19 Aug 04
While Mercedes has AMG, its sister Chrysler Group has SRT. That stands for Street and Racing Technologies, a band of engineers within the main company whose mission is cheerfully simple: performance, performance, performance. They build the hot versions of Chryslers and Dodges, as well as add-on road and race parts. The flagship SRT machine is the Viper - which isn't a bad calling card at all - and the SRT team have also had a big hand in the one-off (so far) ME Four-Twelve supercar. With roadgoing machinery their rule is that each car they make must offer the most performance per dollar in its class. (Wish AMG had a similar credo...)
We've yet to see an SRT product in Europe because they've all been Dodges, a brand we don't yet get. But FYI, they sell a full-size pickup with the 500bhp Viper engine, 22-inch alloys and a 500-watt sound system. Subtle it ain't. More realistically, there's a turbocharged Neon that puts out 230bhp. Not bad for a car little bigger than a Focus, especially when it's $21,000 (about £12k).
All these tyre-smokers have in-yer-face looks and sell under the slogan 'Drive it Like You Stole It'. But for the Chrysler brand the SRT division has decided to be a bit more reserved. Still fast, but subtler-looking. Exhibit A is the Crossfire SRT-6, a supercharged version of the high-fashion two-seater making a lip-smackin' 330bhp. To be honest, this one wasn't a terribly hard engineering job for the SRT guys, as the engine, like so much else in the Crossfire, is basically off-the-shelf hardware from the first-generation Mercedes SLK. In this case, the AMG 3.2-litre supercharged 18-valve V6.
