The Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat has 527kW of power and 880Nm of torque. Pictures/Damien O'Carroll
The Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat has 527kW of power and 880Nm of torque. Pictures/Damien O'Carroll
America's most powerful production muscle car proves exhilarating and rather addictive, writes Damien O'Carroll
It may be a cliche, but I can hear the Hellcat coming well before I can see it.
I am standing outside a fancy, yet slightly odd, hotel on the super-trendy, uber-expensive shopping district of Santana Row in San Jose, California, waiting for the valet to bring around the car I am driving to San Francisco.
People with the most expensive haircuts and ridiculously large sunglasses are shaken from their air of faux-jaded indifference by the explosion of old-school V8 thunder that comes bellowing from the side of the hotel.
The noise settles to a more respectable yet still utterly menacing rumble as the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat idles its way around the corner towards the valet parking area. It rumbles up in front of me and the young valet clambers out, wearing the dazed look of someone who has just scared the hell out of himself. Not for the first time, I feel a slight twinge of fear.
The Hellcat is no ordinary car. It is the most powerful production muscle car that has been built in America, with its huge numbers of 527kW of power and 880Nm of torque. All pushed through the rear wheels.
The Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat has 527kW of power and 880Nm of torque. Pictures / Damien O'Carroll
"How long have you got it for?" asks the still slightly shaken valet.
"Just today," I answer. "I'm driving it up to San Francisco."
"Have fun!" he says, doing his best to sound unshaken. I do my best to sound convincing in my assurance that I will. I don't know if this experience will be fun or not.
On one hand I have a whole day with the ultimate expression of American muscle. It is
huge, it is ridiculously fast and it looks as if it doesn't just want to pass other cars, it wants to punch them to the ground and stand on their throat for a bit.
On the other hand, it's cold and rain is belting down in a way that I would have assumed to be illegal in the state of California.
Anything above the gentlest fraction of throttle results in wheelspin in the rain, but even when the rear snaps to sideways (still not more than about quarter throttle ... ) it is fantastically easy to control.
You gently adjust the angle and ferocity with your right foot while pointing the steering wheel in the vague direction you would like to head and the Challenger does it. Noisily and completely anti-socially, but it still does it.
The weather gets even worse as I head up the freeway towards San The Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat can reach 100km/h in 3.4 seconds.
This is no refined, civilised, politically correct V8. This car roars and bellows like a bear with its testicles on fire.
Francisco. I am now used to the power and getting straight-line wheelspin on the freeway at 95km/h (still only up to around 50 per cent throttle ... ) is hugely amusing and oddly satisfying. Eventually I get bored with the freeway so move to smaller coastal roads.
I wish I could say the weather cleared and I got to test the Hellcat's handling on some winding back roads, but I can't. If anything it got worse, but as I grew more relaxed with the Challenger's remarkable controllability -- even in such appalling conditions -- I realised I was enjoying myself.
I am not willing to go into details for fear of being labelled "irresponsible", "dangerous" or "a mentally broken lunatic", but let's just say that the position of "utterly sideways" and the sound of "maniacal laughter and a bellowing V8" combined several times.
Aside from the ever-present power, the most striking experience in the Hellcat is the noise. This is no refined, civilised, politically correct V8. This car roars and bellows like a bear with its testicles on fire.
Where some supercharged engines have a distinct whine, the Hellcat has a hoarse, mechanical scream that only gets louder the harder you push it. It is hair-raisingly glorious and utterly addictive.
On the way to the airport to drop off the Hellcat -- utterly filthy and devoid of most of its gas -- I finally get my chance. The rain has stopped and I hit a relatively dry stretch of freeway. Time for full throttle.
The Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat can reach 100km/h in 3-4 seconds. Picture/Damien O'carrol
Finally, I think to myself, I will be able to say that ... DEAR GOD THIS THING IS FAST!
My one and only application of 100 per cent throttle at about 65km/h sees the Hellcat belt forward -- screaming and roaring, still with wheelspin -- at a frankly ridiculous rate.
The Hellcat will hit 100 from a standstill in 7.2s, which doesn't sound that impressive until you realise that is miles per hour -- it will knock over 100km/h in 3.4s.
I look at the speedo and see a number I wasn't expecting, one that would seriously irritate the local constabulary.
I choose to back off and potter quietly to the parking lot where I leave this remarkable car ticking as it cools off, almost anonymous among the sea of American iron surrounding it.
It is the sort of car that America has always done best. And it is nice to know they can still do them.
