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SRT Returns at Stellantis Under Tim Kuniskis’ Leadership
The recent shakeup over at Stellantis brings with it a serious jolt of good news for Mopar fans: The Street and Racing Technology division, better known as SRT, is about to make a comeback.
“But wait, can’t you still buy vehicles with an SRT badge on them?” you might ask. It’s a valid question, because yes, you can still walk into a Dodge dealership and order a 2025 Durango SRT Hellcat right now. That would imply that the badge never really left, so there’s some nuance to clear up.
Back in early 2021, shortly after the merger between Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and Peugeot S.A. (PSA) that formed the Stellantis automotive conglomerate, it was announced that the SRT engineering team—essentially the in-house skunkworks team for FCA—would be relocated throughout the individual brands at Stellantis. The badge remained across the lineup, adorning Challengers, Chargers, Durangos, and Grand Cherokees, but the focus on performance and dynamics simply couldn’t be maintained at the same level with that engineering talent now spread out.
Now, a course correction. “We’re getting the band back together,” said Tim Kuniskis, Ram CEO and newly-appointed head of American brands and North America marketing and retail strategy. “SRT is another box we needed to check as we head into a product launch cadence enabling more performance than we’ve ever seen before. We’re working with our product development and technology organization to select the best engineers in powertrain and vehicle dynamics to build a team worthy of the SRT name.”
Boy, do we like the sound of that.
According to the announcement, the newly formed SRT performance division will oversee Direct Connection (the customer-facing performance parts business) and the company’s North American motorsport initiatives, like the recently announced return of the Ram brand to the NASCAR Trucks Series.
We’ll have to wait and see what the first fruits of the new SRT end up being—our money is on a truck or an SUV—but regardless of the rollout structure, we’re quite pumped that Kuniskis is leading the charge to reignite the high-performance flame at Stellantis. May it be rife with Hemis, tire smoke, and good times.
Let me know when the Viper comes back. (Yeah I know, not likely.)
“We’re getting the band back together.” “We’re on a mission from God.”
I worked in the Viper Electrical team when they decided to build the last Viper. After taking the buy out from Chrysler in ’08, I was working at a local store as a mechanic fixing and maintaining RVs. They didn’t have to work very hard to get me to quit that job and go back to Chrysler as a contract employee working at EDAG off Auburn Rd, more than doubling my current pay and offering benefits. I was told the job would only last one year, but I was there for 6, eventually moving to Featherstone Rd. I always considered our little group the red headed step child of SRT. I think many folks didn’t like working with us, mainly because many of us took the buy out, but all of us worked very hard during that time to make the car the best it could be. Our boss, who I sat next to the first day I originally started working at Chrysler in ’97, was given the job because he was the only one left at SRT that had an electrical background. He had never been a manager, but he did a great job, and our team did something that most thought could not be done. We also had a great time doing it.