Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Thrice Drags Chevy Corvette Z06, Loser Got Home on Foot

Unfortunately, the L-bodied Dodge Charger sedan and Challenger fastback coupe ceased production in December 2023, with the mighty Hemi V8 also retired from the lineup and almost ready to bow out from the Durango series, too, as the latter has also started its own 'Last Call' special edition series. Additionally, the C7 Corvette Z06 was one of Chevrolet's last hurrah for 'America's sports car' in its traditional front-engine RWD configuration.

The silver lining is pretty simple and needs us to adjust our views of the automotive world accordingly. The C8 generation of the Corvette has become a smashing success despite its rising MSRPs since the GM team was allowed to fulfill a longtime dream to move the engine to a midship position. Even better, the C8 Z06 has become a 670-hp record-breaking FPC V8 model. As for the Dodge Charger, it's also coming out with its eighth generation – only now the series can't be called an 'American muscle car' anymore due to its EV or inline-six powertrains.

No worries, if you cherish the Charger with a Hellcat V8 and think the Corvette should have stayed with the engine at the front, here's a nice trio of skirmishes captured by the ImportRace videographer at Island Dragway in Great Meadows, New Jersey, that will leave you cheering for one of these 'classics' and weeping for the other. As per the description, the challengers are both tuned – the four-door supercharged muscle car and the legendary sports car, but unfortunately, the videographer didn't know the horsepower count for each of them.

However, there's enough time to gauge the differences between the two of them, as the video embedded below features not one, not two, but three head-on battles. The first dig is the one that puts everything into the proper quarter-mile dragstrip perspective and shows a hint about who's who – the yellow C7 had to hit the brakes a couple of times as it was almost on the edge of losing control. Round one, obviously, went to the Mopar side (11.6 versus 12.04s) due to technical difficulties.

They didn't switch lanes for round two as per rematch tradition, but this time around, the Corvette C7 worked flawlessly. Alas, the Hellcat driver also upped their game, and now the Charger dropped to 11.1s while the Chevy couldn't do better than 11.55s despite its higher trap speed. The last round was just for the show if they planned to see who's best two out of three, but the yellow menace still gave it its best, obviously, and the accident that was foreshadowed during the first brawl turned out inevitable – the C7 swerved to the right and hit the steel rails head-on. For sure, the losing side was going home on foot that night, sadly!