Dodge, Jeep, and Ram love themselves some easter eggs. We’ve spotted several over the years. Whether they’re physically found on vehicles, subliminally embedded in photos, or even outlined on a 24-month calendar, it’s a mind game that remains continuous. But sometimes these easter eggs can me misinterpreted entirely, and that’s exactly what seems to have happened with regard to the “dead coyote” image that can be found at the bottom of Dodge’s 24-month Never Lift Campaign calendar. Turns out, it’s meant to be a clue for another Roadkill collaboration.
“It really bothered me that people thought this was some kind of shot at Ford. If you really dissect it, that coyote is the logo of Roadkill,” said Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis when we asked him about deceased coyotes. “That’s their logo for the show. It had nothing to do with Ford, it had nothing to do with the Coyote engine. That was total blind spot on our side that we were talking about Roadkill and not about Ford. You’ll never hear me talk shit about any competitor.”
Kuniskis has long championed the muscle car and American performance car community as a whole, and events like RoadKill Nights, the Dodge Chief Donut Maker competition, and even have a drag racing contingency program for weekend warriors.
“A lot of people know this about me, I love performance, and I love performance cars. I’ve owned F-bodies, I’ve owned Chevys, I’ve owned Pontiacs, I’ve owned a Mustang. I’ve raced Mustangs. I love performance cars and I love this community, period. You will never hear me badmouth a competitor, you’ll never hear me badmouth those cars. They do things differently than we do. We’re trying to do something different, and that’s what makes it fun for everybody.”
Speculation swirled that Dodge posted a dead coyote on the Never Lift calendar as a means to signify that its new products would render the 5.0L Coyote V8 in the rival Ford Mustang as irrelevant. This diverted into media thinking that future Dodge products would get the new 3.0L Hurricane twin-turbo inline six engine that debuted in the Jeep Wagoneer earlier this month. While that’s unclear if that’s actually happening, what is happening for sure is that Dodge will reveal an electric muscle car this year, after teasing it in the summer of 2021.
Screenshot via Stellantis.
