Throttle Weekly Issue 46: The Hellcat V-8 Comes Back, Verstappen's Singapore Win, and a 0.029-Second Finish
Dodge's Hellcat V-8 returns to the Charger, Verstappen wins Singapore as the title race heads to Austin, and NASCAR's closest finish of the season lead this week's sourced car digest, alongside Formula 1's new African race, a driverless Silverado and the hybrid boom the industry misread.
The week in one pass
Coverage: October 7 – October 14, 2026.
Dodge spent the week doing what its fans have asked for since the V-8 was cancelled: putting a supercharged Hellcat back in the Charger. BMW did the same on a smaller scale, giving its biggest sedan a V-8 again. On track, Max Verstappen won the Singapore Grand Prix and NASCAR produced its closest finish of the season, while Formula 1 said it is finally going racing in Africa. In the showroom, the market most automakers bet against — the ordinary hybrid — kept pulling buyers away from everything else.
- Industry: Two sets of supplier documents point to the 6.2-liter supercharged Hellcat V-8 returning to the Dodge Charger for 2028, in both body styles and with rear-wheel drive. 12 Acura confirmed an off-road SUV for early 2028 and a larger eight-passenger model after it. 3 BMW's new M760 gives the 7-series its V-8 back with about 570 horsepower. 4 GM Defense showed the U.S. Army a driverless Silverado. 5
- Trackside and community: Verstappen won in Singapore, the 73rd win of his career, on his 250th Grand Prix start, and Kimi Antonelli can wrap up the championship in Austin in two weeks. 67 Chase Briscoe beat his teammate Christopher Bell by 0.029 seconds at Charlotte, the closest finish of the NASCAR season. 8 Formula 1 announced a 10-year deal for an African Grand Prix in Rwanda, on a new permanent track, in the early 2030s. 9 Lia Block lost the American Rally Association title to a double puncture on the final stage. 10
- Explainer: Hybrids reached a record 16 percent of U.S. light-duty vehicle sales, and buyers keep choosing them over the electric cars some automakers built in their place. 11
- Car culture: Louisville police will let a 12,000-pound monster truck crush a seized Hellcat-powered Charger built from stolen parts. 12 Twelve drag strips, including Rockingham Speedway, are up for auction after the collapse of the IHRA. 13 DeLorean is entering the world's electric flying-car racing series. 14
Industry news
The Hellcat V-8 is coming back to the Dodge Charger
Two separate reports have now surfaced on what Dodge plans for the current Charger, and they say the same thing: the supercharged Hellcat V-8 goes back in. Car and Driver reported internal documents, obtained by MoparInsiders, that list the 6.2-liter supercharged Hemi for the 2028 Charger in both the two-door and four-door bodies. 1 Hagerty reported that Automotive News had reviewed a Dodge planning document sent to suppliers, confirming a launch at the end of 2027 for the 2028 model year at a volume of 12,000 cars a year. 2
The documents say the Hellcat Chargers drive the rear wheels through a ZF eight-speed automatic. That separates them from the Chargers on sale now, which pair the Hurricane inline-six with standard all-wheel drive. The six-cylinder stays in the lineup at 420, 550 and 600 horsepower, and so do the electric Charger Daytona models. 115
What the Hellcat will make is the open question. Dodge could bring the 717-horsepower version back unchanged, or fit the 777-horsepower tune from the 2027 Ram 1500 SRT TRX. 1 The reversal has a history: Stellantis's then-CEO Carlos Tavares took the V-8 out of Dodge and Ram, and after he resigned in December 2024, Tim Kuniskis returned and began putting Hemis back, starting with a 5.7-liter in Ram's light-duty pickups and then the 777-horsepower TRX. 2
Dodge CEO Matt McAlear has already edged toward confirming that the 6.2 fits in a bay designed for an inline-six. Asked whether it would, he said: "Theoretically, I'll let you come up here and take a look and get your tape measure out ... but don't be surprised if it would fit." 2
Acura adds an off-road SUV and an eight-passenger flagship
Acura's lineup is about to grow in two directions. The company said an "adventure-ready" SUV will arrive in the first part of 2028, in a segment Acura has not competed in since the SLX of the 1990s. A teaser photo shows a multi-spoke wheel with what looks like an all-terrain tire, and Acura shares platforms with Honda, whose Passport TrailSport covers similar ground. 3 Road & Track counted three new SUVs in the announcement, including a three-row model. 16
The larger news is the second vehicle: an eight-passenger SUV that will be the biggest Acura ever built, bigger than the three-row MDX. Acura gave no date. Car and Driver expects around 2030, when Honda's new hybrid-only assembly plant in Ohio is due to open. Both new SUVs are expected to use Honda's next hybrid V-6, which will have up to three electric motors and is claimed to improve acceleration by 10 percent. 3
