Ever since it started production in 2008, the Dodge Challenger has been like the fat kid on the playground: he’s just as capable, he’s just as good, in a lot of ways he’s better, but all anyone notices is the fat. The jokes and snipes kept coming in droves, even after the 6.1 Hemi came out. Even after the SRT8 392 came out. “It’s still a fat pig.” “It’s still underpowered.” “It’s just a Yank Tank trying to be a fast car.” You know that had to piss off Ralph Gilles and anyone and everyone else on the Challenger team. Day in and day out, trying to figure out how to shut people up. Would they trim weight? Kill the Challenger, grab a RWD Fiat platform and call it a ‘Cuda, or Avenger?
Oh, hell no. Not even close. Team Mopar tossed a hand grenade into the proverbial ring of hats.
Dodge finally released the last bit of information on the Dodge Challenger Hellcat that everyone and their mother was waiting for: an honest power figure. And brother, did they ever drop a bomb. For months, sites like Jalopnik, Allpar, and Autoblog, as well as some factory insiders, were tossing around a fairly constant 620-ish HP/640-ish ft/lb torque number, which would have been enough to bring it into a fight with the Camaro ZL1 and the Shelby GT500. Instead, the official power figure is…wait for it….
707 horsepower. 650 ft/lb of torque. And it even comes with a six-speed manual transmission.
Apparently the fat kid has had enough of the smack-talking and decided to smack back with one big-ass stick. The 2.3L IHI supercharger is pushing 11.6 psi of pressure through the 6.2L V8. The fuel pump is stout enough that it could drain the fuel tank in 13 minutes. Dodge will dyno-test every Hellcat for 120 simulated miles before the engine is sent out.
How surprising is the power figure? Here’s a small list of cars sold currently anywhere in the world with 700+hp on tap: Pagani Huayra. Lamborghini Aventador. McLaren P1. Ferrari LaFerrari. Hennessey Venom. Porsche 918 Spyder. Mercedes SLS AMG E-drive. Nobody is going to confuse a Challenger with any of the supercars on that list, and it isn’t going to act like one either. This horsepower figure is for one thing and one thing only: to be two gigantic middle fingers to Ford and Chevy. Nothing more.
You can now own a two-door, four passenger coupe with a manual transmission, a warranty and 700hp on tap. So take the fat kid jokes and cram them…way up there.
Time to take out a mortgage on the house. I NEEDS one!
I’ve always been a fan of the Challenger. Especially when Mopar Action took a bone-stock, AUTOMATIC Challenger SRT-392 to the Spectre 341 Challenge and outran damn near every production car there, including Porsches, Corvettes, Ferraris and Astons. The only production car to make a faster run than them was an R35 GT-R and they were reasonably sure that with a manual trans and race tires, the Challenger could have taken that too.
Not the 1,000 hp I’d like to see from the factory but getting there.
I’m going down to my Dodge dealer and ordering one. If the boss will allow it that is. 🙂
BTW is there a release date yet?
whats with the thread titles, “it”
A fair number of “Trinity”-powered GT500s have well in excess of 700 h.p. within hours of purchase. 🙂
On the other hand, we’ve seen this play before. Mavericks at Ford buck the establishment and the naysayers to create a hot niche. Then Mopar waits until the legion of clueless beancounters and careerist bureaucrat mopes who occupy Dearborn’s Glass House start slacking off from the “kill” . . . often at platform change time . . . See e.g. Lightning/SRT-10, Marauder/Hemi 300C . . . .
One wonders if this is almost the last act in the great Bankers’ Ponycar War before the CO2/fuel economy regulators kill off all the OEM fun. But it will be a bonanza for warranty and insurance claims . . . .
Hmmmmn . Explicatives when it comes to this or any Dodge Challenger . Hmmmn . I’s afraid my list’d be just a tad bit different that yours ;
1) Over weight pile of crap
2) All the handling of a lame pig in a mud bog
3) A reliability problem just waiting to happen
4) An over priced travesty destined to be humbled by its lower priced competition
5) Like all the current wave of Dodge/Chryslers to be avoided at all cost
6) And did I mention it being a now decade old Mercedes E Class underneath pretending to be a ‘ modern ‘ Muscle Car ?
7) As well as coming with for no extra charge FCA’s rapidly becoming legendary hideous customer service
8) Not to mention FCA’s [ FIAT SpA’s ] decades old habit of severely over stating the horsepower and torque figures of each and every car [ including Ferrari’s ] they’ve ever made
Or to put it simply …
Just Say No !
Thats my list !
The Challenger is a fun car to drive . . . Kind of a fat party girl so to speak.
And 700 h.p. covers a legion of sins.
So while the elitists will never be satisfied with Fiat’s “unsophisticated” “antiquated” heavy-metal broad-ax, they’ll sell every Hellcat they can squeeze under the CAFE average at an obscene profit. And they’ll win a heck of a lot of stoplight grand prixs.
And scores of blue collar Bangshifters will be left out in the cold . . . again.
When don’t you bitch about AMERICAN cars GuitarSlinger? It’s all you do on this forum for AMERICAN gearheads. Maybe you should find a forum on old dope smoking hippies who like VW vans and are now currently driving a Mercedes SUVs.
GuitarSlinger is still butthurt from getting throwed out(banned from commenting) at TTAC, so has now brought his trolling to other sites.
I’ll take an American “Overweight pile of crap.” to an overpriced European overweight pile of crap any day. The only thing Euro cars got going for them is, ………. well, lets see, ……………. well damn, nothing.
I would take one in a heart beat if I could afford it, the critics are clueless, I would like to know what Guitar slingler likes and drives ? No car is without its faults after all they are man made machines. The Muscle cars we all adore have plenty of faults, but we love them anyway !
g/s=d/g
Yay Mopar
It definitely has the attention of this GM guy.
Oh man! I want one. Dark green with black interior.
To be honest I’m happy that there bringing back different muscle cars all makes and models right now you maybe drive an suv or any of the 4cylinder cars that was pretty much the choice I’m a muscle car fan period and I want all the makes to stay around I’m not saying I’m a Mopar fan but I know people who are and I I probably would buy a Road Runner though lol let’s keep the American Muscle Cars alive