Dodge Challenger Hellcat

Christmas day is literally three days away, and if you haven’t set up your Christmas trees yet, then you’re in a lot of trouble. Fortunately, there are ways to get a tree up and standing in your living rooms in no time. You can buy a plastic one in Walmart and set that one up, or you can go to a Lowe’s and get a natural one. If you decide on doing the latter, John Hennessey of Hennessey Performance has a suggestion on how to buy one quickly and transport it at 174 mph.

The 2020 Dodge Challenger Drag Pak is the fourth-generation drag car based on FCA’s two-door muscle car. Based on the modern Challenger, like all its predecessors since 2008, it features drag-specific upgrades and its certified for NHRA and NMCA competitions. In short, it’s a turnkey package that turns the streetable Challenger into an ideal dragster for both amateur and professional racers. Let’s find out what’s new for the 2020 model year in the review below.

It first ruled the drag strip, and now it might be time to rule the race circuit. Or at least aim to rule it, provided the recent reports are true. Indeed, we’re talking about the Dodge Challenger, a not-that-new-anymore car that’s been abiding by the Frank Sinatra “I did it my way” credo, which is rumored to receive the ACR badge once wore by the mighty yet now-defunct Dodge Viper.

The modern-day Dodge Demon is officially out of production, but in its place comes the Challenger Hellcat Redeye – a model that essentially bridges the gap between the range-topping hellcat and the late Demon. It’s powered by the same 6.2-liter V-8, but it’s been tuned to deliver 797 horsepower at 6,300 rpm. Torque figures carry over from the standard Hellcat at 707 pound-feet, but the Redeye benefits from lots of Demon gear, including things like line-lock and launch control. Sure, we would have been happier if Dodge introduced a second-gen Challenger for 2019 but this is at least one way to keep things fresh, right? Either way, we decided to make the Hellcat Redeye our wallpaper of the day and give it a little desktop love. Want to join in? We’ve got some pretty sweet wallpapers waiting for you below!

Dodge has finally released the entire run of their Christmas-themed videos. The campaign, named ’Jolly Fast Man’, is a continuation of the story presented in a video posted last month on YouTube called ’Upgrade’ where we first see the Dodge Challenger Hellcat Redeye sleigh and the mischevious Santa that rides it, played by none other than WWF legend Bill Goldberg who, as we know, is an out-and-out car guy.

The seven videos tell the story of a Holiday Season that’s riding the wave of many, many, horsepower. In each of the 30-second clips, you’ll find out more about Santa’s decision to build a new sleigh on an entirely new platform: that of the Dodge Challenger Hellcat Redeye. Mrs. Claus is portrayed in the series by “All Girls Garage” host Cristy Lee.

The original video that got the ball rolling, ’Upgrade,’ was released in early November as part of the automaker’s ’Big Finish’ campaign. You’ll undoubtedly see all of these videos shared across Dodge’s social media platforms, but that’s not a bad thing, actually, since they’re a fun way to kick back and relax for a few short minutes - and you’ll also get to hear plenty of the Hellcat’s growls as well!

With Christmas around the corner, the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye is the latest car to get a sleigh makeover. Introduced as part of Dodge’s “Big Finish” campaign, the Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye Sleigh stars in a new commercial called “Upgrade” alongside retired WWE wrestler Bill Goldberg, who happens to play a pretty jacked-up Santa Claus. With muscles coming out of his ears, Santa decides to keep with the profile this holiday season by commissioning his elves to make improvements to his current sleigh. The result, as you can see, is a sleigh that’s going to make a lot of pony car enthusiasts wish they had the means to do the same thing.

Dodge axed the outrageous Challenger SRT Demon following a limited production run for the 2018 model year, but luckily, the aftershock of this cataclysmic machine will continue to rattle the Challenger lineup for the foreseeable future, as the latest model gains a host of Demon-inspired performance goodies.

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We’re not sure if there are going to be any other significant updates to the Challenger Hellcat for 2019, but Dodge has found it fitting to tease a new hood scoop for 2019 models. There’s no other news to report, but Dodge does say that the scoop is fully functional and claims that it harkens back to the muscle car days of the ‘60s and ‘70s. It should provide more air flow to the engine, however, so we might be lucky enough to see a bump in power for 2019 but it’s probably best not to hold your breath for the time being.

With that in mind, let us just point out that Dodge is quite literally polishing a turd at this point. Not that the Challenger Hellcat isn’t awesome, because it is, but the Challenger itself has soldiered on since 2008 and by the time the 2019 model year rolls around, it will be 11 years old. That makes the Challenger – Hellcat or not – a senior citizen that’s just begging to for life to come to an end. How’s life going for the Challenger? It’s taking forever. Let’s just hope that Dodge will finally introduce a next-gen model by the turn of the decade. Imagine how great the Hellcat can be on a new platform with all of the latest technology inside and under the metal.

