It may not have the best or sexiest in the car industry (we’ve seen worse), but the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye is extremely brutal.
Keeping the power on a short leash requires the perfect dose of skill, concentration and luck, combined with a nearly perfect weather, running surface and tires.
The team at Johnny Bohmer Proving Grounds put their knowledge to the test with FCA’s muscle car in a half-mile acceleration that was actually filmed last year and released last week.
On that day, they recorded 72F degrees in the morning and 77F (22-25 C) in the afternoon, with wind speeds of 15 and 13 mph (24-21 km/h) respectively. So, they set out to punish the Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye on their runway that has a length of 3.22 miles (5.18 km) and is 300 feet (91.44 meters) wide.
According to the official spec sheet of the car, it needs as low as 3.4 seconds to complete the 0 to 60 mph (0-96 km/h) acceleration. It can run the quarter-mile in 10.8 seconds and if given enough room, the speedometer will eventually indicate 203 mph (326 km/h) before the vehicle runs out of breath.
As for the whining 6.2-liter V8 engine, it features a supercharger and pumps out 797 horsepower and 707 pound-feet (957 Nm) of torque.
The Challenger SRT Hellcat has an MSRP of $72,295, while the range-topping model of the series, the SRT Hellcat Redeye Widebody, can be bought from $78,295.