- 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 vehicles on the launch occasion.Â
- 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 evaluations are lastly hitting the streets. Critics appear to like the automotive, 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 straightforward feat, however as lots of those that have already made the change can let you know—the moment torque delivered by an EV will be removed from tame.
However there’s one specific quirk in regards to the Charger Daytona that we will not fairly overcome. Regardless of Dodge advertising and marketing the Charger as an electrified muscle automotive, it lacks the flexibility 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.
Picture by: InsideEVs
Information of the lacking function first got here to us whereas skimming by MotorTrend’s first drive evaluate of the Charger Daytona. Throughout their time with the automotive, MotorTrend observed that (for some unfathomable cause) it was inconceivable to get the automotive 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:
In truth, the Charger Daytona gained’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 most likely 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 mentioned 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 formidable cloud of vaporized rubber… proper?
Perhaps there is a good cause for it. Let’s bear 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 immediate, electrified torque. That is loads of energy for some large quantity 11s on the pavement.Â
We dug into this quirk a bit extra to seek out out precisely what was occurring. As talked about, the Charger Daytona is AWD, so to be able to do a conventional burnout, it could want to chop energy to the entrance wheels—which it ought to be capable of do since an EV does not have to mechanically separate the entrance and rear drivetrains on condition 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 sort of literal and refers to locking stress within the entrance brake strains of a automotive to maintain pads involved with the rotors and stop the entrance wheels from turning. The motive force can then mash the fuel pedal and warmth up the rear tires earlier than sending the automotive down the drag strip.
The thought is comparable 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 in regards to 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 does not have the Line Lock function. In truth, a Stellantis spokesperson confirmed to InsideEVs that Line Lock just isn’t at present accessible on the Charger Daytona and that the model did not have something to share relating to any future plans for the function.
Nicely, 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 automotive—cannot do a burnout. No less than not but, and whether or not or not it’ll get an replace so as to add Dodge’s Line Lock function sooner or later is anyone’s guess.
Certain, it will 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 operate. I do know this is not the top of the world, but it surely looks as if such a missed alternative to incorporate a fundamental muscle automotive function on what’s being marketed as the primary fashionable electrical muscle automotive. Perhaps that’ll change sooner or later, however for now, I will go sit within the nook and marvel what we did to deserve this.
