One mean Challenger Hellcat Super Stock goes against the ultimate archrival, a Mustang GT500, and demolishes it. 8.93 v 11.15 is a lot, but it looks even worse than the numbers can describe it. Courtesy of the Wheels drag racing vloggers and YouTubers; we have an eyes-on experience of why Dodge chose the satanic reference for the spirited Challenger.
It is written with big font letters on the side of the car, and the speedway announcer also underlines it, but that Challenger definitely puts the ‘Super’ in ‘Super Stock.’ The Mopar is a car length ahead by the time it gets to the tree, making the poor Mustang GT500 look like it’s still waiting for the lights to turn green.
Yes, the Dodge runs on slicks while the Ford is on street rubbers, but something tells me the tires aren’t all the aces up this mean Mopar’s sleeve. And we can’t blame Shelby for slacking on the job with the 2023 GT500, either, because the grey Hellcat consistently smokes competitors in a very similar manner. You tell me what it takes to drop into the mid-8s in Las Vegas and nail every start like it’s the Cannonball Run all over again.
Other contenders challenge the Challenger’s supercharged 392 HEMI and get the exact same treatment, save for one unassuming Dodge Magnum. The boxy station wagon puts the Challenger through its paces and in its place, eventually. The driver of the Super Stock has its spider senses all tingling right before launching the Mopar pony – that’s how poised, accurate, consistent, and spot-on the car shoots off the line.
The Magnum seems to not care much about that because it pulls like a freight train, reeling in the Challenger and nearly catching up to it at the finish line. The aging Charger-based Dodge wagon definitely has something going on for it because it scores an Elapsed Time one-tenth under the feisty Hellcat with Super Stock claims.
8.77 seconds at 159.68 mph (256.9 kph) is just what the exorcist ordered as the perfect antidote against the growling brawny Challenger who could only achieve 8.78 seconds and a top speed of 156.55 mph (251.88 kph), three miles under the two-decade-old people hauler. Impressive as they are, the elapsed times are shadowed by the launches of that Hellcat that dashes like a Cat out of Hell on its fat rear meats and teleports across the 60-foot mark.
Whatever catnip Satan is treating his felines with, it sure should be legalized in heaven, too – the grey Challenger makes a drag race look like a drag walk on the catwalk against another Challenger. With an 8.65-second standing quarter at 158.35 mph (254.79 kph), the Dodge acts like it has been invited to a gunfight, but didn't get the memo and brought the 2nd Armored Division, the entire Pacific Fleet, and Optimus Prime.
After nearly two decades in news television, Răzvan turned to a different medium. He’s been a field journalist, a TV producer, and a seafarer but found that he feels right at home among petrolheads. Full profile
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