The Dodge Charger once again has a V8…if you’re going racing, at least.
After we spent months upon months lamenting the inevitable demise of the iconic Hemi V8, it’s recently been having a revival, with folks wondering when it’s going to appear in the new Dodge Charger. Well, the automaker did indeed bring a V8 option back to its latest generation muscle car, but there is one major catch. You can only have it if you’re going drag racing. Meet the 2026 Charger Hustle Stuff Drag Pak: a turn-key race car with a supercharged Hemi that won’t (yet) be coming to the masses.
Instead, Steallantis is pitching this sub-8-second quarter-mile dragster to racing teams by way of its Direct Connection program. This new race car is 100 pounds lighter than the old Challenger Drag Pak, and brings upgrades like carbon fiber components, a lightweight K member and front/rear bumpers, a three-speed Coan Racing transmission, double-adjustable coilover shocks, four-link rear suspension with a 9-inch rear axle and a 4.30:1 axle ratio, and a fully programmable Racepak Smartwire power distribution module.
And then there’s the powertrain, naturally. The Charger Hustle Stuff Drag Pak gets a 354-cubic-inch (5.8L) Gen III cast aluminum Hemi engine, paired to an appropriately huge 3.0-liter Whipple supercharger. While Dodge does not specifically cite horsepower, the car is supposedly capable of a quarter-mile lower than 8 seconds…so it’s no slouch. To prepare for that kind of power, the Hemi itself has been upgraded with a forged steel, eight-counterweight crankshaft, high-performance forged H-beam connecting rods, diamond aluminum pistons, a billet belt tensioner, a Mopar-spec camshaft, Jesel solid roller lifters and rocker arms, a billet aluminum 109-mm throttle body and a Holley EFI lightweight Dominator ECU. Getting that power to the ground is a Coan Racing XLT three-speed transmission, as well as a Coan Racing 9.65-inch torque converter and a 4-inch 7075 aluminum driveshaft.
Inside, the driver gets a Sabelt SFI-certified seat, harnesses, a window net and an SFI 25.5/7.50 ET NHRA-certified chromoly roll cage. The seats are embroidered with both Direct Connection and Hustle Stuff logos, the latter being Mopar’s reference to the old-school 1970s performance parts catalog.
Sadly, while most would love to buy a V8 Charger to use on the street, the recently resurrected SRT division opted to kick things off with this Drag Pack instead. Only 50 will go on sale (and are on sale now) at $234,995 a pop. That said, Dodge is offering up $26,000 as part of the NHRA Contingency program for the first Factory Stock Showdown event win in one of these cars.
