It's hard not to drool like a newborn when you gander at purebred American muscle car drag racing, especially down the holy quarter-mile from the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Duking it out old-school style are the Mustang Shelby GT500 Super Snake and the fearsome Challenger Hellcat. Let's unpack!
The Hellcat more than earned its name during this race, with a sub-9-second time. The Challenger blasted off the starting line like a fiery bat out of hell and finished the 1/4-mile in 8.72 seconds at 158.33 mph or 254.8 kilometers per hour.
To say such a performance is merely insane would be a massive understatement. Luckily, it didn't have to deploy the parachute strapped to its back.
In the red corner, we have the considerably slower Mustang, crossing the finish line in 12.23 seconds at just 125.55 miles per hour or 202 kph. Separated from this race, the Ford's performance isn't bad by any stretch of the imagination, but the 3.51-second difference is quite the unignorable gap.
If you're in the market for a new muscle car, the base SXT Challenger with RWD and optional AWD starts at $32,800 and comes with a 3.6-liter V6 engine that produces 303 horsepower and 268 lb-ft (363 Nm) of torque, which isn't bad for a first car.
The top-of-the-line rear-wheel-drive-only SRT Hellcat Redeye Widebody Jailbreak begins at $91,295. This monster packs a supercharged 6.2-liter HEMI powerplant, delivering nearly 800 hp with 707 lb-ft or 958 Nm of torque.
Photo: Wheels Plus YouTube Channel
Of course, we can't forget about Dodge's best-performing flagship, the 2023 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170, with 1,025 hp that can clear the quarter-mile in 8.91 seconds while hitting 60 mph in 1.66 seconds.
Funnily enough, our Hellcat beat the Demon's record, but there's a simple explanation: Timebandit Performance tuned the Dodge Challenger from the race. Among the many tuning packages they offer, the most eye-catching is the $5850-TBP Stage 3, which translates into a 1000-hp E85 Package.
Among the countless modifications, the ones that do the most "damage" are the engine and transmission tunes. However, they go beyond that for drag racing and recommend even more changes involving the diff brace, driveshaft, cradle lockout, etc.
As for the Shelby, many automotive prophets secretly whispered about the new limited-run Shelby Super Snake recently, and the reveal event from Barret-Jackson in Palm Beach, Florida, proved them right. Still, few were prepared enough to handle its newly-forged might and glory, especially one so rare as the 2024 model that will be made in 250 units for the US.
Designed as the best-performing Shelby Super Snake in history, this highly venomous snake comes packing a powerplant based on the Mustang Coyote 5.0-liter V8 engine. Two configurations produce 480 hp, or 830 horsepower when aided by the 3.0-liter Whipple supercharger.
The convertible or fastback styles come with either an automatic or manual gearbox. If you were to choose the more hands-on approach, you'd find an oh-so-sweet Shelby shifter ball. Too bad our Mustang didn't stand a chance against the tuned-out Hellcat, but maybe next time, the Dodge will find someone its own size instead of picking on the "little guy."
Also, maybe sooner rather than later, we'll witness how the upcoming Banshee EV nameplate will perform down the classic quarter-mile. Dodge claimed it would beat the performance of the store-bought Hellcat, so we'll have to wait and see how they will pull it off.
Codrin just loves American classics, from the 1940s and ‘50s, all the way to the muscle cars of the '60s and '70s. In his perfect world, we'll still see Hudsons and Road Runners roaming the streets for years to come (even in EV form, if that's what it takes to keep the aesthetic alive). Full profile
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