When talking about his company’s all-new powerplant, Bob Lee, vice president of engine engineering for the Chrysler Group, said that, “From day one, our objective with the new Pentastar V6 engine always was to develop an engine that was capable of producing more than 300 horsepower.”
Well, Lee can relax—and gearheads can get excited—because that new mill will develop 305 hp in the 2011 Dodge Challenger, and that’s to go with 268 lb.-ft. of torque. This represents an increase of 55 hp and 18 lb.-ft. of twist over the 2010 model, instantly boosting the Challenger into contention for the modern-day muscle-car championship.
But that’s just for starters. The cutting-edge Pentastar will eventually be available in 13 different Chrysler Group vehicles, including cars, trucks and sport utilities, and deliver better performance, improved fuel efficiency and refinement, and significant cost savings. In terms of the latter, just consider the following:
- The Pentastar V6 will take the place of seven different engines in the Chrysler Group lineup.
- The number of major engine components used by the company will fall from 189 to 32.
- The 32 part numbers that used to go into building V6 intake assemblies will be cut to 4.
- Camshaft variations will be cut from 14 to 4.
- Because the exhaust manifold in the new V6 is cast directly into the cylinder, the 32 exhaust manifolds used today will be sliced to exactly 0.
And not only will these changes save money via purchasing efficiencies, they also will improve quality because the build process will be so much simpler. Dodge Jeep Connecticut said that another notable benefit, especially for today’s drivers, is that the Pentastar V6 runs so cleanly. According to Chrysler, the engine has been developed to meet all known future worldwide emission standards, including California’s PZEV (partial zero-emission vehicle) benchmark.
Next up for this high-quality, high-efficiency engine? According to Lee, “We are already looking forward to adapting future technologies as they become available to the Pentastar V6 for even more fuel efficiency and performance.”
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