The 2020 Subaru Outback ticks a lot of boxes right off the lot: It seats five, has a large cargo area, lots of safety technology — it even has all-wheel drive and a healthy amount of ground clearance for those rare occasions where a driver might need to leave the pavement. But there’s something it will never have: 707 horsepower
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hat’s why you need a 2020 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Widebody. The Widebody Package is standard on the Hellcat and adds wider tires front and rear for added grip, with the fenders flared out to widen the car by 3.5 inches to accommodate the extra rubber. Suspension upgrades are also added to the car, and Dodge switched the power steering system from hydraulic to electric to better handle the steering loads.
The Widebody Package is optional on the Charger Scat Pack, and paying $6,000 for it gives you everything the Hellcat gets, plus it adds the Hellcat’s giant Brembo brakes. In Cars.com reviewer Brian Wong’s words, “[I]t’s an upgrade I recommend for anyone who intends to drive the Charger on a road that isn’t perfectly straight.
“On the track, the difference between the standard car and the Widebody twins is immediately apparent,” Wong wrote. “The Widebody grips harder onto the road and stays flatter, allowing you to carry more speed into turns with greater confidence … this additional balance along with the wider tires means that you can get back onto the gas more quickly and the car won’t lose its rear end. You also get a much sharper initial turn-in, and for a big car the nose feels rather light. This is truer in the Scat Pack than the Hellcat; it has less weight in the engine compartment and it feels the more agile of the two by a decent margin.
“The Hellcat’s move away from a hydraulic steering system had me wary, but after driving with the electronic power steering system, my concerns were alleviated. There’s good feedback, even in a track environment, an area in which many EPS systems struggle, and it also made the Hellcat a bit easier to use at low speeds as well.”
You can read the rest of Wong’s review of the two powerful Chargers below, along with Aaron Bragman’s ever-popular review of the 2020 Subaru Outback, which is once again our most popular review.
New among our popular videos this week is our review of the 2019 GMC Canyon, which represented GM in our recent comparison test of mid-size trucks. Back once again is our video detailing the results of our 2019 Compact SUV Challenge. Both join recent and longtime favorites round out the list: the drag-strip test of the Charger’s Widebody sibling, the 2019 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Widebody, our first look at new special-edition 2020 Chevrolet Silverado 1500s and our review of the 2020 Hyundai Palisade.