GM Defense shows the Army a Silverado with nobody in it
GM Defense brought an Unmanned Ground Vehicle to the Association of the United States Army's annual expo, built on a Chevrolet Silverado 3500HD. The cab is gone, the pickup bed is replaced by a flatbed, and the truck rides on dual-rear-wheel "skateboard" architecture that GM says supports silent movement. 5
The UGV is meant for logistics runs and evacuations rather than combat, and it steers itself with drive-by-wire hardware and Scout AI's Gx Ground Agent software. GM Defense aims to begin functional trials in 2027. The company already supplies the Army's Colorado-based Infantry Squad Vehicle, a contract that has grown from 649 vehicles to nearly 12,000. 5
BMW gives its flagship its V-8 back
BMW has a V-8 in the 7-series again. The 2027 M760 xDrive uses a twin-turbocharged 4.4-liter V-8 making around 570 horsepower, with standard all-wheel drive and upgraded chassis parts over the inline-six 740. It replaces the 760i, whose version of the same engine made 536 horsepower. 4
The car reaches the United States in the first half of 2027, and BMW has not announced a price; Car and Driver expects more than $126,000. BMW says it is refocusing its M Performance line around the V-8 for the American market, so more of these are coming on larger models. 4
Trackside and community
Verstappen wins Singapore as the title fight moves to Austin
Max Verstappen won the Singapore Grand Prix on October 11, leading all 62 laps from pole and finishing in 1:42:00.785. Charles Leclerc was 7.335 seconds back in second, and Kimi Antonelli was third, 24.573 seconds behind. Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri finished fourth and fifth for McLaren, with Lewis Hamilton sixth. 6
The win was the 73rd of Verstappen's career and came on his 250th Grand Prix start. He had already won a rain-affected sprint on Saturday and taken his first pole at Marina Bay. George Russell, who started 19th after an engine penalty, recovered to ninth for two points. 67
Briscoe beats Bell by 0.029 seconds at Charlotte
Chase Briscoe won Sunday's NASCAR Cup race at Charlotte Motor Speedway by 0.029 seconds over his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell, the closest finish of the 2026 season and Briscoe's second win in two weeks. 8
Hurricane Isaias washed out Saturday's on-track activity, so NASCAR set the field with its performance-based metric, which put Briscoe on the front row beside points leader Kyle Larson. Larson won the first stage but faded to sixth. An early crash triggered by Alex Bowman took out Bowman's teammate William Byron and Bubba Wallace, and Ryan Blaney, Josh Berry and Denny Hamlin completed the top five. 8
The win cut 19 points from Larson's championship lead, though Briscoe stayed sixth in the standings, four points behind Blaney. Briscoe described the last laps afterward: "I just felt like I was going to knock the wall down at any point. It just quit turning." 8
Formula 1 announces an African Grand Prix in Rwanda
Formula 1 announced on October 13 a 10-year agreement to hold an African Grand Prix in Rwanda starting in the early 2030s, and the race will run on a purpose-built permanent road course, a rarity among the calendar's recent additions. The track goes up in Bugesera, about 25 miles from the capital, Kigali; F1 has released no layout or name. 917
Rwanda would be F1's first race in Africa since the South African Grand Prix, held periodically from 1962 to 1993. The continent's only other round was a 1958 race in Morocco. Because the deal starts in the 2030s, it is unclear whether the African Grand Prix will replace an existing race; the 2027 calendar already has 24 rounds. 9
Lia Block loses the ARA title on the final stage
Lia Block arrived at the Lake Superior Performance Rally in Michigan leading the American Rally Association championship and needed only to finish second or third on the last power stage to become the first woman to win the series. About halfway through, her Hyundai i20 N Rally2 hit a rock on exposed bedrock and punctured both left-side tires. 10
She limped to the finish out of the points. Seth Quintero took the title, 118 points to Block's 116. It was the second rally championship in two weeks decided by a mistake on the final stage, after Oliver Solberg's slide handed Elfyn Evans the World Rally Championship in Sardinia. 10
Block, 20, had already become the first woman to win an ARA rally and the first to lead the championship, in her first season in a Rally2 car. "This is something that happens all the time in rally," she said. "You have punctures, you have things that go wrong, but this one just feels like I'm in a nightmare and I'm trying to wake up, but I can't." 10
Explainer: why the ordinary hybrid is what Americans are buying
Buyers are choosing hybrids in numbers most automakers did not plan for, and the companies that cut them are now racing to catch up.
