2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat -- Tech Review with Ralph Gilles & Crew 

OK, since you brought up MPG . . . I once circumnavigated Lake Michigan in a 368 HP Bone Stock Challenger R/T (manual, of course) and *averaged* 27 MPG still with some fun driving thrown in there . . .

MotoManTV that's impressive! I just come back from a road trip from Yosemite with my girlfriends 2014 quattral A4 and it only got 27.6avg. I think its the torque from the V8 so you don't need to shift at all.

Finally, someone who likes and respects every car making country. They all are awesome and I don't see why there needs to be so much fighting.

LOVE Rumble Tuesdays . . . Will definitely be back with something interesting . . .

MotoManTV Please do come back! I'd love to see the new and exotic that you're reviewing, haha.

And we would love to shoot them . . . However, we no longer feature FCA on the show . . . have a look below at the comments here - I provided a detailed answer as to why . . . It's a real shame because love Ralph and the crew!

All the modern HEMI's have dual spark plugs, including the early 2000's trucks

Ah ok. Never knew that. Have never followed dodge. But this one caught my eye so first time actually watching a build of a dodge

Dean Moslow You gotta get into the good stuff ;)

Thats why im in Nissan :)

Dean Moslow lol imagine how much fun cars could be if you liked Dodge ;)

Lmao ! Too funny

It's got beefier suspension than the "base" challengers. Every Challenger under this I consider base lol. And I'm 99.9% sure it has IRS.

Try losing weight in a car that costs 60k that sits on an E-class platform (seats about 5, 4 comfortably) that has a rigid enough chassis that won't noticably flex under 650lb ft of torque... It's possible just not easy

GMAJXIII This car does have a lot of weight it can lose. But it would cost Chrysler some $$$. Start off with a new chasis thats lighter but strong enough. A carbon fiber/ aluminum body would also save a lot of weight. An aluminum block instead of a cast iron one would also save obvious weight.

V8Supercar1 The car is built for price as well though. They want it to be affordable enough to sell. By throwing on a lighter but strong enough chassis, a carbon fiber/aluminum body and an aluminum block the cars price is going to be over 120,000$ (150,000$) after dealer mark up and taxes. It wont sell because there are better options at that price. Keeping this car cheap and affordable is the only ways it is going to sell. The average buyer is going to think 60,000 and then go check out the corvette, comaro and shelby gt500 and make their decision. Look at the corvette mark up, there are dealers trying to sell the new corvettes at 100,000$ which is like a 40,000$ mark up. The only way this car is selling good is if they can keep the dealers from marking up the price so much and if they can actually produce enough of them - because many potential buyers if they cant get a hold of them, or cant find them in the 60,000 range will just go buy the competitions car.

XileLord Im not disagreeing with anything you said. I was just bringing up points on how the car could become significantly lighter. You are always gonna pay more for the better car.

XileLord , Chrysler, is not that interested in selling very high numbers of these cars. This car was created for the drag strip, and to show people what Chrysler/Dodge engineers can accomplish, for a reasonable price, which will create more demand for the whole line of Challengers, other Dodge models, and the whole Chrysler lineup. This SRT is as much of an advertisement as it is a great car. Chrysler is on a roll, and I expect them to sell many more cars in 2015 and 2016.

275s who said its 245s !!!!

abdulilah turki go to 4:50, "20 by 9.5 inch rims" and the last time I checked 9.5 inches is 241.3 mm.

20 x 9.5 skinned with 275s. Still too narrow for 600+ HP IMHO but thats the tire/wheel size

That's what I'm saying. The Corvette ZR1 makes 638 hp and gets 285 front, 335 rear. The Hellcat makes 707 and should get much more rubber than SRT is giving it.

Width of the contact patch is important but, what's more important is the quality of the contact patch. The 2014 Stingray with skinnier tires is able to run faster around a track than the outgoing C6ZO6 with 325s in the back. The Stingray has 275sIIRC. But yes, the Challenger would benefit from having more rubber, that's a given. I think because the backseat is so big, they literally cannot make more wheel space in the back of the car. So a widebody solution would be the best solution.

No official word but if you go and look at the FCA investor presentation from back in June, there is a 'placeholder' for a Charger with a supercharger . . .

depends on the setup - - drove a 135i -with burger tune no lag at all

I'm pretty sure anything turbocharged you can build that has 700hp and idles smooth as glass will have more lag than a supercharger. Positive displacement rules in the throttle response department..

www.koenigsegg.com/ no lag - 5.0L v8 twin turbo - its just how its setup - like i been saying - from a bmw 135i with 455hp at the wheels or a koenigsegg supercar - with over a 1000hp - some can - because of the setup - but most of the time - when the car not turbo first hand . when people do it there self - they do it all wrong and use way to big turbos for one - also when u talk about turbos there or the types - double ball bearings one and rotrex ones the best - they have no lag at all the ones Koenigsegg uses . anywho - im a car tuner - so i think i know something about it - and sadly turbo if its done right will always be better - and another anotherr thing superchargers have lag - but just a very little

brewedmotors.com/image/data/blogs/als/als3r.jpg = no lag - this is from most turner cars like honda s2000's and wrx's rally cars - to v8 nitto cars but yea just how u can do it - there are other ways also like in most newer cars its done all by the ecu and small turbo / big turbo - one helps the other also - Garret now has a setup where there turbo's have a extra turbine that works when the other one doesnt to take care of that lag . .

