Now that 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat owners have had the time to break their muscle cars in, it was only a matter of time until the first street racing episodes started... airing online. Well, here we are, talking about a recent nighttime race that saw a Challenger Hellcat battle it out with a Chevrolet Camaro that happened to be chewing nitrous oxide, as well as with a just-as-custom Ford Mustang Shelby GT500.
As usual, the race takes place on the highway, with a rolling start. On this occasion, the drivers agreed on a 45 mph (72 km/h) start. Usually, we don’t like throwing spoilers at you, but we’ll make an exception on this occasion, since the race is completely off the scale, due to the unknown tune on the Chevy.
Yes, the Camaro smoked the Hellcat and it did so by a considerable margin. While the race footage still has what it takes to grab a viewer’s full attention, there are plenty of aspects to be discussed here.
Like we said, this is a tuned Camaro. The clip’s description mentions a custom cam and a 150 nitrous shot, but we have to take that with a massive grain of salt or at least a grain of brake dust. We really can’t know for sure how much muscle has been injected into that LS V8 under the hood.
As for the race with the Shelby GT500, a pre-2010 revamp, the same applies here - the video description only mentions an exhaust, explaining the ‘Stang showed 550 hp on the dyno. We’ll let you see the results of the Hellcat-Shelby race in the clip.
Then there’s the weight matter, an issue for the Dodge - while the Challenger Hellcat tips the scales at over 4,400 lbs (1,995 kg), the Ford Mustang Shelby Gt500 weighs 3,900 lbs (1,780 kg) and the Camaro (presumably an SS) stands at around 3,750 lbs (1,700 kg).
This doesn’t prove anything
You really can’t take a series of races seriously when a stock vehicle is fighting against its competitors after the latter have been tuned.
After all, enthusiasts have been strapping blowers to Challengers for years and the idea with the Hellcat is that you can have all that muscle under warranty and without having to deal with heat soak issues after every couple of runs.
Update: our reader Jerrod claims to be the owner of this Hellcat and he has provided some extra details about the cars involved in the races, which you can see in his comment below. Grain of salt aside, his additions appear to make sense.
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. Full profile
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