The scale shows in the data. Hybrids reached a record 16 percent of U.S. light-duty vehicle sales, according to the Energy Information Administration. Cox Automotive puts hybrid sales up 23 percent in the second quarter and up 24 percent over the first nine months of 2026. In a Consumer Reports survey of 2,124 American adults in October, 68 percent of people planning to buy or lease a new car called fuel efficiency very or extremely important. 11
The reason is cost and convenience rather than technology. A conventional hybrid pairs a small battery and an electric motor with a gasoline engine and recharges itself by driving, so the owner plugs nothing in and pays less than for a comparable electric car. Autoweek calculates that switching to a hybrid F-150 saves a family about $450 a year, and that a hybrid Maverick saves between $550 and $900, with gasoline around $4.50 a gallon. 11
General Motors is the clearest example of the miscalculation. GM sells no hybrids in 2026 apart from low-volume Corvette performance cars, and its 2024 fleet averaged 22.9 mpg, second-worst in the EPA's 2026 Automotive Trends Report behind Stellantis at 22.8. GM's vice president of propulsion engineering, Mike Anderson, said hybrids are "part of the plan" and could arrive as early as 2027. 11
The companies that kept full hybrid lineups collected the sales. In the third quarter, Hyundai's hybrid sales rose 39 percent and Kia's 152 percent, with Toyota up 29 percent and Honda 21 percent. Ford's hybrid sales rose almost 22 percent in 2025 to 228,072. 11
Used prices show the same shift. Cox data has non-electric used vehicles rated above 40 mpg up 9.9 percent in wholesale value since January, with used hybrid sales up 19 percent year over year, while diesel sits unsold as that fuel approaches $6.50 a gallon. 11
Federal policy has moved the other way and offers automakers no pressure to reverse course. The administration's "Freedom Means Affordable Cars" rule, finalized in September, cut the 2031 corporate average fuel economy target to 34.9 mpg from 50.4 mpg and removed the penalty for missing it. 11
The human-interest coda
A confiscated Hellcat Charger is fed to a monster truck
Louisville Metro Police have found a way to make an example of a seized street-racing car: let a monster truck drive over it in front of a paying crowd. The car is a 2009 Dodge Charger assembled from stolen parts — a 6.2-liter supercharged Hellcat V-8, its gearbox, electric modules, exhaust, suspension and seats — seized during an illegal street takeover in 2024. 12
Investigators traced the parts from Detroit and Indianapolis. With the case closed, the department partnered with Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live, and on Saturday, October 17, the Charger goes in the path of Rhinomite, a 12,000-pound monster truck, at the KFC Yum! Center. "If you put people in danger when you're behind the wheel, don't be surprised when you lose your car," said LMPD chief Paul L. Humphrey. 12
Twelve drag strips go up for auction
The collapse of the International Hot Rod Association is putting a dozen drag strips on the block. After the sanctioning body cancelled the rest of its Nitro Drag Racing Series in July 2026 and laid off much of its staff, owner Darryl Cuttell is selling the tracks by sealed bid through the listing site tranzon.com. 13
The list includes Rockingham Speedway in North Carolina, which once hosted NASCAR Cup races, Heartland Motorsports Park in Topeka, Memphis International Raceway, Atlanta Dragway in Georgia, Virginia Motorsports Park and Empire Dragway in New York. Several others are familiar tracks under new names, among them National Trail Raceway in Ohio. 13
DeLorean joins the electric flying-car racing series
DeLorean will field a team in the Airspeeder International Series, becoming the first American constructor in what the series calls the world's first racing championship for electric flying cars. The team debuts when the 2026-27 season opens in November, flying Airspeeder's standardized Mk3C electric aircraft in DeLorean styling. 14
From the 2027-28 season the company will work with engineering students at universities including UC Berkeley and Georgia Tech on future race aircraft. Airspeeder, founded by Australian entrepreneur Matt Pearson in 2016, sends pilots through three-dimensional courses marked by virtual gates. "People have pictured a DeLorean in the sky for 40 years," chief brand officer Cameron Wynne said. "We decided it was time to stop picturing it." 14
References
- 12028 Dodge Charger to Gain Supercharged V-8, Documents Show
caranddriver.com
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- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7Max Verstappen Completes Sweep and Wins Singapore Grand Prix
roadandtrack.com
- 8
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- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14DeLorean Joins Electric Flying-Car Racing Series
autoweek.com
- 15Dodge Charger Hellcat Tipped to Return in 2027?
roadandtrack.com
- 16
- 17F1 Will Return to Africa with a Brand-New Track
caranddriver.com
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