Ever since Stellantis swore its oath to EVs it seems like Dodge has had its freedom returned for one last hurrah in their "Never Lift" campaign. The Hemi-engine has had a rather long swan song that started with the original line of Hellcats, grew into the Redeye, and then in Spinal Tap fashion turned everything up to 11 with the Demon. A dragster too fast for the NHRA. Well, now Dodge continues the insanity with their new Power Broker dealerships and all their Mopar high-performance Direct Connection parts.
Essentially before environmental regulations come for our keys in the night, Dodge has a mission to ensure that every one of their cars gets tuned, modified, and pushed to their utmost limit. A curious customer can find these Power Broker dealerships on the Dodge website. Specially trained to assist the enthusiast with their modification needs getting the most from a Challenger, Charger, or Durango.
With a factory warranty, modifying your Dodge is easier than before.
What Direct Connection Packages Are On Offer for The Hellcat?
To ensure that the enthusiast's Challenger looks the best it can, Dodge kick things off with four graphics packages. But the gearhead doesn't care about that; what they care for is what's under the hood. For the Challenger, this means 14 new performance kits and 13 new race kits. According to Steve Magnante, the engineers behind Direct Connection are "road racers and drag racers themselves." With this in mind, the lineup of parts fills every section of the market.
If you're lucky enough to own a Hellcat model, Dodge will now turn your car up to 12 with three-stage kits. Pre-stage adds a high capacity intake, 180-degree thermostat, and Wi-Fi enabled touchscreen tuner. This last device plugs into the OBB2 port and this gives you extra information on your car's performance. Most importantly this device enables ECU tuning, adjusts RPM limits, and offers fuel management. This pre-stage only increases power by 5 horsepower from 717 to 722. Swapping the pulley on the supercharger boost increases by 2 PSI for Stage 1. This kit boosts horsepower to 757. The Hellcat Redeye sees horsepower move up to 840 and torque pushed to 770 ft-lbs in the stage 1 kit with a modest recalibration and high octane fuel mode. In stage 2 this moves up to 885 horsepower with the increase in boost seen in the first kit for the regular Hellcat.
What Direct Connection Parts Are On Offer For the Challenger?
Lots of Dodge's attention seems to be on bringing older Hellcat models into line with the latest 2022 SRT Hellcat Redline. This doesn't mean that the Dodge neglect the regular Challenger model. The Drag Pak changes the Challenger radically. With an interior, exterior, and driveline kit to name just a few parts of the Drag Pak Challenger's transformation Direct Connection have everything that a Dodge needs to be drag strip ready. Recommended for the Drag Pak is the $56,995 354 Hemi producing only 630 horsepower it's far from the most powerful engine in the range. This title belongs to the Hellephant 426, a 1,000 horsepower engine.
With the Drag Pak comes the option of four liveries. The first that Direct Connection market is a full-color livery. Red white and blue with the phrase Drag Pak written down the side. This same livery comes in a monochromatic scheme. Both of these are available with the Direct Connection lettering instead of Drag Pak.
Also on offer for the regular Challenger come a range of parts from the Redeye. These include the air filter, cylinder heads, driveshafts, fender flares, and even the cylinder heads. Each of these individual items counts as a performance kit. The regular Challenger, unless in Drag Pak guise, doesn't see as large an overhaul as the Hellcats. While this isn't everything that goes into one of Dodge's halo car Redeye models, for the budding gearhead this certainly will make their regular Challenger a little more interesting.
Does Direct Connection Void A Car's Warranty?
According to Stellantis, "In 1974, Direct Connection launched as the exclusive source for performance parts and technical information, straight from the manufacturer." Direct Connection along with Mopar and SRT truly changed the game when it came to powerful cars. With parts straight from the dealer, and a direct connection, these parts came with a warranty and information. This peace of mind ensured that Dodge empowered their customers to modify their cars. Not many changes with this return of Direct Connection.
Stellantis writes, "Direct Connection parts installed/replaced by a Dodge Power Brokers dealership on a Dodge vehicle maintain the three-year/36,000-mile new vehicle basic limited warranty and the five-year/60,000-mile powertrain limited warranty from the original installation date." Most importantly, any part bought through the Dodge Power Brokers program, if fitted by a Power Brokers dealership, won't void the owner's warranty. However, the warranty is no longer valid if installed by the owner or another third party.
As a bonus, coming from the manufacturer Dodge, most of these plug-and-play modifications don't break State emissions legislation. However, some parts like the Mopar Performance Camshaft aren't road legal.