Throttle Weekly Issue 34: Dodge Turns Up the Sixpack, Antonelli Wins Spa, and a $1.1M DB5

This issue covers developments reported from July 15 through July 22, 2026: Dodge is preparing a stronger gas-powered Charger, Kimi Antonelli won again in Formula 1, Alex Palou rebuilt his IndyCar points cushion, and a Spain-based fuel pilot is testing whether existing cars can run on fully renewable gasoline. At auction, a rare Aston Martin DB5 Shooting Brake showed why unusual coachbuilt cars can outpace the ordinary market.

Dodge says it will reveal the most powerful Charger Sixpack yet at Roadkill Nights in Pontiac, Michigan, on August 8. The announcement is tied to the Charger nameplate’s 60th anniversary and points to an upgraded version of the twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six, not a return of the Hemi V-8. 1

The current gas-powered Charger Scat Pack makes 550 horsepower from that inline-six. Dodge has not released the new variant's output or its mechanical changes, so the often-mentioned 600-hp figure remains an expectation rather than a specification. 1

Kimi Antonelli converted pole into his sixth Formula 1 win of the season at Spa-Francorchamps on July 19, beating Charles Leclerc by 1.952 seconds. Max Verstappen finished third and Lewis Hamilton fourth after a messy weekend that included contact with George Russell. The result left Antonelli 47 points ahead of Hamilton in the drivers' standings. 2

The Nashville IndyCar race produced a more improbable recovery. Alex Palou won after rain delayed the event and extreme heat led officials to shorten it from 300 laps to 225. Josef Newgarden finished second, while David Malukas climbed from last on the grid to third after leading 59 laps. Palou's fifth win of the season extended his championship lead over Malukas to 63 points and gave Chip Ganassi Racing its 150th series victory. 3

Toyota Motor Europe, BMW Group, Bosch, and Repsol announced a six-month pilot in Spain on July 15. Around 20 Toyota and BMW vehicles will run on Repsol's Nexa 95 renewable gasoline, with Bosch's Digital Fuel Twin tracking refuelling and fuel use. The test uses production vehicles, existing pumps, and a fuel described as compatible with today's gasoline engines. 4

In plain terms, this is a drop-in liquid-fuel test. The renewable gasoline is made from RED-compliant feedstocks, including used cooking oil and tallow, rather than refined entirely from new fossil oil. That can reduce greenhouse-gas emissions over the fuel's full lifecycle, but it does not make a combustion car zero-emission at the tailpipe. 5

The important unanswered question is scale. The pilot is designed to measure availability, certification, and day-to-day operation; it has not yet produced results showing how the approach compares with battery-electric driving in a complete lifecycle assessment. 4

Hagerty's July 18 sale report follows a 1966 Aston Martin DB5 Shooting Brake that sold for £848,750, or $1,143,028, at RM Sotheby's in Epsom, England. Built by coachbuilder Harold Radford, it is one of just 12 DB5 Shooting Brakes made. 6

The conversion kept the DB5's front half but stretched the car by four inches from the windshield back, adding a new roof, quarter panels, and hatch. The result offered 40 cubic feet of cargo space behind an inline-six-powered grand tourer. This example had remained with one family for nearly 20 years, retained its numbers-matching engine, and came with service records plus documentation of a 2021 restoration. 6

The sale was strong but not a record: Hagerty notes that a left-hand-drive Shooting Brake reached $1,765,000 in 2019. The gap illustrates what makes these cars hard to price: rarity matters, but condition, documentation, specification, and the right buyer matter just as much.

Dodge is keeping the Charger’s internal-combustion story alive with a power upgrade, while the week’s racing results belonged to Antonelli and Palou. The renewable-gasoline pilot is a real-world test of compatibility and emissions accounting, not a finished answer. And the DB5 Shooting Brake remains a reminder that the most desirable collector cars are often the strange, limited-run versions that solve a very specific problem.