Once the fastest production sedan in the world, the Charger Hellcat has lost a few miles per hour with the introduction of the Widebody option. However, the aftermarket industry is much obliged to squeeze a few more ponies from the supercharged HEMI hiding under the hood.
Hennessey Performance Engineering is the culprit on this occasion, and their muscly sedan is not to be messed with. HPE1000 is how the upgrade package is called, but this nomenclature doesn’t tell the whole story. The engine actually produces 1,012 horsepower and 969 pound-feet of torque, pretty insane figures when compared to the stock car.
On the dyno, the Hellcat in the following clip clocked 817 horsepower and 730 pound-feet of torque at the rear wheels. What comes as a surprise is that Hennessey kept the exterior pretty much as it left the factory, hiding the true potential of the Mopar sedan with flared arches.
The upgrade package is guaranteed by a limited warranty for a year or 12,000 miles (19,312 kilometers), whichever of the two comes first. What comes as uncanny is that Hennessey didn’t strengthen the automatic transmission, leaving the eight-speed ZF 8HP completely stock.
Two versions of the tranny are currently used by high-performance Dodge and Jeep models, and both are rated at 900 Nm for maximum torque. That’s 664 pound-feet in U.S. currency, which isn’t exactly on par with the crankshaft output of the HPE1000 Supercharged Upgrade.
Another problem of high-horsepower and high-torque builds is how the suck-squeeze-bang-blow is put down to the ground. Even with the wider tires of the Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Widebody, you will find it hard to launch this fellow without spinning the rear wheels.
Be that as it may, Hennessey promises 2.8 seconds to 60 kph (97 km/h) and 9.9 seconds quarter mile time at 141 mph (227 kph) for the standard-body sedan. When all is said and done, “ridiculously fast” and “over-the-top exciting” are the best words to describe what the Texas-based tuner has created.
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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