Plum Crazy, an ostentatious purple hue from Dodge, is not a new paint color by any means. It adorned the sheet metal of Chargers, Challengers, Barracudas, and Road Runners for a number of years in the golden age of muscle cars in the early 1970s, but it has been absent in Dodge’s lineup for a number of years. For 2023, the final model year of both the Charger and the Challenger, Dodge brought back the color.
There are few images more emblematic of Dodge’s entire supercharged mission statement than a 200-plus-mph four-door sedan with an 807-horsepower supercharged V8, finished in a bright purple. It’s completely unhinged, an affront to decency, and not at all what one thinks of when imagining a performance car in 2023, and that’s exactly how Dodge likes it. Dodge is at its best when it flatly ignores bean counting, focus groups, and fuel efficiency, and makes a line of cars with more horsepower than a V12 Lamborghini, seemingly just for fun.
Dodge struck automotive gold with the Hellcat, and it will ride into automotive Valhalla eternally shiny and purple.
