- Reviewers have found that the Dodge Charger Daytona cannot do a burnout
- The Line Lock function, which disables the entrance electrical motor and locks the wheels, was inexplicably lacking from check automobiles on the launch occasion.Â
- Dodge would not have something to share about future plans to allow or embrace Line Lock
The Dodge Charger Daytona is out and the primary critiques are lastly hitting the streets. Critics appear to like the automotive, largely, particularly because it’s one of many first efficiency EVs particularly geared toward roping in gearheads away from gas-powered, tire-slaying, row-your-own combustion automobiles. That is not a straightforward feat, however as a lot of those that have already made the swap can inform you—the moment torque delivered by an EV may 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 automotive, it lacks the power to carry out of essentially the most primary hooning options that any red-blooded, high-performance American coupe ought to be capable to do: a burnout.
Photograph by: InsideEVs
Information of the lacking function first got here to us whereas skimming by means of MotorTrend’s first drive evaluate of the Charger Daytona. Throughout their time with the automotive, MotorTrend seen that (for some unfathomable motive) it was inconceivable to get the automotive to do a burnout. No quantity of twiddling with the controls and fuel pedal may yield a brakestand.
This is what caught our eye from MotorTrend:
Actually, 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 by way of smoke alerts. It’s in all probability able to doing one with a line lock function, however inexplicably that’s the one toy Dodge did not 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 automotive, 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 motive for it. Let’s bear in mind right here that the Charger Daytona comes completely in all-wheel drive. Meaning twin 335-horsepower motors on the entrance and rear wheels, making a mixed output of 670 horsepower and 627 pound-feet of immediate, electrified torque. That is loads of energy for some massive quantity 11s on the pavement.Â
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 with a purpose to do a conventional burnout, it might want to chop energy to the entrance wheels—which it ought to be capable to do since an EV would not have to mechanically separate the entrance and rear drivetrains provided that they’re utterly separate from each other.
Dodge calls this function “Line Lock”—a time period that is been round since mid-century within the drag racing scene. Its identify is kind of literal and refers to locking stress within the entrance brake strains of a automotive to maintain pads in touch with the rotors and stop the entrance wheels from turning. The driving force can then mash the fuel pedal and warmth up the rear tires earlier than sending the automotive down the drag strip.
The concept is analogous for the Charger Daytona. Turning the function 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 drawback: the Charger Daytona would not have the Line Lock function. Actually, a Stellantis spokesperson confirmed to InsideEVs that Line Lock shouldn’t be at the moment accessible on the Charger Daytona and that the model did not have something to share relating to any future plans for the function.
Properly, people, I hate to interrupt it to you, however that is the world we’re dwelling in. The Dodge Charger Daytona—the world’s first mass-produced trendy electrical muscle automotive—cannot do a burnout. Not less than not but, and whether or not or not it would get an replace so as to add Dodge’s Line Lock function sooner or later is anyone’s guess.
Positive, it could possibly 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 accessible for this identical perform. I do know this is not the tip of the world, however it looks like such a missed alternative to incorporate a primary muscle automotive function on what’s being marketed as the primary trendy electrical muscle automotive. 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.
