BrandsDodge Copperhead SRT — The Hyper Muscle Car Is Here
AI-generated concept illustration of the Dodge Copperhead SRT — not an official Dodge image. | Rev N Rise
The Viper has been gone since 2017. Nine years without a Dodge halo car. Nine years without a snake badge at the top of the lineup. That changes now. Tim Kuniskis revealed the Dodge Copperhead SRT to a select group of journalists at the Stellantis Investor Day — no photos allowed, no technical specs confirmed, but every description points to the same thing: Dodge's most extreme, most outrageous and most exciting product since the last Viper rolled out of Detroit. It is called the Copperhead. It is a hyper muscle car. And it is coming.
When the Dodge Viper was discontinued on August 31, 2017 — the last V10-powered car Dodge ever built rolling off the Conner Avenue assembly line in Detroit — it left a gap at the top of Dodge's lineup that nothing has filled since. The Challenger Hellcat was fast. The Durango SRT was surprising. The Charger Daytona EV was controversial. But none of them was a halo car in the true sense — a car that exists not to generate volume sales but to define what the brand is capable of, to make every other Dodge in the lineup feel more credible by association.
Tim Kuniskis — the man who created the Hellcat, the Demon, the TRX, the Rumble Bee and the Charger SIXPACK in rapid succession since returning to lead Stellantis's American brands — has been building toward this moment. The Ram Rumble Bee revealed in May. The Jeep Scrambler SRT confirmed. And now, at the Stellantis Investor Day on May 21, a one-more-thing moment: the Dodge Copperhead SRT. Kuniskis called it a "hyper muscle car" — a new category that sits above the Charger SIXPACK in ambition, exclusivity and outright performance. A car for people who do not ask about the price or the fuel economy.
No photographs of the Copperhead exist in the public domain. Dodge made the sharing of images expressly forbidden — a deliberate decision to build anticipation for a formal reveal later in 2026 or early 2027. But journalists who saw the 3D-printed buck were allowed to describe what they saw — and the descriptions are consistent and compelling.
The Copperhead is a low-slung, two-door coupe — close to the ground, with an aggressive stance that immediately communicates performance over practicality. The front end features a shark nose design — the same forward-leaning, pointed profile that appeared on the Jeep Scrambler SRT concept revealed at the same event — suggesting a design language that Kuniskis is establishing across Stellantis's SRT performance vehicles. The hood has a large S-duct bulge with additional vents flanking it — aerodynamic elements borrowed directly from racing car design, providing downforce and engine cooling simultaneously.
At the rear, a massive wing dominates — described by multiple journalists as reminiscent of a shrunken version of the Viper ACR's rear wing. Vents behind the rear wheels provide brake cooling — a detail that appears on genuine track-focused cars rather than vehicles that merely look the part. Exhaust tips are visible — confirming combustion power. And on the door, a snake logo that is unmistakably in the same family as the Viper badge — a copperhead snake, the nameplate's eponymous reptile, signalling continuity with Dodge's snake-themed heritage without claiming the Viper name directly.
The Copperhead name has history with Dodge. In 1997, the company unveiled a concept car at the Detroit Auto Show called the Dodge Copperhead — a smaller, more affordable sports car designed to sit below the Viper in the lineup and bring supercar-adjacent driving to buyers who could not stretch to the Viper's $70,000 price tag. It was well-received by the press, praised for its proportions and dismissed as a production prospect almost immediately. It never went into production. The name sat dormant for nearly 30 years.
Now it returns — but in a very different context. The 2026 Copperhead is not designed to be an affordable alternative to a more expensive car. It is designed to be the most expensive, most extreme and most aspirational Dodge ever built. Kuniskis has been explicit on one point: the Copperhead is not a Viper successor. It uses a different name, a different snake, a different architecture. But in every other sense — the low body, the massive wing, the track-focused aerodynamics, the snake badge — it is filling exactly the role the Viper left vacant. Whether that distinction matters to buyers is an open question. The car they see will look like what the Viper was always trying to become.
Dodge did not confirm any powertrain details for the Copperhead at the Investor Day presentation. Kuniskis declined to discuss engine specifications — consistent with his approach to the Scrambler SRT, which was similarly revealed without confirmed powertrain information. However, the physical evidence visible on the 3D-printed buck is clear: exhaust tips, extensive aerodynamic cooling provisions and an overall package that implies significant power output all point toward a high-displacement, high-output V8.
