The Hellcat
These high powered Dodge Challengers come in two flavors: bad-ass and more bad-ass. The stout SRT 392 packs a 485-hp Hemi V-8, and the notorious SRT Hellcat possesses a 707-hp supercharged Hemi V-8. Both have substantial brakes and an adaptive suspension; a standard six-speed manual transmission or a proficient eight-speed automatic funnels power to the rear wheels. The Hellcat Widebody has a distinct appearance thanks to flared fenders and wider wheels and tires. These power-crazy Challengers still provide exceptional comfort with a spacious cabin and plentiful standard features. While the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 and the Ford Mustang Shelby GT350 are more talented on a racetrack, the diabolical Dodges generate nostalgia and release our inner delinquency—which includes the effortless roasting of rear tires. Bad-asses indeed
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HIGHS
Comfy and crazy, filled with standard features, the Hellcat has 707 horsepower.
LOWS
Sloppy handling compared with rivals, replacing roasted tires adds up, aging appearance.
VERDICT
As the pony-car wars approach DEFCON 1, the Challenger is the most powerful—if least precise—weapon.
While the drag-strip-destroying SRT Demon is the most interesting addition to the 2018 Challenger lineup, we cover that hellion separately. The new Hellcat Wide body features flared fenders and wider 20-inch wheels; an electrically assisted power-steering system replaces the hydraulic setup on the regular model. Both Hellcats also receive restyled grilles and fender badges and newly illuminated Air-Catcher headlights with a Hellcat logo. The list of options now includes a Matte Vapor wheel finish, dual gunmetal stripes, Demonic Red Laguna seating, and a new red badge on the instrument panel. The Hellcat’s Brembo brake calipers can be painted black, orange, or gunmetal, too. The SRT 392 is mostly unchanged, but the Brass Monkey 20-inch wheels are now optional. Every 2018 Challenger has a backup camera. The lineup adds F8 Green and IndiGO Blue exterior colors (whoever named the latter color was clearly a University of Michigan fan); these new shades, along with B5 Blue and Plum Crazy, have late availability.
Engine and Transmission Rating:
The mad scientists at Dodge’s SRT laboratory pulled a Samuel L. Jackson and went all Old Testament with the almighty 707-hp Hellcat engine. The SRT 392 has only 485 ponies, but even it will reduce the rear rubber to clouds of billowing smoke faster than someone can ask.
The 6.4-liter V-8 (SRT 392) and the supercharged 6.2-liter V-8 (SRT Hellcat) carry over unchanged for 2018. The eight-speed automatic and six-speed manual transmissions are also the same.
The new Hellcat Widebody is available with the same powertrains as its slimmer namesake; we track-tested one with an automatic. It roared from zero to 60 mph in 3.8 seconds and went from 50 to 70 mph in 2.2 seconds. Both figures are within 0.2 second of the last automatic Hellcat we tested. The Widebody also completed the quarter-mile in nearly identical fashion (11.8 seconds at 126 mph).
Fuel Economy Rating:
Relax. The 707-hp Challenger Hellcat doesn’t power-slam gas like a competitive drinker—at least, not more than its competition. It has a double-digit EPA city rating, and it wasn’t far off its 22-mpg EPA highway fuel-economy figure in our real-world testing. The SRT 392 is slightly more efficient, but with much less power.
Dodge didn’t alter the Challenger SRT’s powertrains for 2018, so its EPA-estimated fuel-economy ratings don’t differ.
That means the Hellcat’s real-world highway fuel economy shouldn’t change, either, but we decided to test the Widebody version for comparison’s sake, as the fender flares and wider tires might affect its aerodynamics. Equipped with the eight-speed automatic, it earned 20 mpg on our fuel loop; we observed the same result on the regular Hellcat with a six-speed manual.
Safety and Driver Assistance Rating:
The Challenger hasn’t been fully crash tested yet, and it underperformed in the test it did complete. Still, the Hellcat has more standard active safety features than its rivals, and the SRT 392 is also available with adaptive cruise control.
As with every 2018 Challenger, the SRT models now have a standard backup camera that is about to become mandatory on new cars. None of the models have been tested by NHTSA and otherwise carry over their respective active safety features from 2017.
