Salvaged and Rebuilt Dodge Charger Hellcat Drags Turbo Trucks: Win Some, Lose Some

The iconic muscle car nameplates will never be the same when the 2024 model year comes out – if it ever comes out. Instead, we might see the production version of the Dodge Charger Daytona SRT Concept as a 2025 model year and with the body styles reshuffled. So, it is anyone's guess if Dodge will have a Challenger in the family after the V8 models take a bow and exit stage left to car Valhalla.

But that doesn't mean everyone will be satisfied with the nine levels of Banshee EV prowess promised by the company. And one way to make the Dodge Challenger and Charger last a little longer is to save as many as possible and promote them across various events – after first working on turning them into proper quarter-mile dragstrip monsters, that is.

Well, not everyone might take this path, but Herman Young – the host behind the well-known Demonology channel on YouTube, sure did. After he made himself famous alongside his crimson Dodge Challenger SRT Demon and the many tuning, customization, and personalization adventures they had together, he recently moved on to a member of the 'Last Call' special series, which he quickly redubbed as 'Black Ghost.'

Currently, he is tinkering with it and finding the right performance – with or without nitrous – so that gave him some spare time to prepare for the next event he's participating in – MotorTrend's Roadkill Nights 2023. But he's not going there with the Black Ghost but rather the 'Silverback.' That's the nickname of a salvaged LX-generation Dodge Charger he encountered about a month ago. Since then, alongside his many partners, it's been a race against the clock to finish the rebuild in time for the event.

But before going there and making a shame of oneself if the vehicle underperforms, it's always best to test for strengths and weaknesses, right? So, during the latest vlog episode, we get to check out the final assembly part of the rebuild, and then from the 12:26 mark, there's also a little bit of racing involved. So, the intention – when going to Xtreme Raceway Park in Ferris, Texas – was to "dial the car in and make sure things were working right."

But his fans know this is Herman Young we are talking about, and of course, he "ended up lining up against two trucks." Despite their age (especially the second one), they were no ordinary pickups, either. We recognized the blue contender as a thoroughly modified Chevrolet S-10 hero, which was more than Young's newly-rebuilt Dodge Charger (packing modern Hellcat power) could chew.

Oh well, sometimes you win some, other times you lose some. No worries, revenge against the turbo trucks came swiftly when the second, older pickup truck tried to beat the Charger – and it got served a swift sentence. Hopefully, we will see Young and his 'young' Charger as soon as possible and from other POVs that will include some ETs and trap speeds – not just a little bit of wheelie playfulness. Until then, hopefully, everything stays solid – we all know how these new builds tend to fall apart sometimes!