Sound check: 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona EV shakes like V-8 Hellcat

• Fratzonic Chambered Exhaust was developed to get V-8 sensory experience into EVs
• All 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona EVs will include it
• Hardware and energy use is similar to subwoofer, generates V-8 sound and vibes

Paradoxically, to get a new Dodge muscle car with the signature V-8 sound, you’ll need to go with the EV. 

The propulsion systems of modern electric vehicles are naturally smooth and near-silent, and some EV enthusiasts have come to know and love that. Meanwhile, Dodge has phased the V-8 out for its muscle car lineups. But the team behind the 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona EV, which is due to go on sale in its launch Scat Pack form within weeks, aims to show that they might be able to win over traditional enthusiasts, too—by engineering a V-8 sensory experience back in. 

What does it take? In a recent conversation with Kevin Hellman, senior vice president of product for Stellantis’ Dodge brand vehicles, on the floor of the LA auto show, Green Car Reports learned that the much-touted “bone-shaking” Fratzonic Chambered Exhaust makes more than the sound of muscle-car rumble. It adds some finely calculated noise, vibration, and harshness (NVH) back into the mix. 

Hellman said that the rumble is one you’ll be able to feel from the driver’s seat, and the team behind the Charger Daytona wanted an impression that, when you start the vehicle, would leave no doubt whether or not the power was on.

In a quick startup, rev, and power-down—out on the auto-show floor, which would have never been allowed with a real V-8—Hellman demonstrated to us that it sounds the part. But as for the rumble from the driver’s seat, and the whole experience, you’ll have to wait another week or so for first drive impressions. 

“Your butt tells you the car’s on,” he summed, underscoring that it’s the vibration that this system adds back to the experience that makes it something far greater than the in-cabin noise makers that some electric vehicles offer. “And quite honestly, when you’re driving a car fast and driving around a track, everything else, that visceral feeling is great feedback.”

Fratzonic generates more NVH for an EV?

To do that, the Fratzonic Chambered Exhaust is effectively a noise-and-vibration-generating unit. Four “custom-designed elastomer isolator bushings” support the system and operate much like those on an engine’s exhaust system. Inside there are two “bespoke, high-efficiency extreme bandwidth transducers”—which Hellman broke down to a combination of standard drivers plus two so-called passive radiators (essentially a driver without the magnet). It’s using those passive radiators—”passivators,” Hellman nicknamed them—”to get that low, low growl that’s the rumble that you would expect from a muscle car,” he said.

All said, the materials that go into the Fratzonic unit are “very similar” to what’s built into a subwoofer box, according to Hellman, albeit with a design that’s patented around how those passivators and speakers work together within its volume to create the sound. The physical volume of the system is about 36 liters—about the size of a 10-gallon gas tank, or a smallish carry-on suitcase, at just 1.3 cubic feet. 

That’s most but not all of it. There is some “active noise management” of the system throughout the vehicle, including some tweaks from the sound system, Hellman said, but about 90% of what the driver is hearing is coming from that external unit at the back of the car. 

Up to 126 dB, but Charger V-8 growl is what matters

The sound isn’t just for those inside the EV. The team’s functional objective for the system was to be as loud as the outgoing Hellcat—which is a screaming-loud 126 decibels. But it really came down to getting the tone right with the engine’s low notes, Hellman explained, as you can play a really high-pitch sound and hit 126 decibels rather easily. 

The EV had to sound like a Dodge V-8, the team decided early on, so it started out with a lot of sampling of historical Hemi V-8s, 426 V-8s, modern Hemis and Hellcats, and even the 1960s Chrysler Turbine car, folding those sounds into the output. It then asked all the participants a chance to evaluate each theme on how they liked the way it starts up, shuts down, revs, and runs. And they asked whether it sounds or feels like a Dodge. 

The system does involve psychology and being perceived as an inspiring sound, not a cheap imitation, so Dodge spent some time clinicking the solution. “We did a lot, and the agency we worked with put together some themes from mild to wild muscle, to crazy futuristic space-ship kind of things, and we clinicked it at our vehicle clinics, and then we took it to SEMA,” said Hellman.

