Having been there when Chrysler introduced the Hellcat engine for the 2015 model year, it still amazes me that a $60,990 including destinate fee used to buy a two-door muscle car with 707 horsepower and 650 pound-feet (881 Nm) of torque on tap. Said numbers are pretty ludicrous to this day, a day and age in which Chrysler prepares to discontinue the Hellcat in favor of a TT I6 advertised as the Hurricane.
Be that as it may, not even that kind of power and torque is adequate when racing an electric vehicle. Part of the reason is how quickly an electric motor generates maximum torque as opposed to a combustion engine, and the other part is the dual-motor setup of most performance electric vehicles.
The good folks at the Wheels Plus YouTube channel offer a case in point with the help of a white-painted Challenger SRT Hellcat and a white-painted Tesla Model 3. Based on the design of the hood, the Dodge appears to be a pre-2019 model. As for the Model 3, its quarter-mile time is close to what one would expect from the range-topping version of the M3.
Pictured at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, both cars appear to run aftermarket wheels and rubber. In the Challenger's case, the rears appear to be super-sticky drag radials. With the Challenger being notoriously hard to launch without spinning the rear wheels, the drag radials should help the driver cross the finish line in the 11-second range. Unfortunately, the best he could do was 12.05 seconds at 119.61 miles per hour (192 kilometers per hour) as opposed to Dodge's estimate of 10.8 seconds at 126 miles per hour (203 kilometers per hour) with Pirelli P Zero rubber.
What about the driver of the zero-emission sedan that quite a few muscle car enthusiasts like to hate for no good reason? 11.60 seconds at 114.05 miles per hour (183.5 kilometers per hour). I love a big V8 as much as the next guy, but when it comes to quarter-mile drag racing, electric motors have the upper hand.
Photo: Wheels Plus on YouTube
Vehicles in the same vein as the Model 3 Performance accelerate so quickly to 60 miles per hour (97 kilometers per hour) that it almost feels like cheating. One could further make a case for combustion-engined vehicles being harder to launch, and they would be 100% right with this viewpoint.
Rather than taking sides, the internal combustion versus electric propulsion debate should be tossed aside in favor of having fun at the strip. Both of those guys were there to have fun and to best themselves rather than one another. Remember, this isn't NHRA top fuel drag racing where winning is the sole goal.
At press time, Tesla lists the Model 3 for the US market with a sticker price of $38,900 for the rear-drive version. The Dual Motor All-Wheel Drive is $45,990, whereas the Performance starts at $50,990. Seriously good value, and even more so if you apply the $7,500 federal tax credit for new EV purchases.
Over at Dodge, the third-gen Challenger retails at $32,800 for the V6-engined SXT. The R/T kicks off at $41,640, whereas the SRT Hellcat now starts with the Jailbreak version at $74,290. At the other end of the spectrum, the no-nonsense Demon 170 is $96,666 excluding destination and the gas guzzler tax.
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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