OK people, buckle your seatbelts.
This week’s tester is the 2020 Dodge Cost SRT Hellcat Widebody, essentially the most highly effective, and quickest mass-produced sedan on the earth.
You need energy? You need noise? You wanna be the bully on the block?
The Charger Hellcat is your trip.
Powered by the confirmed, supercharged 6.2-liter HEMI Hellcat V-Eight engine with its best-in-class 707 horsepower and 650 lb.-ft. of torque, and mated to the usual TorqueFlite eight-speed computerized transmission, the brand new Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat delivers a prime velocity of 196 miles per hour.
Hellcat accelerates from 0-to-60 miles per hour in 3.6 seconds, 0-to100 miles per hour in 8.1 seconds, and 0-to-124 miles per hour in 12.four seconds. To guard the harmless, I can’t acknowledge my prime velocity.
With a spacious backseat, the Hellcat seats 4 adults, 5 in a pinch, and technically qualifies as a household sedan. I imagine you annual insurance coverage invoice would possibly point out in any other case. After all energy and velocity comes at a worth, and my week of hotrodding netted a 15 miles per gallon together of metropolis/freeway driving.
Though the world market is shifting from vehicles to SUV’s and pickups, there’ll all the time be a spot for the muscle automobile. And being an old-schooler that remembers the Chargers from the 60’s, this rear wheel driver added just a little giddyup to the ol’ boys’ step.
The Hellcat even has a “launch” button, for crying out loud. Designed for on monitor drag racing, the button brings up the Hellcat’s Launch Management menu, which is designed to assist a driver make sooner zero-to-60 mile per hour and zero-to100 mph runs. On a mannequin outfitted with a stick shift, you’ll be able to set the RPM that the engine will maintain earlier than launch. It additionally mitigates tire slippage and helps with straight-line acceleration.
Efficiency enhancements begin with a 3.5-inch wider physique, which makes room for brand new 20-inch by 11-inch carbon black solid wheels using on wider, stickier Pirelli 305/35ZR20 tires. The Charger SRT Hellcat Widebody additionally options an SRT-tuned Bilstein three-mode adaptive damping competitors suspension, new electrical energy steering, stiffer springs, bigger sway bars, retuned shocks, a number of race-inspired applied sciences and Brembo brakes, all designed to ship efficiency numbers by no means earlier than seen on a Charger.
Push the beginning button on this unhealthy boy and deep exhaust notes rumble previous your ears, and possibly a pair neighbors. At first, driving the Hellcat was akin (I’d think about) to breaking a bucking bronco. The Hellcat needs to run, and run, and run some extra.
No sooner has I left my neighborhood for the primary time, and what do I discover within the rear view mirror? A suspicious Dodge Charger following. And sure, it turned out to be a Metropolis of Seattle police automobile. However, fortunately, I used to be minding my p’s and q’s.
The race-inspired Hellcat inside is highlighted by customary, heated and ventilated Laguna leather-based entrance bucket seats wit embossed Hellcat emblem. Further-wide facet bolsters preserve every little thing in place when cornering at velocity. A brand new “Carbon & Suede” bundle provides actual carbon fiber accents to the instrument panel and console bezels and Dinamica suede headliner, solar visors and A-pillars.
Past its menacingly extensive stance, the newly designed entrance fascia on the Charger SRT Hellcat Widebody features a new mail-slot grille, offering essentially the most direct route for cool air to journey into the radiator, to take care of superb working temperature even within the hottest circumstances. New facet s
ills join the entrance and rear fascias to assist amplify the built-in design. And a brand new rear spoiler, distinctive to the Charger SRT Hellcat Widebody, is designed to create aero stability with the brand new front-end design. New this yr are two-piece satin chrome SRT Hellcat fender badges.
I’m skipping creature comforts and security options on this overview, as a result of, actually, who cares? Let’s go away it with Dodge doesn’t skimp in these areas. However, frankly, they don’t seem to be close to the highest of the checklist of Hellcat purchaser considerations.
Take a look at drive a Hellcat and you’ll return a believer – and purchaser.
Base Value: $71,149
Value As Pushed: $73,225
Vacation spot cost is included in base worth. Autos are supplied by the producer. Checklist worth might fluctuate at native dealerships.
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Contact author Larry Lark: lrwheels57@gmail.com
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