What results, he explained, is the low-frequency growl, with a bit of a futuristic edge. Meanwhile, the waveforms don’t resolve at the same time, so as to give it some of the organic complexity of the original. 

While the Daytona EV team avoided the super-futuristic route, there are plenty of EVs that have gone that way. The Ford Mustang Mach-E sounds, for instance, were influenced by classic 1980s sci-fi cinema, including “Blade Runner” and Batman’s Tumbler. But they’re only for those inside the vehicle. 

“When you’re out driving the car you may notice that there’s a familiarity of the sound that you can’t quite put your finger on,” he explained. “That’s because it operates at 38 Hz, which is very close to the firing order of a Hemi.”

Location, location, location is part of this, too. In this acoustic puzzle the sounds were all tuned to sound the most like a natural V-8 to the driver—although they’re pretty on-target from the outside of the car, based on the auto-show sound check. 

Fratzonic solves an acoustic-physics puzzle

As with the sound of the Hellcat and a lot of the vintage muscle cars that preceded it, the project became larger than life. Hellman said that the Fratzonic project started with a simple: “This car’s gonna make sounds all the other EVs aren’t,” but it soon pivoted toward a deeper V-8 feel. 

Tying in, briefly, a lesson in linguistics and acoustic physics: You have to use breath to make vowel sounds, and each of those vowel sounds can be seen as a particular band of frequencies. After I heard, in brief, Fratzonic in use on the car, when idling and revving, I can say that it’s getting all those growly vowels in a V-8 idle that make the difference. 

Stellantis NVH engineers in Michigan—essentially the same people who would tune an exhaust in a real-V-8 muscle car—together with an unnamed agency that works on sound and special effects for Hollywood movies, created essentially six instruments. Then for this system, they trained them to play at different levels and variations depending on variables fed through the car.

The list of parameters influencing the sound the vehicle actually makes is long, and includes the speed of the vehicle, the speed of the motors, the throttle position, the load, the regen mode, and the drive mode. 

In general, Hellman says, a change to a more aggressive drive mode will drive up the amplitude and volume of the sound. Auto is the baseline, while Sport gets a little louder, and Track and Drag get the loudest.

You can also turn the sound completely off if you don’t like it. Or there’s a Custom drive mode that can dial a different level in for each of the modes as desired. 

Adding that NVH efficiently and reliably

The noise-and-vibration-making equipment will be included on all examples of the upcoming 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona EV. When I pushed about the cost of the system, Hellman would only say that “we treat it like any other component on the vehicle that we believe is part of the experience.”

The system is powered by a dedicated 600-watt amplifier, and energy consumption is comparable to that of a high-end audio system. The design of the Charger Daytona already likely earns back some of that in the aero-savvy of its front R-Wing setup that guides air for efficiency or downforce. 

When asked whether there were challenges in making the Fratzonic solution weatherproof from puddles, road salt, and the like, Hellman said without hesitation, but without further comment: “Oh yeah!”

Fratzonic for Ferrari…or Maserati?

As for whether Stellantis would be able to tune this system for a completely different type of vehicle—like a Maserati or Ferrari—Hellman essentially said not yet. There are some things that would carry over into other vehicles, like the approach, but it’s not the sort of thing that’s scalable at face value. 

“This moment in time, it’s absolutely developed for Dodge, developed for this,” he emphasized. 

But Hellman, who previously oversaw the Challenger and Charger model lines for eight years, sees it as more than a bridge-building gimmick. “I think it’ll become one of those things that, as the EV market shifts, helps you find that familiarity,” Hellman said. “The sound is such an important piece for Dodge and for muscle cars. It’s something that we’ll continue to lean into and develop.”

“The way it looks, the way it sounds, we created something that no one else has done,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve heard anyone that even had a slight hesitation when they’ve heard it and seen it in person.”