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Dodge to Build an Extra 1,000 SRT Hellcats, Order Books Remain Closed

For those willing to get their hands on a Hellcat these days, having the money for the car of their (and our) dreams is far from being enough to bring one of these 707 hp monsters on their driveways. That's because the Challenger SRT Hellcat and Charger SRT Hellcat proved to be such a hit, Dodge simply wasn't ready to produce as many as the dealers could registers orders for.
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Well, we have good news muscle folks - the company is set to build an extra 1,000 Hellcats. The supply issue is said to lie within the engine production, so the news is referring to the number of additional 6.2-liter blown V8s that will be made. However, we are not aware yet of how these engines will be split between the sedan and the coupe.

The info was published on the Hellcat.org forums - "For those of you still waiting on your VIN's, you just may be receiving a nice little surprise in the coming days. An anonymous source tipped us this morning and said that Dodge has just scheduled an additional 1,000 SRT Hellcat's to be built. Of those 1,000 new schedules, we did not receive any hard numbers on how many were Challengers or Chargers, but it's definitely a huge step in the right direction and looks like Dodge is listening."

We'll remind you Dodge dealers are currently under... embargo - new orders are not accepted until the automaker will be able to blow off some of the steam created by the massive backlog.

Regarding the current numbers for the Hellcat production, there's no official word on how many have been built so far. Nonetheless, a member of the aforementioned forums said his build was #2359, with the info having been delivered to him on march 20, 2015.

How did the problem develop?

Imagine you work for Dodge and have to estimate the demand for the Hellcat-equipped products in order to prepare the production line for a certain output.

While carmakers have no other option, the task itself is a bit like trying to use a crystal ball for the purpose. Think about it, before the Hellcats landed, many said nobody would want to pay the expected $60-$70,000 for a Dodge, especially after the sales issues experience with the otherwise brilliant 5th generation Viper.

This meant Dodge was planning to build about 5,000 of these engines per year, but that is clearly not enough to quench the 707 hp thirst of the customers.

Then there were the dealers, some of which reportedly accepted Hellcat orders which they knew they couldn't deliver. In fact, Dodge dealers have been giving clients headaches ever since the Challenger order banks were opened in September 2014 and the Charger Hellcat order banks were opened in January this year. Aside from the aforementioned ill policy, many dealers also placed ridiculous premiums on Hellcats.

As the initial boom is overcome, we're sure Chrysler will make the right efforts to balance this supercharged demand-supply matter.
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About the author: Andrei Tutu
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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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