It was recently announced that Tim Kuniskis would be retiring from Stellantis at the end of this month, vacating his roles as the head of both the Dodge and Ram Truck brands. Kuniskis was best known for leading the Dodge brand through what is arguably the greatest period of performance cars from a single American brand ever – with a long list of models with somewhere between 485 and 1,025 horsepower in just a 9-year period – but he did far more than just act as an average brand president during the debut of those models. Kuniskis fought through loads or corporate red tape to reincarnate an engine program that held previously been shelved, leading to a handful of the most powerful modern Mopar machines.

Tim Kuniskis first joined the Chrysler Corporation management team back in 1993, when he was Service and Parts District Manager for the Orlando, Florida area. As time went on, he would serve many other regional managerial roles in Florida and the Southwest region before being named the National Dealer Relations Manager in 2002.

That was Kuniskis’ first national management role and just a year later, he moved into the Senior Management team when he was named Head of Dealership Operations. His first role as a brand boss came in 2011 when he was picked to lead the Fiat brand and just two years later, Tim Kuniskis was named the President and CEO of the Dodge brand – a role that would come to define his career.

Timothy Kuniskis, President and CEO, Dodge Brand, Chrysler Group L.L.C. with his personal 1971 Dodge Challenger, left, and a current production version, right.

Back around 2008 or 2009, I was new to the automotive media scene, but I already had a few great contacts inside of the company known then as Chrysler Group LLC. One of them worked in drivetrain testing and for some time, he had been telling me about a supercharged Hemi that made power like he had never seen before from a production engine. Mind you, this was shortly after the modern Hemi had made its return to the lineup, back when the most powerful Hemi measured 6.1-liters and delivered 425 horsepower.

A source within Dodge believed that it was intended for the Dodge Challenger, but a while later, testing of engine came to an abrupt end. He didn’t know why they stopped testing it, but from speaking with contacts more recently, we know that the testing back then ended because that engine program was shelved. Among the corporate hierarchy, there were concerns that a supercharged V8 would not sell well enough to justify development costs, especially when faced with rising fuel prices at that time.

Of course, we also know from our recent discussions that my contact back in 2008 or so was testing the earliest version of the supercharged V8 that would lead to the Hellcat Hemi.

During his early time at the helm of Dodge, Tim Kuniskis helped launch the Scat Pack factory performance support program, which would eventually lead to the modern Direct Connection Stage Kit program. More importantly, Kuniskis had gone to bat for muscle car lovers, pushing to bring that supercharged Hemi off of the shelf and get it into production cars.

At this point, Dodge was part of FCA and FCA was largely run by Europeans who believed very strongly that a supercharged V8 in a large car would be a guaranteed failure. However, Kuniskis insisted otherwise and battled with other members of the senior leadership, eventually making enough progress to bring the supercharged V8 to production in the 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat.

That model, which was introduced at the New York International Auto Show in April of 2014, offered 707 horsepower and 650 lb-ft of torque with a price starting under $60,000. It took the American performance world by storm, yet European execs were still confident that it would not sell enough units to break even on R&D costs. I have been told, unofficially, that Dodge had to sell “around 5,000” Hellcat Challengers to break even.

With 840 horsepower and 770 pounds-feet of torque from its supercharged 6.2-liter HEMI® Demon V-8 engine, the new 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon is the most-powerful muscle car ever and the highest horsepower V-8 production car engine ever produced. Tim Kuniskis, Head of Passenger Cars — Dodge, SRT, Chrysler and FIAT, FCA North America, unveiled the car at a star-studded event in New York on Tuesday, April 11. The Dodge Challenger SRT Demon is the first-ever production car to do a front-wheel lift as certified by Guinness World Records.

Dodge sold 7,168 examples of the Challenger SRT Hellcat for the 2015 model year, along with selling 1,334 examples of the Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat with the same supercharged Hemi. Since then, Dodge has sold more than 80,000 vehicles equipped with the supercharged 6.2-liter Hemi, proving beyond any reasonable doubt that he was right and that the European leaders were very, very wrong.

If not for Tim Kuniskis and his persistence, the supercharged V8 that we know as the Hellcat Hemi may not have ever come to production – so that means no Hellcat Challenger, Charger or Durango, no Redeye or Super Stock models, no Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk and no Ram 1500 TRX. His efforts in getting that supercharged V8 into the Dodge Challenger and Charger left no doubt that the American market would embrace such an engine, so while he didn’t head the Jeep and Ram brands when the Trackhawk and TRX first debuted, the engines in those vehicles were made possible by Kuniskis’ work.

The Hellcat Hemi wasn’t the only battle between Tim Kuniskis and European management. When he first pitched the idea of the car that came to be known as the 2018 SRT Demon, no one thought that his idea would be possible. He talked about a car that would be street legal, yet still cover the quarter mile in the 9-second range while lifting the front tires off of the ground on launch. The idea was so crazy that the powers-that-be wouldn’t give him any real budget to build the first pilot cars.