Are you in the market for a 6.2-liter, V-8, crate engine that packs over 700 horsepower and 650 pound-feet of torque? If the answer is “yes,” then you might be interested in a Mopar 6.2-liter Hellcat SC EFI factory crate engine for sale on moparproshop.com. It’s the real deal, and more importantly, you can buy it for just $14,998! That’s $4,532 less than Mopar’s original asking price!

Adding to its long list of wild stunts, Hennessey Performance decided to strap a Christmas tree to the roof of a Dodge Challenger Hellcat Widebody to see just how fast the car could run. Needless to say, the Hellcat comes perfectly equipped for speed. Its 6.2-liter supercharged V-8 makes an astounding 707 horsepower and 650 pound-feet of torque that’s mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission.

As a refresher, the Widebody version of the Challenger Hellcat has a wider track than the standard car, which allows for fatter tires. Naturally, wider tires offer better traction – something that’s desperately needed with the Hellcat’s power levels.

John Hennessey, CEO of his tuning and performance company, took the Challenger Hellcat Widebody to Continental Tire’s test track for some top speed trails, tree and all. The baseline run without the tree but with the suction cup-mounted roof rack posted a top speed of 177 mph. That means the Hellcat Wideboy only lost three mph off its top speed with a live tree strapped to its hood. That’s impressive.

There are some things the Dodge Challenger Demon is good at. Then there are things that the Dodge Challenger Demon is great at. Considering that it has 840 horsepower at its disposal, you’d think that it’d be the perfect car to do burnouts and go drifting in. Oil company Pennzoil seems to think so, too, and was actually front and center in unleashing the Demon’s drifting abilities in a video called “Exorcising the Demon.”

Clever titles aside, the video is as good as it gets in terms of showcasing the Challenger Demon’s capabilities. Sure, we know it to be a juggernaut of acceleration and a monster on the drag strip. But what happens when you put it in an urban setting like a night in Pittsburgh, ask rallycross star Rhys Millen to drive it, and let it run loose? You get what can best be described as a two-and-a-half-minute highlight reel of the Challenger Demon doing anything from burnouts to donuts and everything else in between. Throw in some special effects to highlight the muscle car’s earthquake-inducing, torque-tactic acceleration and you have as good a promotional video for the Challenger Demon as anything Dodge has released before it.

The treatment of the video is exceptional in it of itself. The cinematography captures the grittiness of the Steel City, serving as the perfect backdrop for a car like the Challenger Demon to run roughshod over. And like any video these days that’s worth its salt, the ending of “Exorcising the Demon” essentially serves as a teaser for what’s to come next. I’m not going to spoil the surprise at the end because it’s definitely worth waiting for.

The Dodge Challenger Demon is a fine piece of machinery, and I can definitely understand all the hype around it. Despite the fact that it doesn’t have a much-needed manual transmission. What I don’t get is this new hype around the fact that Chrysler trademarked the Angel name and that most car enthusiasts already see it as some sort of anti-Demon version of the Challenger. Come on man, what’s this, finger-painting class? I’ve been in the business long enough to know that the Chrysler Angel could very well mean squat. Nothing, nada, zero, just a name on a piece of paper at a trademark agency.

But this isn’t the only thing that grinds my gears this week. Everyone seems to have gone berserk over the fact that some 12 units of the Lexus LFA, which was discontinued in 2012, are still available at dealerships in the U.S. Hey, that’s pretty spectacular, because we’re talking about a supercar that hasn’t been built for five years, not to mention that production was limited to only 500 examples, but I still don’t understand why this LFA thing is such a big deal. But more on this below.

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The Dodge Challenger SRT Demon represents the pinnacle of muscle car madness. It’s the world’s most powerful factory-produced V-8 powered car with 840 horsepower and 707 pound-feet of torque. It’s faster to 60 mph than the Porsche 918 Spyder, Ferrari LaFerrari, and McLaren P1. It’s also limited to just 3,300 units in North America so getting your hands on one is going to be tough. Don’t be too bummed, though. Just because the Challenger Demon is a little out of your reach, that doesn’t mean you can’t get a Challenger that looks, well, a little bit like it. Dodge is here for you, gentlemen, with a new wide body kit for the Challenger SRT Hellcat that channels some of that demented Demon spirit into a muscle car that’s no stranger to ungodly power.

The new Demon-inspired body kit provides the kind of visual enhancement that helps bring out a little bit of the Hellcat’s demonic side. The wider fenders, in particular, are immediately noticeable, as is the larger-than-usual set of tires that can now be fitted into the Challenger Hellcat thanks to the extra space provided by the fenders. But the kit as a whole is more than just improving bits and pieces of the Hellcat’s own aesthetic look. Dodge even says that the kit is as much about creating room for the Hellcat to improve its own performance credentials as it is about giving it a more menacing visual appearance. Whatever it did, it’s clear that Dodge has something special in store for Challenger Hellcat owners with this new wide-body kit.

Continue reading to learn more about the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Widebody.