It’s hard to say exactly who the 2026 Dodge Charger R/T Four-Door AWD SIXPACK S.O. is for. Styled after its legendary ancestors yet burdened with a name that takes a picnic lunch to get through, it aspires to muscle car status but achieves it in appearance only. Those ancestors hold a storied place in muscle car history. The Dodge Charger debuted in 1966, and within a couple of years its bloodline qualified as pop culture royalty. In 1968, a 440 Magnum V8 Charger chased Steve McQueen’s Highland Green Ford Mustang GT Fastback through the streets of San Francisco in the crime thriller Bullitt—a chase that’s perhaps the greatest in cinematic history.
Forever linked to its powerful cousin, the Dodge Challenger, the Charger has come and gone from the automaker’s lineup over the years. It most recently returned 20 years ago and stayed put through the age of electrification and the slow death of the holy V8. Heading into 2027, Dodge wants consumers to accept that a proper, raging American muscle car doesn’t need eight cylinders. Exhibit A is the top-of-the-line Charger Scat Pack. Dodge engineers squeezed 550 horsepower and 531 lb-ft of torque out of its 3.0-liter, twin-turbo Hurricane high-output inline-6. Even without a V8, the Scat Pack hits 60 m.p.h. in about 3.9 seconds and tops out at 177 m.p.h.
Those numbers let Dodge claim the Charger Scat Pack as the most powerful gas-powered muscle car on the market. Its main rival, the Ford Mustang Dark Horse (Chevrolet killed off the Camaro a couple of years ago), uses a 5.0-liter V8 that makes 31 fewer horses. Mustang fans will argue that their pony car sounds better, but the Scat Pack wins the horsepower war.
All that said, the 2026 Dodge Charger R/T Four-Door AWD SIXPACK S.O. is not the Scat Pack. Its version of the 3.0-liter, twin-turbo Hurricane inline-6 is the S.O. (Standard Output), which makes less horsepower (420) and less torque (468 lb-ft) than its Scat Pack relative. The 0-60 m.p.h. time slows to 4.7 seconds, and top speed maxes out at 168 m.p.h.
Those numbers are by no means insignificant. The SIXPACK can still outrun the vast majority of cars on the road. Even so, it’s hard to pin down the intended buyer for the lesser of the two Chargers. Options vary, but the Scat Pack averages around $55,000 for the coupe and $57,000 for the sedan. The Four-Door SIXPACK S.O. reviewed here parks at about $52,000.
The SIXPACK is obviously cheaper, but if a would-be buyer is already spending more than $50,000 on a Dodge Charger, why not pay the extra 10 percent or so for the top performance model? Why come all that way and lay out all that capital only to settle for the lesser of two otherwise very similar cars?
On the outside, the (*deep breath*) Dodge Charger R/T Four-Door AWD SIXPACK S.O. deserves top marks for looking the part. While Ford keeps drifting farther from the flourishes of the classic Mustang, Dodge’s designers have straddled the line between modern 21st-century aesthetics and historic muscle car features. In short, the current Chargers are obvious descendants of those 1960s legends.
Despite the surprising choice to give the SIXPACK all-wheel drive, its creators did build in a little of the rough-and-tumble sloppiness a muscle car needs. Such an earthy description would usually be an insult, but a muscle car isn’t a sports car or a roadster. It’s supposed to shimmy and shake a little and understeer a tick when thrown into an aggressive curve. That’s part of the fun of such a pleasure-centered ride.
Even with that extra give in the steering wheel, the SIXPACK feels a little underpowered by genuine muscle car standards. Some engineering trickery gives the inline-6 a bit of a V8’s fuss and rumble, but the sound underwhelms when the driver really hammers it at a stoplight. There’s a lot of “almost” with the SIXPACK S.O. It wants to be powerful and thrilling but doesn’t quite get there. It wants to wake up the neighbors but lets them sleep in.
An automaker can give a car a cool, beefy name. Its designers can give it the retro look of a classic muscle machine. Its engineers can build in sport drive modes and twin turbochargers. But if the car is weighed in the balance and found wanting when the driver puts a toe down, it will disappoint. Fortunately, the Scat Pack awaits one rung up.