Rochester (Mich)– June 27, 2014 – Tim Kuniskis, President and CEO of the Dodge and SRT brands, marked Dodge’s 100th anniversary by showcasing historically significant Dodge vehicles at Meadow Brook Estate. Kuniskis is pictured with a 1915 Dodge Brothers Touring car, right, and 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT with the Hemi® Hellcat engine, left. Media were able to test drive more than two dozen historic Dodge sedans, muscle cars, compacts, minivans and military vehicles. For more information, contact Kristin Starnes at 248-512-0889.

Essentially using old test cars, “parts bin” items and volunteered time from other members of the team, they created the first Dodge Challenger SRT Demon test car and proved that they could build a 9-second street car that would do wheelies. Once Sergio Marchionne experienced that first test car in person, the 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon was green-lighted for production.

Lastly, when it became clear that 2023 would be the final year for the modern Dodge Challenger and the current Hemi engine architecture, he wanted to create the muscle car to end all muscle cars. After successfully bringing the Hellcat cars and the 2018 Demon to market, the senior leadership finally trusted him, providing him with some budget to create his ultimate masterpiece – the 2023 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170.

Although he finally had some budget to work with on this final muscle car, it was approved during the height of the initial wave of Covid-19, so not only did he had to find volunteers who wanted to work during a pandemic, but they also had to abide by strict social distancing rules. Their initial meetings were held in a large, empty parking lot, with the vehicles spaced out and each person staying with their vehicle, talking loudly so that everyone could hear what was being said. However, Tim Kuniskis and his team once again overcame adversity, creating the most amazing muscle car that will ever grace the streets – parking 1,025 horsepower and running 8-second quarter mile times in stock form.

Tim Kuniskis, Global Head of Alfa Romeo and Head of Passenger Cars – Dodge, SRT, Chrysler and FIAT, FCA – North America, introduces the 2020 Dodge Challenger SRT Super Stock – the newest Dodge drag racing machine with 807 horsepower.

The “The Hellcat Era”, Dodge set records for having the quickest and most powerful muscle car, the quickest and most powerful sedan and the quickest and most powerful SUV. In the early days of the SRT Hellcat models, the Challenger and Charger were, by far, the least expensive cars with more than 700 horsepower. Even as prices climbed over the past nine years, the Dodge Hellcat cars consistently beat far more expensive cars on the drag strip while also doing a nice job of handling a curvy road course.

Relying on the Hellcat Hemi engine, the Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk served as a record-holding SUV until it was bested by the Durango SRT Hellcat and the Ram 1500 TRX was the quickest and most powerful large truck for several years as well. Each of these vehicles changed the face of their individual performance segments, forcing Ford to reintroduce a V8 to the Raptor in order to compete while the Trackhawk and Durango are unrivaled in the gas-powered SUV segment.

Tim Kuniskis played a key role in bringing all of those supercharged models to market, but he also helped to create some pretty incredible naturally aspirated models, too. The R/T Scat Pack trim level of the Challenger and Charger were huge sellers, offering the powered needed to battle the likes of the Mustang GT and the Camaro SS while the Hellcat cars were beating up on the GT500s and ZL1s. The Challenger 1320 is still one of the quickest naturally aspirated production cars even after it has left production, dipping into the low-11s in near-stock form (just a tire change).

With 840 horsepower and 770 pounds-feet of torque from its supercharged 6.2-liter HEMI® Demon V-8 engine, the new 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon is the most-powerful muscle car ever and the highest horsepower V-8 production car engine ever produced. Tim Kuniskis, Head of Passenger Cars — Dodge, SRT, Chrysler and FIAT, FCA North America, unveiled the car at a star-studded event in New York on Tuesday, April 11. The Dodge Challenger SRT Demon is the first-ever production car to do a front-wheel lift as certified by Guinness World Records.

The 2023 Charger Super Bee, which was offered as a limited production model as part of the Last Call program, is essentially a 1320 sedan. For those who prefer road racing, Kuniskis and his team created the modern Challenger T/A and Charger Daytona for R/T and Scat Pack models, both of which offer improved performance over the other models that share the naturally aspirated drivetrains.

In addition to all of the performance vehicles mentioned above, Tim Kuniskis had a major impact on marketing the Dodge brand while at the helm. Kuniskis and his team introduced the Roadkill Nights program, which has hosted legal street racing in Metro Detroit every year (except for 2020 due to Covid) in an incredible festival format. He also introduced the Brotherhood of Muscle campaign, which has continued to thrive on social media, bringing together Dodge owners old and new to share their passion for Mopar performance.

Tim Kuniskis and his time running the Dodge brand have secured his place in automotive history, and thanks to the vehicles that he helped bring to market, he will never be forgotten. His name will forever be associated with this era of Mopar performance thanks to the vehicles and programs that he brought to life.

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With 840 horsepower and 770 pounds-feet of torque from its supercharged 6.2-liter HEMI® Demon V-8 engine, the new 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon is the most-powerful muscle car ever and the highest horsepower V-8 production car engine ever produced. Tim Kuniskis, Head of Passenger Cars --- Dodge, SRT, Chrysler and FIAT, FCA North America, unveiled the car at a star-studded event in New York on Tuesday, April 11. The Dodge Challenger SRT Demon is the first-ever production car to do a front-wheel lift as certified by Guinness World Records.