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Dodge is planning a new high-performance halo coupe called the Copperhead SRT, reviving a name from a concept the brand showed at the 1997 Detroit Auto Show, according to CarBuzz.
The car was shown as a clay model during a product walk-through at Stellantis $STLA +2.69%'s investor day Thursday at the company's North American headquarters in Auburn Hills, Michigan, according to CNBC. Stellantis Chief Design Officer Ralph Gilles confirmed that the vehicles shown were "real," adding, "We mean business here."
According to CarBuzz, a senior correspondent who got a look at the car called it a blend of two Dodge icons — drawing on Charger design language at the nose and Viper influence toward the tail, topped by a hood with a pronounced power dome and fitted with an oversized rear wing. Size-wise, the Copperhead's footprint nearer to a Mustang than to Dodge's large Charger sedan.
Despite speculation that the car amounts to a Viper comeback, SRT boss Tim Kuniskis pushed back hard on that framing. "We purposely called it a Copperhead because it's not a Viper," he said. Pressed further, Kuniskis left the door open on the powertrain question, floating the possibility of electrification before gesturing to the car's visible tailpipes as a qualifier. His parting line — "Could be something you don't know. We didn't talk about anything in the future for powertrains, did we?" — led CarBuzz to speculate that a purpose-built hybrid performance system may be in the works.
