The stock Chrysler 300C could not be said to suffer from inadequate charisma. This is a car that managed to win the 2005 North American Car of the Year award from auto writers and the Snoop Dogg seal of approval. Like the Cadillac Escalade, the 300C is an automotive crossover hit, finding favor with urban audiences (witness the car's repeated drive-ons in hip-hop videos) as well as the wider, whiter world of suburban moms and dads looking for a car that doesn't bore them to tears.
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Go ahead, wave a flag / Chrysler 300C SRT-8
Detroit's share of the U.S. market is at a historic low and no one knows how far it can drop. Where do American manufacturers go from here? Two homegrown hits point the way. Smart, expressive styling with heart and heritage may prove to be the automakers' salvation. As an industry analyst puts it: "Delight or die."
RUMBLE SEAT / DAN NEIL
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The car's gerrymandering appeal is a testament to the power of smart styling. Is it a glowering gangsta, a cut-rate Bentley, a street custom, the banker's hot-rod reborn? All of the above. The best of car design -- of pop culture generally -- reflects and refracts the image of those who would invest in it. And even though the car's chassis is derived from the E-class Mercedes-Benz (Chrysler is now only a division of
DaimlerChrysler) it has a wonderful, bred-in-
the-bone American feel, an America of soulful diversity.
The 300 series starts with the cheap and negligible base model for around $24,000, powered by a 190-horsepower, 2.7-liter V6 and rolling on 17-inch wheels and tires lost in the oversized wheel wells. The marquee player is the award-winning 300C, available with all-wheel-drive, powered by a high-caliber V8 (340 hp, 5.7 liters, with a fuel-saving cylinder deactivation technology) and fitted with odd bits of lux grandiosity like the faux tortoise shell steering wheel. A very nice car for about $35,000.
But the 300C SRT-8 is clearly where the arrow was intended to fall. This low-volume model -- only about 10,000 will be produced annually by the company's in-house Street and Racing Technology group -- fully exploits the 300C's obvious potential, and wheel wells, which are now brimming with gorgeous 20x9-inch alloy dubs wrapped in Z-rated Goodyear F1 Supercar rubber. The SRT-8 sits slightly lower on its revised suspension and wears a street-skimming dust ruffle comprising a lower front air dam, rocker panel extensions and a lower bumper clip from which the 3.5-inch chrome exhaust stingers emerge. Gangsta? Sure, if gangstas do amphibious landings in hovercraft.
About the only people who will not be happy to see this car in action are aftermarket parts suppliers who build bolt-on bits, here rendered superfluous. Just look at the brakes! Up front, 14.2-inch ventilated discs with four-piston Brembos and in the rear the same binders on 13.8-inch discs. This thing comes from the factory hot enough to cook weenies on.
