Dodge Challenger Hellcat: Feel the power
Friday, 9 October 2015
Impending doom is on the horizon, and we're not talking about what's in the TPP, but rather a future of autonomous EVs, roads taken over by cycleways, vehicle-sharing schemes and car-free zones. Hell on Earth is fast approaching. Best enjoy the current golden era of horsepower while it lasts. No matter your preferred automotive persuasion, it's hard not to appreciate the likes of the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat. Bang for your buck has never been so badass.
In the US, EV sales are bombing while the Muscle Car scene is alive and thriving like it's 1970 thanks to cheap gas. While most of the Camaros, Mustangs and Challengers bought aren't of the big bad variety, the halo models are the biggest and baddest ever.
The Camaro ZL1 boasts 580bhp (432kW for the metric fiends), last year's Shelby GT500 had 662bhp (494kW) while the new all-time power champ is Dodge's Challenger SRT Hellcat with over 700 street legal horses. And they are in hot demand with buyers paying $20k over the list price of $US60k.
A few of these are now available here from Hamilton-based 4 Guys Autobarn, which is where we picked up Dodge's powerful pairing, the Charger and Challenger Hellcats boasting over 1400bhp between them.
The Hellcat is the Hemi, named after the Grumman F6F WWII plane, and it's the first to be blown from the factory. You're looking at America's most powerful production engine ever. Its SAE-certified 707bhp (527kW) is just 23 shy of a Ferrari F12's 6.2-litre V12, but it has 191 more Newtons with a total of 881Nm. It's so powerful Chrysler had to upgrade its engine dyno facility to develop it.
The Hellcat displaces 6.2 litres but it's not just a destroked 392 engine; Dodge reckons it is 90 per cent unique. It still has an old-fashioned cast iron block for strength and cost considerations but it has new cylinder heads and a 92mm throttle body to let it breathe deeply.
Everything else is reinforced or replaced with heavy duty items to withstand the increased charge pressures. There's no cylinder deactivation here, for the Hellcat is about power, not economy. Run at 6000rpm, it would drink its 70L tank dry in 13 minutes. An average of around 14.7L/100km is stated, but something closer to 18L/100km is more likely.
Built by IHI in Japan, the blower is a twin-screw design and is said to be more efficient than the Roots type with lower parasitic losses. It has a 2380cc displacement, runs 11.6psi and there are two charge coolers. There's a functional hood scoop and two heat extractor vents to keep the engine bay cool so the ECU won't dial the power back.
This is a wicked motor, and sounds demonic the instant it fires into life, the exhaust note being pure muscle. The entire driveline has been Hellcat-proofed; there's a heavy duty clutch for the standard six-speed Tremec TR-6060 manual or you can opt for the eight-speed auto, the ZF 'box equipped with stronger gear seats and beefed up clutch packs to cope.The diff is bolstered with hardened and shot-peened gears and a new four-bolt attachment, and there are new propshafts, halfshafts, and axles. There are plenty of additional cooling systems, too.
It's a substantial all-American car, big, wide and heavy, all 1880kg of it but I bet you're wondering just how fast it is? Testing in the US has returned sub-four second 0-60mph times, as low as 3.5sec, all recorded at the drag strip. And so to our excuses for an average time of 5.3sec for the 0-100km/h run. It was particularly cold on the day - the dense Waikato air is good for making horsepower but not so great for traction with cold rubber on chilly coarse chip.
And the Challenger lacks for contact on the rear. Where the Camaro ZL1 has 305/35ZR20s, the widest rubber they can fit under the arches of the Challenger is just 275/40ZR20, the same as the fronts. With a paltry 1500rpm dialled in and slipping the clutch out gently, the wheels started blazing instantly. Even easing it off the line, you'll still get spin anytime you get near the floor with the throttle in the lower gears.
Nail it and it churns through first, second and most of third before it will actually hook up and get going. And it'll probably go through fourth if you let it too. That's with the traction control set in Sport mode! Switch it off completely and we reckon the P Zeros would be gone in 60 seconds.
However, an 80-120kmh time of 2.05sec shows its real potential. And past 120km/h is where things start to get crazy-fast, the 700bhp deployed to its fullest.
For an authentic muscle car ride you can leave the three-mode adjustable Bilstein dampers in the Street setting but Sport is best suited to quick road use, quelling the waft and wallow and leaving some give to deal with humps and bumps. There's also a mere 500bhp pussycat setting for the V8, which we never tried. Only Cecil mode for us.
The Hellcat can tackle the corners too. It can't carve them up like a Cayman, but it's far from bend shy. Sure, it's a tad terrifying at first, due to the Hellcat-induced approach velocities involved, but it has fantastic stoppers and genuine front-end grip.
The Brembos have plenty of power and help settle the heavy front end while the surprisingly quick but rather lightweight steering turns it in nicely. It's just hard to really know where the limit is so a degree of caution is required.
With quality P Zero rubber on a wide track and some beefy roll control, it settles quickly into its corner stance and then the long wait to get back on the gas begins. Wait, have a quick cuppa, wait some more and finish that cigarette, then gas it up and hold on tight as it inhales the straights. It's adrenalised sinful fun, and we were thankful it wasn't wet.
Heel and toeing is not really in the muscle car vernacular, and it's not the easiest to perfect here with the Challenger's trying pedal relationship but with torque in such abundance you can make do swapping between third and fourth for Targa-type roads.
Dipping into second gear (which runs to 130km/h) is fun/mental but then you really need to check your throttle foot on the exits. The power delivery is not snappy and the pedal travel is long so it's not too hard to manage. Still, it is hard to resist getting back on it again , the supercharger singing as it ramps up the torque. And then there's the bellow of the pipes as it passes four thousand, charging toward six when the shift lights tell you it's time to pull another gear.
The second-to-third shift is the tricky one, it needs an accurate guide as it can slip quite easily across the gate and into fifth. But even if you do fluff it, it's not like the Hellcat falls into a hole. Rather the acceleration slips back a notch from ludicrous to merely crazy. For such a hulk, it really does haul.
As for the sound, there's enough of a whine to remind you it's supercharged but then the exhaust rumble takes over as the power starts pouring out all the way through to 6000rpm. No problem with tyre roar drowning out this soundtrack. And yet the V8 starts easily, idles evenly and purrs along happily in rush-hour traffic.
The Challenger is easier to drive as a left-hooker than the Camaro as it has better outward vision, while a reverse camera helps too. It's fairly wide, the turning circle is huge and while the clutch is heavy compared to your Mum's Corolla, you're not going to pull a calf muscle either. It's do-able as a daily driver in Street mode, the ride rather comfortable, and there are seats for five, though leg room in the rear is cramped.
Plenty of 'trunk' space though. It's well made, too, certainly not with a built-to-a-budget feel, but much like a top-spec 300C. And it can remain left-hand drive with one of the 500 annual LHD permits for the new owner, who has to hold the car for four years before selling it.
The Challenger Hellcat has a massive street presence, sounds like it should, is scarily fast, and quite a challenge to drive quickly. It will shred tyres and frighten animals and the young. It's a middle finger to the PC brigade who want to turn your favourite back road into a cycleway and it drinks enough gas in a week to power a Prius for a year. Sure, $140k is plenty but on a dollar per killer-watt basis it makes even the HSV GTS look expensive. If you're interested, should you buy one? Hell, yes.
**The Stats
Price:** $139,950
Engine: 6161cc, V8 S/C, 527kW@6000rpm, 881Nm@4000rpm
Transmission: 6-speed manual, rear-wheel drive
Vitals: 14.7L/100km
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