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Dodge Challenger Hellcat vs Mustang Shelby GT350 Is an Apple-to-Orange Drag Race

Why would anybody pit a Dodge Challenger Hellcat against a Ford Mustang Shelby GT350? Such a battle doesn't make any sense, right? Wrong. By now, we should've all learned that people in the drag racing community love to throw apples and oranges at each other and we're here to give you just that.
Dodge Challenger Hellcat vs. Mustang Shelby GT350 1 photo
Photo: Screenshot from YouTube
The two slabs of America got together on an airfield runway, with a half-mile trap speed challenge awaiting the muscle machines. Perhaps the only fair side of this battle saw the Mopar vehicle joining the Shelby in its manual tranny quest.

However, the rest of the details that accompanied the fight come from oddball land. For one thing, it seems like the Hellcat driver is short-shifting.

One explanation for that would be that the man was aiming to avoid wheelspin and the fuelling of the overpowered myths being built around his Challenger. And yet the man's straight line driving doesn't seem to make all that much sense.

For instance, it's enough to check out the numbers to be a bit confused. According to the YouTube description of the clip, the SRT hit 147 mph (that's 237 km/h for all you reading this across the pond), while the 'Stang stopped at 142 mph (229 km/h).

Oh well, at least the aural side of this muscle experiment is simpler. Sure, people will always take sides, so we'll have those who are hypnotized by the blower whine and the camp that lives to count the revs the flat-plane crank Mustang can deliver once it passes the 8,000 rpm point.

And yet we can all agree on the fact that the contrasting duet delivered by the pair of V8s is a clear sign of the fact that, at least in automotive terms, America is great again. The show is ready to go on behind the "play" button below.

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About the author: Andrei Tutu
Andrei Tutu profile photo

In his quest to bring you the most impressive automotive creations, Andrei relies on learning as a superpower. There's quite a bit of room in the garage that is this aficionado's heart, so factory-condition classics and widebody contraptions with turbos poking through the hood can peacefully coexist.
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