Who agrees with me. The New dakota needs a R/T version or SRT-8 Version. I think so because a 230hp v8 is pathetic , I say HEMI HEMI HEMI!!! 345HP!!!

 

have you ever driven a v-8 05 dakota?

 

I've driven one, and he's right....they need one. I personally thought the new V8 while having a good lil kick, should have the Hemi just like the hideous Durango has.

I think the only reason we will never see the Hemi as an option in the Dakota is that it would kill Ram sales....as people would probably start opting for the less expensive just as much fun Dakota instead.

 

A 260 HP 4.7L has been available since mid '05 model year in SLTs and Laramies. The R/T was recently announced and uses that engine. It's not the performance package it was in years past -- but remember, R/T is not necessarily the top of the line anymore I'm not seeing pathetic-ness in the powerplant of my truck -- it gets up and goes well enough and does what I need it to do. Then again, I don't believe in buying pickup trucks to race around in. That's what a car is for IMO.

On Hemis -- my understanding is that it can be made to fit but not in a way that would be acceptable from a production standpoint. If Mopar is anything like where I work, engineering only gets to do so much.

 

I find it amusing that they say they cant fit the Hemi in the Dakota yet it fits just fine in the Durango. It's a load of BS. The bottom line here is that DCX knows full well that Ram sales would take a huge hit if they slapped the Hemi in it.

Personally, if the 5.9L engine fits....I dont see why a Hemi wouldnt.

 

The Dakota and Durango are different sizes now, you know. Is the front sheetmetal the same? Are the front suspensions the same? Is the firewall the same? Is the frame the same design? Are the wheelhouses the same? Is the HVAC setup the same? There are a LOT of issues to look at when fitting an engine -- it's not just a question of "If it works in this it'll work here too."

Edit: I'm not seeing the relevance of the 5.9 since it's not been used in the current Dakota body style (or the Durango, for that matter.) Has someone put a 5.9 in an '05?

 

They put the Hemi in the new 05 Durango....now if it fits there...I dont see the issue of it not fitting in the Dakota. Maybe it's not as easy to do in the Dakota...but I really do not think it would be as big an issue as people are making it out to be.

The 97-04 model was smaller then the current Dakota....and it housed the 5.9.....so it's not a real issue of size. The 5.9 was pretty much only RWD and it was pretty much only in the R/T.

However, you do bring up some interesting issues. I honestly think this just boils down to the fact DCX doesn't want to compete with the Ram's sales.....to me that does make sense. It's kind of like Chevy with the Camaro/FB/TA......all those cars were available with variations of the Corvette's engine and the prices started going up to compensate for lost sales.....

The Hemi, while being a great thought, would literally steal sales from the Ram and bring more and more people down to the Dakota. Think about it, having a powerhouse engine in a smaller truck that does basically everything the Ram 1500 can do. About the only real difference is towing capacity, but lets be honest, how many people actually need to tow 9,000lbs of crap? Not alot.

 

I have talked to a number of DC reps over the last few years regarding a HEMI R/T, but I hear the same old lines (followed by my responses)

"The Dakota already has the only V8 in its class" - yeah, because the competition's V6's already have more horsepower than Dodge's 4.7L V8, and their trucks also weigh less. Every single article I've read with truck comparisons specified how the Dakota felt sluggish and underpowered compared to the competition. Nissan of all companies is pushing 265hp out of a 4.0L V6.

"People aren't interested in performance trucks" - BS!! Every single person who ever bought a Dakota R/T, Hemi Durango, Hemi Ram, SRT-10, Lightning, Silverado SS, etc. should be proof positive that there is a significant enough market of people who want to buy hot rod trucks.

"The Hemi won't easily fit in the engine bay" - I think they're using this line as just another excuse. If this is 100% true then the engineers who designed the truck and the managers who approved it this way need to be shot for incompetence. Idiots.

"The Hemi engine is already in enough vehicles" - This coming from the same idiots who are making 12 different revisions of vehicles based on the 300/Magnum/Charger platform. Let's face it - almost all of those vehicles needed the performance perception that comes from the Hemi motor because most of the rest of the powerplants in Dodge's stable suck, and the 4.7L V8 in the Dakota is not an exception.

 

The competition's pickups are smaller, though! You can't get a box that's significantly more than 6' long on either of the Japanese pickups, for example, where a Club Cab Dakota has 6.5 feet. For me, this would be a big black mark against both of them if I were shopping now (the old versions were still all there was when I got my pickup). The Dakota's got a big interior too -- best in class, if we can believe Mopar. Size and weight are pretty darn hard to separate. I'm not surprised that 4-valve heads and VVT put the smaller engines ahead of/in the same range as the 4.7 in power, just like the 4.7 with OHC and a more modern design makes similar power to the Magnum 5.2.

I wouldn't go postal on engineering and management yet. "It doesn't fit" sounds like a pretty darn good reason to not insert something to me, because I've been there in my own design work. There are things that just don't work no matter how good they sound, if implementing the idea means deviating from the parameters given for the project. I'll take their word for it until they actually build a Hemi Dakota, and then I'll be the first to pull up my 4.7L pickup alongside and grab my tape measure and see what's different. (Like we'll see that with all those other cars soaking up Hemis as fast as they can build them, anyway...)