The story of the Dodge Charger nameplate spans no less than seven generations (and counting) across a variety of quirky subgenres. The BMW M5, meanwhile, has always been an iconic sports sedan beast, and that's probably not going to change anytime soon.
Speaking of the two, although they both have four doors, they usually play in entirely different leagues. Alas, that does not mean odd things cannot happen occasionally. Think about it for a second. The Charger was born during the height of the American muscle car's golden age as a gloriously wicked two-door fastback coupe, but over modern times it morphed into a muscle sedan when it was time for a revival.
Soon after the 2023 model year production ceases and all 'Last Call' special editions have left the building with performance mike drops, another reinvention looms. It's no mystery what will happen – Stellantis has already ordained nine levels of Banshee EV power for the production version of the Dodge Charger Daytona SRT concept to kick off the automaker's muscle EV revolution.
Meanwhile, BMW first envisioned that it could have corner office head honchos storm out of their reserved company parking spots in a sporty executive sedan back in the middle of the crazy 1980s, and the automotive world has never been the same after the introduction of the M5. Now in its sixth (F90) iteration, the BMW saloon can shoot out like a rocket even better since it's the first time it uses an xDrive all-wheel drive arrangement instead of traditional RWD. And that usually gives it an advantage in many battles.
However, when you see a BMW M5, even the Competition model with 617 horsepower, lining up next to a mighty Dodge Charger, you usually expect crazy things to happen. This is because the latter can also pull out an SRT Hellcat Redeye Widebody stunt if it wants to, and this is precisely what happened here in the latest feature from the videographer behind the Wheels Plus channel on YouTube, which is embedded below. The host, a major fan of the Mission Raceway Park dragstrip who never misses a chance to check out the local brawls, was mum about the impending surprise, though.
Dubbed 'Thunder by the River,' MRP was in for a nasty bombshell when the gray BMW M5 took the right lane and the white Charger Redeye was ready for the skirmish to its left. Naturally, everyone probably imagined the American muscle sedan would easily win the brawl or at least deliver a balanced pass if the domestic versus import fight got compounded by the RWD versus AWD detail.
Alas, that was not the case, as the skirmish ended in an absolute disaster for the Mopar crowd after the Charger's driver had a thoroughly disappointing start. As such, the M5 was already 'far off into the sunset' by the time the Redeye darted out of its lane, and the times were more than conclusive: 11.41s for the BMW saloon and only 11.97s for the muscle sedan, plus a humongous reaction time difference!
By the way, if you want to see the 'flip' side of the coin, also check out the second video embedded below - which depicts what is possibly the "slowest drag race" the world has ever seen, all courtesy of the Living Nitro channel on YouTube and a couple of 'daredevil' motorcycle riders!
Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution. Full profile
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