Dodge Charger Widebody (2019-2023) review

The main difference you notice immediately on road and track, as you might expect, is extra grip. Something that has always been in relatively short supply on the narrow-bodied cars. By pushing out the wheels by 3.5-inches, there’s now room to accommodate some more suitable 305/35 20-inch tyres on dished wheels - dubbed Star Wars by the design team - in all corners. This has obvious benefits in terms of traction at the rear and understeer at the front.

But the tyres are not the only mod. With that newfound grip comes a thorough reworking of all the suspension systems to make the most of it all. There are significantly stiffer front springs and thicker front and rear sway bars on the Scat Pack, which get even tighter and beefier on the Hellcat models.

On the road, this gives the cars an appreciable boost in feel and control. Body roll is lower but still present to allow the car to settle into a corner. The steering is meatier – not least because the Charger now gets the Challenger’s updated programmable performance system, which allows you to select steering, suspension, shift speeds, etc according to your mood and the road conditions. But for all this stiffening, it still feels appreciably more supple than the Challenger, as per the regular variants of the two and four-door cars.

Acceleration times are unsurprisingly improved in both cars. The headline figures for the Hellcat are 3.6 seconds 0-60mph and a quarter mile time of just under 11 seconds – 10.96 seconds to be precise. Both usefully quicker than their slim shady brothers. Lateral grip is also up on both cars. It’s 0.96 on the Hellcat, 0.98 on the Scat Pack.

On the track, the Scat Pack is by far the most composed of the two. The Hellcat, carrying that big motor up front, is slightly less willing to turn and, if you get on the throttle a smidge too early, ready to grenade the rear tyres all the way to the next corner. Fun but not fast. Put on your dancing shoes and get it absolutely right, though, and Dodge tells us the Scat Pack is a full 1.3 seconds faster around a two-mile track than a narrow body. The Hellcat? 2.1 seconds quicker than the narrow body car.