motors on the entrance and rear wheels, making a mixed output of 670 horsepower and 627 pound-feet of prompt, electrified torque. That is loads of energy for some massive quantity 11s on the pavement.
We dug into this quirk a bit extra to seek out out precisely what was happening. As talked about, the Charger Daytona is AWD, so so as to do a standard burnout, it could want to chop energy to the entrance wheels—which it ought to be capable of do since an EV does not must mechanically separate the entrance and rear drivetrains provided that they’re fully separate from each other.
Dodge calls this characteristic “Line Lock”—a time period that is been round since mid-century within the drag racing scene. Its title is sort of literal and refers to locking stress within the entrance brake traces of a automobile to maintain pads in touch with the rotors and forestall the entrance wheels from turning. The motive force can then mash the fuel pedal and warmth up the rear tires earlier than sending the automobile down the drag strip.
The thought is comparable for the Charger Daytona. Turning the characteristic on would disable energy to the entrance motor to stop the wheels from turning, lock the entrance brakes and let the rear motor unleash its full torque output.Hell, Dodge even brags concerning the skill to “add in Line Lock for smoky burnouts” on the web site for the Charger Daytona.
However there’s only one downside: the Charger Daytona does not have the Line Lock characteristic. The truth is, a Stellantis spokesperson confirmed to InsideEVs that Line Lock is just not presently obtainable on the Charger Daytona and that the model did not have something to share concerning any future plans for the characteristic.
Effectively, of us, I hate to interrupt it to you, however that is the world we’re residing in. The Dodge Charger Daytona—the world’s first mass-produced fashionable electrical muscle automobile—cannot do a burnout. At the very least not but, and whether or not or not it can get an replace so as to add Dodge’s Line Lock characteristic sooner or later is anyone’s guess.
Certain, it could do different cool issues. Drift mode will get rowdy and even performs the decoupling of the entrance electrical drive motor. That makes it much more puzzling that Line Lock is not obtainable for this similar perform. I do know this is not the top of the world, nevertheless it looks as if such a missed alternative to incorporate a fundamental muscle automobile characteristic on what’s being marketed as the primary fashionable electrical muscle automobile. Possibly that’ll change sooner or later, however for now, I will go sit within the nook and marvel what we did to deserve this.
