As both the 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and Charger SRT Hellcat are powered by an identical 6.2-litre supercharged V8 delivering 707 hp, one may assume that the Charger is essentially a four-door variant of the Challenger. There is one key aspect of the Charger SRT Hellcat which is different to the Challenger however.
That is the fact that it is not available with a manual transmission and instead only comes equipped with the eight-speed automatic transmission. While many pundits have pointed out that by adding a longer propshaft to the six-speed manual of the Challenger, it could work with the Charger SRT Hellcat. However, that’s not the case.
While speaking with Jalopnik, an insider said, “The MTX (manual gearbox) is a significant tear up to the floor pan (body) of the Charger. To do an MTX in the Charger would require a full impact and crash safety certification effort for the program. This is big bucks, and the product strategy folks pin the take rate for a Charger MTX in the low single digits.”
To put it in laymen’s terms, the Charger was never designed with a manual gearbox in mind.
