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Dodge Just Brought Back the Superbird Wing on the New Charger SRT and Mopar Fans Are Going Insane

JoshBryan image via Shutterstock
JoshBryan image via Shutterstock

Richard Petty drove a winged Plymouth Superbird to the 1970 Daytona 500 and made NASCAR history.

Now Dodge just put that same massive rear wing on the brand-new Charger SRT – and the photos will stop you cold.

There is one thing missing from this car that every Mopar fan in America is screaming about right now.

How the Dodge Charger EV Disaster Killed American Muscle Car Sales

Former Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares didn't care what American muscle car buyers wanted.

He killed the Hellcat. Killed the Hemi. Killed the Challenger. Then handed Dodge fans an electric vehicle nobody asked for and called it progress.

The market answered him directly.

The Charger Daytona EV moved just 7,421 units in all of 2025 – a year when Dodge sold over 27,000 Challengers, a car that had been out of production for more than a year.

Dealers cut prices by $25,000. Unsold inventory stacked up on lots. One test car purchased for $82,000 sold for $35,000 with fewer than 7,000 miles on the clock. Dodge eventually killed the base R/T trim entirely and quietly admitted the whole experiment had failed.

Every single buyer who walked into a dealership, looked at that electric Charger, and walked back out was right.

The New Dodge Charger SRT Just Showed Up With a Plymouth Superbird Wing

On Thursday in Detroit, Dodge CEO Matt McLear's team pulled the curtain back on a refreshed Charger lineup – and one car stopped the room cold.

The Charger SRT arrived wearing a massive rear wing that belonged to a different era entirely – full-height, full-drama, with pedestals rising off the rear quarters exactly like the winged warriors Richard Petty piloted to 18 race wins in a single season.

The rest matched the ambition. Smoked headlights. Amber LED running lights flanking the sides. A massive front splitter. A hood scoop that clearly feeds something serious underneath.

Journalists were kept moving and cameras stayed put – but the powertrain confirmation was simple: gasoline.

Both Chargers in the room – one neon green, one B5-like blue – wore vertical fender vents and diamond-cut wheels. These are not the cars of a company that has surrendered.

Give It a Hemi V8 and Call It the Richard Petty Edition

Plymouth built the original Superbird for one reason: Richard Petty had walked.

When Plymouth refused to build him a winged car, Petty defected to Ford. Plymouth came crawling back, built him a rocket ship, and Petty repaid them with one of the most dominant NASCAR seasons in history – 18 wins, that iconic baby blue, the No. 43 that every real racing fan still knows by heart.

That wing was a comeback story. This one is too.

Now finish it the right way. One color – Petty Blue. One badge – Richard Petty Edition. His name on the door sill, the No. 43 on the quarter panel, and a Hemi V8 under that hood scoop.

That car would be the most talked-about American vehicle in a generation. It would tell every buyer who walked away that Dodge remembers who built this brand.

It wasn't the suits. It was you.

Sources:

  • Joel Feder, "The New Dodge Charger SRT Has a Wing Straight Out of the Superbird Era and It Looks Ready to Fly," The Drive, May 22, 2026.
  • Elijah Nicholson-Messmer, "Dodge's EV Gamble Falls Flat as Buyers Cling to Old Muscle," Autoblog, April 9, 2025.
  • Elijah Nicholson-Messmer, "Dodge Pulls the Plug After the Electric Charger Daytona R/T Failed to Spark Sales," Autoblog, May 21, 2025.
  • "Richard Petty and Fabled 1970 Plymouth Superbird Ride Again," NBC Sports, June 26, 2015.
  • "Richard Petty's Race-Winning 1970 Superbird," Motorious, August 9, 2023.

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