A horsepower figure above 700 horses just isn’t enough for many people to get past the basic bitch about the LX-based Dodge Challenger: the size of the car the engine is in. I’ve seen the memes. Comparing a Challenger to an aircraft carrier in the middle of sea trials, black holes, the amount of gold in Fort Knox…name it, it’s been done. Even though a Hellcat has plenty of power to get downright silly, it always comes back to curb weight. And as much as I’d love to tell the haters to dip their opinions in broken glass before placing them exactly where I specify, the truth is that weight kills performance and there is a bit of truth to the memes. Okay, so what do you do? It is pretty difficult to carve weight out of the Challenger. so the next option is to find a lighter platform. A 1960s Dodge Charger? That’s been done. A 1964 Polara? I know one that is in the middle of shakedown testing right now as a drag car. Classic Mopars with a bomb blast powerplant? Yes, please, all day long.
But is that enough weight lost? Maybe not here. How about an NB Miata? Mazda’s little roadster doesn’t need a lot of power to be a fun drive, but with a V8 swap you start leaving “sporty car” territory and diving into the realm of the old AC/Shelby Cobra: a tiny roadster with the kind of power that grabs you by the vittles and holds on until you find your fear factor. A relatively stock NB Miata weighs in at about 2,300 pounds. A Hellcat Challenger is more like 4,440 pounds. Want to see what a one-ton weight difference looks like?
LANGUAGE WARNING: Mind the young ears…especially when they start making first-through-fourth runs.
I like the OverKill of this little car (I have a 500hp MGB), Wow, 50% more power then I have (at least), must be one wild ride (looks like it). Little cars with V8 RULE !!