Dodge Copperhead May Be A Mustang GT3 Rival After All

A Seat For A “Hyper-Muscle” Car

Earlier this year, Dodge previewed the Copperhead SRT, a new “Hyper-Muscle” car, and “not” a Corvette rival, according to the brand. While everyone’s certain it will be the halo car in the lineup, it’s not clear what it will and will not do for Dodge in the future, especially in racing.

For starters, the “hyper-muscle” car moniker seems to imply that it’s not going to be a full-blown sports car like the C8 Corvette, but a mix of the two. Perhaps something that is more Mustang-like in its ethos?

Anyway, FCA US, Stellantis’ American arm, has filed a patent (search for 20260200372 on USPTO) for a driver’s seat that details a racing seat that slouches and can be adjusted to fit pretty much any driver. Think of it as an adjustable race car driver’s seat. However, the question of where this thing would end up could point to the new “hyper-muscle car,” but for what purpose?

Stellantis has no use for this… yet.

Sometimes, manufacturers file patents just to say they created it first, or to secure the intellectual property rights for future use. We certainly hope that it’s the latter in this case because the design looks promising for performance street cars. However, while it’s a novel invention, there’s no apparent use for any Stellantis products for now.

The beauty of this patent is that it can recline, unlike other racing seats, and raise the front of the seat, putting the driver in a slouch position. The slouch is especially useful if you’re trying to cram as much ‘driver’ in a vehicle with a low roofline. Either that or if you’re trying to make a one-seat-fits-all solution, this could be the play.

That sounds good for a street car, but currently Stellantis doesn’t need such a seat like this in its racing efforts in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and Drag Racing. For all of its current motorsports efforts, Dodge doesn’t need this seat because in these series, there are no driver swaps to speak of, unless…

With That Wing, The Copperhead Better Be Racing

When Stellantis previewed the Dodge Copperhead, it featured a massive rear wing under the sheets, not too dissimilar to how the Dodge Viper was in its racier trims. However, we don’t see a lot of rear wings in NASCAR, nor do they pop up much at the highest levels of drag racing. This points to GT3, specifically endurance racing, where driver changes happen all the time, and pit stops last long enough for the crew to adjust the seating position for the next driver’s stint.

Could the Copperhead follow in the footsteps of the legendary Dodge Viper? I certainly hope so. More than that, I hope to see Ford, Chevrolet-Corvette, and Dodge share a grid in more series. Also, maybe then Dodge will have a car that can finally corner (half-kidding, by the way).

Come to think of it, Dodge does have a bunch of rivals in other segments, like the RAM TRX against the Ford F-150 Raptor, but it doesn’t have a car that quite matches the do-it-all nature of the current-generation Ford Mustang. Initially, we thought that Dodge was aiming the Corvette ZR-1, but maybe Dodge is positioning the Copperhead as a middle ground between the Mustang GTD and Corvette C8s. On track, the Copperhead might rival the Mustang GT3 and whatever race car Chevrolet or Corvette comes up with.

A patent is just a patent, for now, but I’d like to wear the same tin foil hat that Carbuzz is wearing just because it’s probably the most excited I’ve ever been for the Dodge brand in motorsports in years.