Crash Test Results
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the nonprofit, independent Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) evaluate vehicles for crashworthiness in the United States. NHTSA assigns cars an overall rating out of five stars. IIHS uses a different set of tests, grades cars on a scale of Good to Poor, and awards the vehicles that perform best across its tests with Top Safety Pick or Top Safety Pick+ honors, the latter of which requires that the subject’s automated forward-collision-braking system performs well.
Airbags, Child Seats, and Spare Tire Location
Installing a rear-facing child seat in the back of the Challenger has it’s—ahem—challenges. The LATCH anchors are buried between the seat cushions, extra support is needed to level it, and front-seat legroom is shortened. It was easy to swing the cradle in and out with the large door opening and far-forward sliding front seat.
Active Safety Features
Both the SRT 392 and the Hellcat have a blind-spot monitor with rear cross-traffic alert, rear parking sensors, and a backup camera as standard. Only the SRT 392 has the optional Technology package, which adds automatic high-beams and rain-sensing wipers for $395 with the manual transmission or adaptive cruise control and forward-collision warning along with the automatic high-beams and rain-sensing wipers for $1195 with the automatic.
The Challenger interior was redesigned for the 2015 model year with a driver-centric layout, straightforward switchgear, and better materials. The SRT twins have standard leather finery, unique badging and gauge colors, and heated and ventilated front seats. Despite its roomy cabin, the plastics still look low grade, and visibility to the rear is poor.
The Challenger interior is mostly unchanged for 2018. The SRT Hellcat now has optional Demonic Red Laguna seating and a red badge on the instrument panel.
Interior Space Comparisons
The Challenger feels more spacious inside than the Chevy Camaro and the Ford Mustang, although it lacks their front-seat legroom. That changes in the back, where its extra three inches of legroom make rear seating actually bearable for adults. A tall seating height and wide-opening doors make it one of the easier muscle cars to enter and exit. Still, there’s no way to gracefully get in and out of the back seat.
Interior Features
Although the plastics on the dashboard and doors aren’t particularly attractive, the material is supple, and the panel gaps are consistent. A metallic-looking honeycomb trim surrounds a section of the dash and the center console. The SRT 392 and Hellcat have lovely leather throughout, and opting for faux-suede inserts is free. The gauge cluster features a 7.0-inch display that’s shared among Fiat Chrysler products, but the SRT 392 has white-faced gauges and the Hellcat—fittingly—has red ones. Unlike the Recaro sport seats in the Shelby GT350 and the Camaro ZL1, every Challenger has broad front seats with decent lateral support. These comfy buckets will fit all body sizes and are great for long road trips.
Interior Sound Levels
Modern cabins do an excellent job of insulating passengers from ambient noise, but none can completely eliminate the sharp sound of the wind and the drone of tire noise when you’re traveling at highway speed. To measure the interior sound-pressure level, we use a Brüel & Kjær Type 2250-L sound meter, which we position in the middle of the first row of seats at the height of the driver’s ear. The meter automatically averages 15 seconds of sound in A-weighted decibels (dBA), taken while the test car is cruising at 70 mph. (A-weighting is an industry standard that adjusts decibel readings to better reflect how the human ear hears various frequencies.) We take two measurements and average the results. We also correct for speedometer inaccuracies with our GPS-based data loggers. It is worth noting that decibels are a logarithmic unit, so a rating of 40 decibels isn’t twice the sound pressure of 20 decibels; it is 10 times the sound pressure. A six-decibel increase roughly doubles the sound pressure.
Seating and Step-In Height
The Hellcat has the highest seating height among rivals, at 20.9 inches. To accurately measure seating height—the distance from the road to the driver’s hip—we use an H-Point Machine (HPM), a precisely engineered device marketed by SAE International. This versatile tool, in conjunction with a laser device, reveals the width and location of roof-pillar visibility obstructions (blind spots). Our HPM and laser measurement tools determine the length of road obscured by the hood as well as the road obscured by the trunk or hatch.
Blind Spots, Visibility, and Obscured Roadway
As with long-hooded rivals, low obstacles up front are threats. The Challenger isn’t as bad as the Camaro, but its massive rear roof pillars are treacherous in traffic. At least a blind-spot monitor is standard.
Yes, the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat is far more car with far more power than any mere mortal will ever need. So why would anyone consider this car? Because it’s a Hellcat.