Turbo's are European or Rice Burner Crap! Blowers are Classic American! We don't want Turbos.

It's kinda of the thing OEMs do . . . Especially in cases like this where the car is all about the performance & power. In practice, they are tuning the power output and numbers to the very last minute. We will probably get the final figures in mid July which is when we first drive the car . . .

i head somewhere in the 600hp or mor

***** They have 'officially' announced 600+ HP and 575 + Torque. That said, Mean Gene, Blake from Autoweek & I have a pool going that that second number will be a 3 . . . Call your bookie . . . :)

MotoManTV cool , now if only it was 500-1000lbs ligher in curb weight , i heard its 4500lbs , is that true ?

Slickpete83 Well, there was a LOVELY Alfa Romeo #4C sitting right next to it . . . :) (and I'm guessing they will be about the same price . . . )

lol Be careful, the mopar fanboys are gonna be after you. :)

You don't know what your talking about. The fastest race cars used head light openings for air intakes,

Do you even have a frickin'n clue of why they went with a cast iron block in the 6.2L Supercharged Hellcat Hemi engine?,...well,do ya?Think about it knucklehead,...sit down and ponder for a spell as to why the engineers at Dodge may have thought why this would be a good decision then get back to me with your answer. If you know anything about engines the answer should pop out and bite you in the ass .Now get to it junior!

33AndAThirdRPM there is no good reason, cast iron weights way more than aluminum and its just not needed at all. no car in the world uses a cast iron block anymore even top fuel dragsters that make 10,000 hp use an aluminum block. no wonder they are owned by fiat they have no idea what they are doing.

I'll take that awesome piece of trash any day of the week! This Challenger SRT Hellcat looks absolutely incredible! This is definitely the best looking muscle car on the road IMO. Nice job Mopar!! I love that we've been bringing back the amazing muscle cars from the 60's & 70's and making them better... They have the looks, they can actually handle well now, they're much faster, they get better gas mileage, they're safer, they're a lot more reliable than the old muscle cars ever were, and they're loaded with 21st century technology that is getting more and more advanced every year. I'm excited to see what the future brings for the Challenger, Camaro and Mustang, among others. I love all of them, and I really love that they are American! :)

Amen to that . . .

Appreciate you reaching out . . . first off, want to say that we are HUGE fans of Ralph, Klaus Busse, Mark Trostle, Dick Winkles, Erich Heuschele, Chris Nowak, Dave Cottrell and all the people we have been fortunate enough to work with over the years that dream up, design, engineer and build Chrysler and SRT (especially) cars. If you have seen our episodes with these guys, you know that they have become friends over the years. That said, about two and half years ago the communications group within Chrysler up in Auburn Hills made the decision to severely limit our access to their cars which left us with a problem: We had developed a hugely loyal viewer base in the Mopar faithful that watched our films for which we are VERY thankful. You guys watched our films to the point that let’s just say, I'm not saying we’re Motor Trend but numbers were not the problem. But the reality of our business is this: timely access to cars is everything. Shoot a car too late, and you won’t make enough revenue from advertising and views to cover your cost of production. At first, because of the highly strategic relationship we had developed with Chrysler - Ralph especially - and the size of the audience we had developed that followed this specific brand within our show, we became creative on how to work around the issue. But as we got more creative, the problem became worse to the point of not being sustainable. Sadly, even though we had tried hard to come to a solution over the past 2 years it was with the Hellcat that the issue came to an impasse. As stated at the beginning of this post, we have great admiration for the folks behind the cars and VERY much want to arrive at a solution to this issue so we can continue creating great films with Ralph and the boys on their - as of late - truly epic cars.

+MotoManTV You're talking around it. What happened?

+Bruno TaTa Talking around it? Respectfully disagree with you. Was very forthcoming in my answer. The sad reality of what we do is that sometimes, reach, view count and product quality have nothing to do with how some OEMs decide who gets into what cars when - which in one of the biggest factors in views/reach/etc no matter who you are. That is what happened here. Perhaps what you are not seeing here is that we are one of the few outlets that won't sit quietly, go along with a decision like this that negatively impacts our business in hopes of said OEM changing their mind. Instead, we realize it is a business we are running and reallocate those resources to other OEMs where we will get a higher return. It is very similar to an airline that stops serving a specific route because not enough people are buying seats. They take their asset - the airplane - and deploy it on a different route that will increase ROI - sell more seats. Whether we shoot a Chrysler or a BMW or a Mercedes the cost of producing the product is the same. However, if we get the Mercedes earlier in it's lifecycle than the Chrysler, we will ALWAYS get a higher ROI on the asset - our production resources and inherent reach. Which is why we had to make the business decision to stop featuring FCA on the show. Hope that clarifies it further for you.

you just complicated the answer even more.