Dodge's 750-HP Manual Charger Drift Cars Make Their California Debut This Weekend
The Hemmings-built BOOST Coupe and RPM drift taxi will run full-course exhibitions at GRIDLIFE's season finale, September 18–20 — the first California outing for the only manual-transmission SIXPACK Chargers.
The two 750-horsepower Dodge Charger drift cars built with Hemmings are heading to California for the first time. Both machines will run full-course drift exhibitions at the GRIDLIFE Laguna Festival, held September 18–20 at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
Professional drifters Corey Hosford and Micah Diaz will be behind the wheel of the two builds: the two-door Charger BOOST Coupe, set up for solo exhibition runs, and the four-door Charger RPM — short for Rapid People Mover — configured as a drift taxi for passenger rides.
Both cars started life as production Charger Scat Packs powered by the 550-hp, twin-turbocharged SIXPACK H.O. straight-six. The team at Suppy's Garage, led by fabricator Suppy Wejpanich, threw out the factory all-wheel-drive, automatic-only layout and converted each car to rear-wheel drive with a manual gearbox, using custom bellhousings and a reworked driveline. Output rose to 750 hp in the process.
That makes them the only manually shifted SIXPACK Chargers in existence, according to Dodge — the production car is sold exclusively with all-wheel drive and an automatic. The two builds also run different boost setups: the coupe swaps the factory twin turbos for a single Turbosmart unit, while the RPM keeps a heavily modified twin-turbo arrangement.
The pair came together in roughly 60 days and debuted on August 7 at Roadkill Nights at M1 Concourse in Pontiac, Michigan, where the project — a collaboration between Hemmings programming director Mike Musto and Dodge — was first shown to the public.
Laguna Seca is a bigger stage. This year's event is GRIDLIFE's fourth at the Monterey track and the first time the festival closes its season on the West Coast. The open drift sessions send cars down the Corkscrew and feature names like Vaughn Gittin Jr. and Chris Forsberg, so the Chargers will share the track with some of the best-known drifters in the country.
Beyond the exhibition runs, Dodge is offering Thrill Rides in 550-hp Charger Scat Pack models and displaying its current lineup at the festival throughout the weekend.
Hemmings continues to document the two cars in a video series on its YouTube channel, and the tour isn't over: Dodge has already confirmed a follow-up appearance at FuelFest in Arizona.
