The 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat is the hottest topic of pretty much any American motoring publication and gearhead nowadays. No wonder why - Dodge and the SRT skunkworks team managed to squeeze an unbelievable 707 horsepower and 650 lb-ft of torque from the 6.2-liter supercharged Hellcat V8 motor.
Best thing of all? That oomph comes together with iconic Challenger styling cues and a six-speed manual tranny derived from the one on the SRT Viper. If rowing gears manually isn't your kind of thing, than the eight-speed automatic might be enough to float your boat.
That's pretty much why when Dodge releases almost 2 minutes of running footage depicting the brutish Challenger Hellcat, we cannot help ourselves but get overly excited from the horsepower-laden mayhem and smoking rear tires featured. The marketing people over at Chrysler surely know what pedigree the 2015 model year Challenger packs after you watch the first 40 seconds or so of the video attached below.
Of course, we're referring to the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat roaming free on a trafficless road out in the southwest of the United States, which is a homage to the epic 1971 Vanishing Point action road movie. If you haven't seen it, we remind you that a guy named Kowalski (Barry Newman) drives a Challenger R/T 440 Magnum from Denver, Colorado to San Francisco, all while doing drugs and forcing police interceptors off the road. The director used several sections of U.S. Route 50 in Nevada for his movie, a road described as "The Loneliest Road in America" by Life Magazine in July 1986 thanks to the desolate areas traversed by it.
After this scene comes a slow motion action shot of the 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat doing a burnout, warming the rear tires as it gets ready to race his Challenger SRT little brother, which is powered by a 6.4-liter naturally-aspirated HEMI V8 powerplant. Unfortunately, the dragstrip run doesn't finalize with an official time for the Hellcat, which makes us wonder if the rumored 10.9-second quarter mile time is achievable in real life. However, it's pretty clear that the Challenger SRT Hellcat gets off the line quicker than the normal SRT. Tough luck for the haters that keep ranting about how the Hellcat cannot put all that power down properly.
On an ending note, the 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat is driven on a circuit in the heart of the Californian desert. If we're not mistaken, that track looks pretty similar to the Willow Springs International Motorsporrts Park located near Rosamond and Lancaster. In existence since 1953, the Willow Springs circuit is a favorite among many racing drivers thanks to its elevation changes and high average speeds.
However, the Challenger SRT Hellcat doesn't do fast on this instance, but lots and lots of smoky drifts. Head below, turn your speakers up to 11, press play and enjoy that 6.2-liter supercharged V8 rumble without any background music spoiling its lush burble.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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