Do modern Dodge muscle cars capture the magic of 50 years ago?

A stab of the throttle, and the rear tires break loose. A little more gas really, just a little more and you’re sideways.

In Hellcat guise, Dodge’s Challenger coupe and Charger sedan are true muscle cars: loud, heavy, unwieldy, scary and, yes, extremely fast.

Dodge has hewed to the original muscle car formula, transforming relatively inexpensive rides with the addition of high-performance V-8 engines cranking out more than 700 horsepower.

The performance is staggering: 0-60 mph comes in about 3.5 seconds, with a top speed of about 200 mph for both cars. For the 2019 models, the Challenger SRT Hellcat starts at around $61,000 and the Charger SRT Hellcat at about $67,000.

This fall, I finally got the chance to compare the 1969 Daytona to its spiritual successors. Dodge lent me a 2019 Charger Hellcat (price as tested: $74,915) and a 2019 Challenger Hellcat Redeye ($91,169), a special version of the car that adds 80 horsepower for a total of 797.

Between the two Hellcat variants, the Redeye more closely resembles the 1969 Charger Daytona: both are uncommon coupes that offer top-of-the-line performance from the brand.

Few cars can compare to the go-fast looks of the Daytona, with its sleek nose cone and towering rear wing. Still, the Redeye signals it means business with dual hood scoops that, unlike so many modern cars, actually function, feeding the engine air.

Our tester came with a $6,000 widebody package that outfits the car with flared fenders that accommodate enormous Pirelli P-Zero tires paired with 20-inch wheels. A $3,495 graphics package swaths the hood, roof and trunk lid in matte black paint. The effect of these options is immense, transforming the car into something legitimately menacing.

Despite appealing touches like an 8.4-inch touchscreen that runs the intuitive Uconnect vehicle management system, the interior of the Redeye was a letdown. It is bathed in plastic that can feel cheap in places, and the front seats were squishy and unsupportive, betraying the car’s sporting nature. The dated interior points to the age of this iteration of the Challenger platform, which bowed in 2008.

But there are touches that reveal a sense of fun and even mischief. One amusing detail: the Redeye and the Charger Hellcat come with two keys, a black one and a red one. Use the black key, and you’ll be able to access only 500 horsepower. You’ll need the red one to unlock the car’s full potential.

The Redeye’s 6.2-liter V-8 does its share of barking and snarling, but it’s the highpitched whine of the supercharger, which pressurizes air fed into the engine, that is the defining feature of the car’s aural character.

Dodge clocks the Redeye’s quarter-mile, the traditional drag racing length, at 10.8 seconds.

Still, the Redeye isn’t entirely state-of-the-art. It derives its power from a pushrod V-8 that’s oldfashioned technology in an era of overhead cam motors with variable valve timing but I get Joseph’s point. This is a car whose launch can be programmed via a special mode that holds the RPM at a desired spot in the power band for optimal acceleration.

And the Redeye carries over other technology from the 2018 Challenger Demon, an even higher-performance version of the car that put out 840 horsepower and did zero to 60 in 2.3 seconds but was sold for only one year. Among the goodies that have found its way from the Demon to the Redeye is an intercooler chiller system that keeps the motor at the ideal temperature.

Although the Redeye was the more extreme of the two cars I tested, the Charger Hellcat seemed to turn more heads during the week I drove it. As with the Challenger, this version of the Charger has been around for several years, but in Hellcat guise, the exterior modifications stand out. Perhaps that’s because they’re transforming a sedan with comparably more sedate looks.

The Hellcat cars both deliver a quintessential muscle car ride. But it wasn’t easy for me to see a link to the Dodge drag strip heroes of yore, amid the many trappings of modernity.

Still, I was able to find a connection to the past in an unexpected place: some of the new cars’ shortcomings. Details like the Redeye’s subpar seats yielding in all the wrong places seemed to telegraph Dodge’s focus on speed, and little else. Thinking about the Hellcat cars this way, I grew to view many of their flaws as charming. And the ties to the 1960s were ultimately driven home via a mishap.

Before the Redeye was lent to The Times, it underwent some mechanical work that left the interior smelling of gasoline. Workers had attempted to mitigate it, but the bouquet of fuel stubbornly persisted.

But it didn’t bother me. It felt a little rough, a little raw. Like how old cars sometimes smell after they’ve been throttled hard.

Even if it was unintended, it made the Redeye feel a little bit closer to 1969.

A little bit closer to the Daytona. A little bit closer to Robinson.