The most likely candidate is the supercharged 6.2-litre Hellcat V8 — producing 777 horsepower in its current highest tune, as seen in the Ram Rumble Bee SRT. An SRT designation on a Dodge halo car historically implies the highest available powertrain — and with the Hellcat V8 returning across Ram and Jeep, it would be logical for Dodge's own flagship to carry it in its most extreme form. A naturally aspirated 6.4-litre 392 HEMI option cannot be ruled out for a lower-specification variant. Whether a more extreme, purpose-developed engine is possible for the production Copperhead — potentially exceeding 800 horsepower — is unknown at this stage.
The Copperhead is confirmed to be based on the current-generation Dodge Charger — the same platform underpinning the Charger SIXPACK twin-turbo inline-six that launched in 2026. This is both a practical and a philosophical choice. Practically, using an existing platform significantly reduces development cost and time — allowing Dodge to reach production faster and at lower financial risk than building a bespoke sports car architecture from scratch. Philosophically, it maintains the Copperhead's connection to the Charger's muscle car lineage.
The Charger platform will be significantly modified for the Copperhead application — a lower ride height, wider track, bespoke suspension geometry, racing-derived aerodynamics and a completely unique body mean that the relationship to the standard Charger will be structural rather than visual. Nobody looking at the Copperhead will mistake it for a Charger. But the shared underpinnings allow Dodge to price the Copperhead at a point that — while premium — does not require the $500,000+ price tags of purpose-built supercars. Whether that produces something in the $150,000-$200,000 range or something considerably more expensive depends entirely on how far the SRT development programme pushes the specification.
| Name | Dodge Copperhead SRT |
| Category | Hyper muscle car — Kuniskis's own description |
| Based On | Current-generation Dodge Charger platform |
| Body | Low-slung 2-door coupe — aggressive stance |
| Front End | Shark nose — S-duct hood bulge — additional hood vents |
| Rear Wing | Massive — reminiscent of Viper ACR wing |
| Brake Cooling | Vents behind rear wheels — track-focused |
| Exhaust | Tips confirmed — combustion power confirmed |
| Badge | Copperhead snake logo — Viper DNA, different snake |
| Engine (likely) | Supercharged 6.2L Hellcat V8 — V8 confirmed by aero |
| Viper successor? | No — Kuniskis explicit — fills same role, different car |
| SRT Variant | Confirmed |
| Status | 3D-printed buck — no photos permitted |
| Production Target | ~2029-2030 |
| Price | Not confirmed — "don't ask what the price is" |
| Last Dodge Halo Car | Viper — discontinued August 31 2017 |
| Original Copperhead | 1997 concept — affordable Viper alternative — never produced |
| Revealed By | Tim Kuniskis — Stellantis Investor Day — May 21 2026 |
The Copperhead does not exist in isolation. It is the third pillar of what is emerging as Tim Kuniskis's defining legacy at Dodge and Stellantis — a trio of performance vehicles that collectively restate what American performance cars stand for in 2026. The Dodge Charger SIXPACK is the everyday muscle car — 550 horsepower, twin-turbo inline-six, AWD with RWD mode, from $56,990. The Ram 1500 Rumble Bee SRT is the street truck — 777 horsepower, Hellcat V8, shortened platform, for approximately $100,000. And the Copperhead SRT is the halo — a low-slung sports coupe with racing aerodynamics, snake DNA and a price that Kuniskis will not discuss.
Together, these three cars represent something that Dodge's enthusiast community had stopped believing was possible: a brand that is genuinely committed to performance, genuinely committed to V8 engines and genuinely committed to building cars that make the blood pump rather than simply checking regulatory compliance boxes. After years of EV strategy pivots, brand direction debates and the departure of the HEMI V8, Kuniskis has spent 2026 reversing almost every decision that alienated Dodge's core buyers. The Copperhead is the final piece of that restoration — the proof that Dodge has not just returned to performance but is pushing further into it than ever before.
"Sometimes you don't ask what the price is. You don't ask what the fuel economy is. That's the goal with the Copperhead."
— Tim Kuniskis, CEO, Ram Trucks & Head of American Brands — Stellantis Investor Day, May 21 2026The Dodge Copperhead SRT is the most exciting Dodge announcement since the original Hellcat. A low-slung two-door coupe with a shark nose, a massive rear wing, racing aerodynamics, a confirmed V8 and an SRT badge at the top of the Dodge lineup. No photos. No price. No confirmed specs. Just a 3D-printed buck in a room that journalists could see but not photograph — and a name that carries 30 years of unfulfilled promise from a 1997 concept that never made production. This time, Tim Kuniskis says it is happening. Given what he has delivered in 2026 alone — the Rumble Bee, the Charger SIXPACK, the Scrambler SRT — there is every reason to believe him. The Copperhead is coming. And when it arrives, the Viper's nine-year absence will finally feel like it was worth the wait.