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2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat [w/videos]

Darrell Waltrip once said, "If the lion didn't bite the tamer every once in a while, it wouldn't be exciting." The sentiment behind that aphorism is causing my adrenal gland to wake up as Dodge and SRT drivers and engineers - somber-faced to a man - give me the track talk that will precede my driving the 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT on the circuit at Portland International Raceway. PIR might not be Daytona, and the 707-horsepower Challenger Hellcat might seem tame to a legend like ol' Jaws, but there's a not-small part of me that's thinking about how hard Dodge's fire-breathing kitty might bite.
Just a few hours previous, I'd gotten behind the wheel of the Hellcat for the first time, letting its hyperbole-spitting, supercharged V8 Hemi pull me yieldingly through Portland's morning commuter traffic. Lulled into a cocky certainty by the Challenger's good manners at low speed, I drove the throttle just a hair too deep, too fast when I ran on to the highway ramp. For just an instant the rear tires were utterly drenched in torque, and the back end of the big Dodge loosened up like a drift car on a wet track. Throttle steer lives at the fleeting whim of your right foot in this car.
It was no big thing to lay off the gas and pull the Hellcat back in line as I entered the highway, but the incident did get me to thinking: What will this car do to me on a road course?

2015 Dodge Challenger configurator has all the Hellcat you can dream of

The 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat has sucked up a lot of air in the automotive news world this summer, so it's good to know that you can actually go out and, you know, buy the sucker. With 2015 models headed for your local showroom, Dodge has seen fit to also pull the wraps off it's latest Challenger configurator, complete with the supercharged Hemi V8 option that we just can't seem to get enough of.
We're still enamored of the $58,995 starting price for the 707-horsepower SRT, but the online tool finally gives us a chance to see just how optioned up our dream super-muscle coupe can get.
Buyers can choose from three interior treatments and nine paint colors, with two hues (Ivory White and Phantom Black tri-coats) coming for a $500 premium. For $1,795 Laguna Leather SRT bucket seats can be added in place of the (very nice) stock chairs, and a fancier infotaiment system with navigation and HD radio runs $695.

The Dodge Demon gets a Drag Mode and a lesson in Newtonian physics

It's Thursday morning, which means we have more news on the upcoming Dodge Demon, the pumped-up Challenger Hellcat variant that's looking to cause mayhem at a drag strip near you. This week's video, "Third Law," shows the Demon's revised suspension in action and displays another one of SRT's cryptic messages. Dodge claims that the 6.2-liter supercharged Hemi V8 in the Hellcat twins is compromised because it's fitted to a car that needs to be comfortable on the street in addition to a performer on the drag strip. Not so with the Demon, as Dodge says the car is "designed to be highly competent in all drive modes and configurations," including the all-new Drag Mode. Dodge says details about the new mode will trickle out over the next few weeks, but all the info this week focused on suspension. The "Third Law" in this week's title refers to Isaac Newton and motion: "When one body exerts a force on a second body, the second body simultaneously exerts a force equal in magnitude and opposite in direction on the first body." We're not sure what Newton would have thought seeing the sidewall wrinkling Nitto NT05R drag radials in action, but he'd probably have a reaction of some sort himself. An ideal suspension setup for the drag strip makes for a poor setup on the road. As Dodge puts it, the "old school" way to set up a drag car was to "get the quickest reacting springs upfront, the softest rebound front shocks that wouldn't restrict the springs' reaction, remove any restrictions (sway bar) and increase the compression of the rear shocks." This would give a car great front to rear weight transfer but made for very poor lateral direction control, meaning minor corrections were difficult. The Demon's Drag Mode will use electronics to give the car the best combination of launch and lateral stability. Dodge listed some of the parts to help aid in this goal. They also gave us a few equations that we can't make sense of. Let us know if you have any clues. Hardware: 35 percent lower rate front springs/28 percent lower rate rear springs 75 percent lower rate hollow front sway bar/44 percent lower rate rear sway bar Drag-tuned Bilstein Adaptive Damping Shocks Software: Rear = F/F and Front = F/S F/F – F/S maintained @ wide open throttle (WOT) F/F – F/F < WOT Traction control disabled/ESC maintained Result: 13.5=575@500 Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.