The recent shakeup over at Stellantis brings with it a serious jolt of good news for Mopar fans: The Street and Racing Technology division, better known as SRT, is about to make a comeback.
“But wait, can’t you still buy vehicles with an SRT badge on them?” you might ask. It’s a valid question, because yes, you can still walk into a Dodge dealership and order a 2025 Durango SRT Hellcat right now. That would imply that the badge never really left, so there’s some nuance to clear up.
Back in early 2021, shortly after the merger between Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and Peugeot S.A. (PSA) that formed the Stellantis automotive conglomerate, it was announced that the SRT engineering team—essentially the in-house skunkworks team for FCA—would be relocated throughout the individual brands at Stellantis. The badge remained across the lineup, adorning Challengers, Chargers, Durangos, and Grand Cherokees, but the focus on performance and dynamics simply couldn’t be maintained at the same level with that engineering talent now spread out.
Now, a course correction. “We’re getting the band back together,” said Tim Kuniskis, Ram CEO and newly-appointed head of American brands and North America marketing and retail strategy. “SRT is another box we needed to check as we head into a product launch cadence enabling more performance than we’ve ever seen before. We’re working with our product development and technology organization to select the best engineers in powertrain and vehicle dynamics to build a team worthy of the SRT name.”
Boy, do we like the sound of that.
According to the announcement, the newly formed SRT performance division will oversee Direct Connection (the customer-facing performance parts business) and the company’s North American motorsport initiatives, like the recently announced return of the Ram brand to the NASCAR Trucks Series.
We’ll have to wait and see what the first fruits of the new SRT end up being—our money is on a truck or an SUV—but regardless of the rollout structure, we’re quite pumped that Kuniskis is leading the charge to reignite the high-performance flame at Stellantis. May it be rife with Hemis, tire smoke, and good times.
Let me know when the Viper comes back. (Yeah I know, not likely.)
“We’re getting the band back together.” “We’re on a mission from God.”