USA
It’s a fond farewell, but we could have done with more fanfare
This is the way the 300C ends. This is the way the 300C ends. Not with a bang, but with a whimper. At least, comparatively speaking.
Not that we’re saying a 6.4-litre Hemi V8 with 485 horsepower and 475lb ft is some sort of mechanical quivering lip – after all, nought to 60 miles per hour in 4.3 seconds and a top speed of 160mph are hardly depressing thoughts – it’s just that it’s all a bit… anticlimactic.
The Chrysler 300, after all, got its start as a high-performance, luxury Chrysler way back in 1955. And, apart from the now-defunct Imperial brand that got its start the same year, Chrysler has always been… well, Chrysler’s top-tier brand. Sure, the whole FCA switch-around a few years back put Dodge a) higher up the food chain, and b) solely in charge of performance cars, but surely there’s enough brotherly love left to send the 300C off with a proper bang.
It’s already on its way, after all, with four-piston Brembos, limited-slip diff, active dampers, forged wheels and a multimodal exhaust. On the luxury side of things, a 19-speaker Harmon Kardon stereo, seats with inbuilt aircon and a full suite of AutoCarPlay jiggery pokery will do nicely in that regard. And the 300 name has always – aside from an unfortunate episode of front-drive V6 tepidness in the Nineties – meant proper rear-drive performance and American-spec luxury.
So why not, for the final 2000 cars, give the 300C a big-bang send-off with the 707bhp Hellcat engine? When Holden saw the end was coming, it put the LS3 in every car it could, the LSA supercharged V8 in its top-tier HSVs, and finally took a final bow with an LS9-powered, 635bhp four-door saloon. Ford Australia, when faced with the same situation, supercharged the 5.0-litre Coyote V8 and went out with a wail, rather than a whimper. But things are as they are, and this is the way the 300C ends. Just feels a bit hollow, no?
Keyword: Chrysler says goodbye to the 300C... with a Hemi, of course