I saw three of these testing in Michigan this week. They sound glorious.
797 horsepower.
That’s how much the spec sheet tells us the supercharged, 6.2-liter Hemi Hellcat “High Output” V8 under the hood of the Charger Hellcat Redeye makes.
To put that kind of power into perspective, the Lamborghini Aventador S only makes 730 horsepower, and the Redeye manages to edge out the 789-horsepower Ferrari 812 Superfast.
So yeah, that’s a lot of power to have underneath your right foot—though with great power, often comes with a great price tag. The Charger Redeye comes with a starting price of $69,995, but to scoop up the model we sampled, you’ll have to set aside $87,165.
Then again, unlike the Aventador and the Superfast, the Charger comes with 40 inches of rear legroom, 16 cubic-feet of truck space and costs much less than the aforementioned supercars, even with a few optional packages added on.
At this point, you’d probably like to know what it’s like to drive one of the most powerful production cars on the planet, so you can read our driving impressions below.
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A lot of words have been written—deservedly so—about just how insane the Hellcat-powered Dodges are. They’re cars that put to rest forever the argument that muscle cars were better “back in the day,” or at some arbitrary period polished by nostalgia when solid axles, carburetors and drum brakes were cutting-edge technology. Yes, the greatest muscle machines of the late ‘60s and (very) early ‘70s were exceptional, but what Stellantis has done with these Hellcat machines is simply otherworldly.
Shockingly, the most impressive part of the Hellcat Charger I sampled—with the Redeye Widebody package bumping power output to a mind-boggling 797 horsepower and adding additional bodywork to cover the 305mm wide Michelins—is not the objective performance. True, it is staggering. Too staggering, really, to ever fully experience on public roads. Turn the traction control off and the Hellcat will easily fry $800 worth of rubber in a matter of seconds through four gears before it even gets across the intersection. Flip the traction control back on and the car will pin you to the seatback until you lose your nerve, or your license. It can hit 100mph in under eight seconds, with the a/c on and the supercharger whining away under the hood while the world turns into a blur of terror in the windshield, and things that were far away suddenly become alarmingly near, like an Alfred Hitchcock dolly zoom.
The straight-line performance belies even the massive heft of the Charger, which weighs in at nearly two and a half tons. But more shockingly than that is Dodge has somehow found a way to make it feel, well, “light on its feet” would be a stretch, but suffice to say it’s more nimble than it has any right to be, given the sheer mass and all that kinetic energy that wants nothing more than to keep heading in the same direction. Ultimately, the mass wins and you get a taste of just how bulky the car is as it overwhelms those tires whose size starts with “3,” but up to about 80% of capacity, the Hellcat Charger is a remarkably refined feeling sport sedan.
But we still haven’t gotten to the most impressive part, which has almost nothing to do with what the Hellcat-powered machine shows you whenever you mash the gas. No, the most impressive part is what happens when you don't mash the gas. Driven without rage or aggression, the Hellcat Charger—even in super-funky Redeye Widebody trim—gives almost zero indication of what it’s capable of, and this is where it truly distances itself from the muscle cars of yesteryear.
Throw one of these in the motor pool at any car rental agency, and Mitch and Selma from Dubuque would have zero clues that it was anything but a nice, upscale sedan until they tried to merge onto I-85 for the first time and ended up laying stripes along the entire entrance ramp. There’s no lopey cam, no bone-shaking idle that can barely be maintained, no hi-stall converter that is impossible to drive at less than full throttle, it’s just...a car. It’s pretty miraculous that a vehicle producing nearly as much power as a NASCAR Cup Car can just be driven around like it ain’t no thang.
It took a lot of guts for Dodge to build this car, but apparently, sales numbers are strong enough that it shows their gamble is paying off. But the real triumph of the Hellcat Charger is not how good it is at laying down amazing numbers—we’d expect nothing less of a car with nearly 800hp—but how good it is at being normal at the same time.
Car go fast.
Big car go very fast.
Me like big, fast car.
Leave it to Chrysler to hang around for last call.
The last of the breed? Likely. Do we really think that anyone else will bring back the old-school muscle car, complete with a real dino-burning IC engine? Not sure I’d take that bet.
But talk about going out with a bang: Let's be honest, this chassis isn’t new or cutting edge. Calling it traditional is probably more polite than "dated" or "old fashioned."
It's 1968 all over again. But with more power and way better manners.
But here’s the big but: Despite all of the available forward thrust, the Charger Hellcat is quite docile around town. Fire it up, put it in gear, and just drive it. No waiting for something to warm up. And no watching the temp gauge in case something gets too warmed up.
You can drive it to work, take it to the strip, fetch groceries with it. The Hellcat Charger rides and drives like a real car. My EG-chassis Civic Si offered much less civility and it made just 125 wimpy horsepower. (Okay, true, it had race-valved shocks.)
The big downside is the price. We just drove a BMW X5 hybrid that stickered for about the same amount. But, really, which is cooler?
Someone's going to argue about the fact that the Hellcat’s only available with an automatic. I'm with the auto here. It doesn't get in the way. I don’t think it’s slowing you down.
I came home from the hospital in the original muscle car, and this might well be the last. Talk about ending a run with a big W.
I saw three of these testing in Michigan this week. They sound glorious.
Man, what a time we live in, where you can buy a 797hp widebody sedan with a warranty from a Dodge dealer.
These cars are mind bending fast, when you think about the low buy in they are a screaming deal. Another thing is these cars can creap through bumper to bumper traffic in late August with out overheating and with no twitching. Once you get to the open road they will take off like a rocket.
The one thing not mentioned is these cars require no crazy maintenance and they can be serviced at any number of Dodge dealers around the nation.
I think we are in the Golden age of horse power.
I'm not a Dodge fan in general, but the late model chargers are pretty cool. Even the rental 5.7L I had was a good car, although the rental-spec interior was cheap. Given the chance to have one of these...I'd jump on it.
797 horsepower is only a couple of hundred or so shy of the output of the very early Rolls-Royce V12 Merlin engine (27-litres (1,650 cu in). A guy a few blocks over from us had 2018 5.7 Challenger that he said was pretty darn quick (he also had a 69 GTO with a Pont 455 plugged into the thing). And ya, I too think that we're in the 'golden age' of HP.
This may or may not be controversial, but I view the Charger and especially the Challenger as some of the last true muscle cars, as cars like the Camaro and Mustang have moved on from their muscle car roots.
Yeah, they are just as fast and can be faster, but they seem to have evolved into proper sports cars, whereas the Charger and Challenger are big, heavy cars with massive engines.
Also, don't think I haven't kept the Charger in the back of my mind as the next family hauler.
Yeah, if I got lottery money I'd probably buy one just like that, in white and everything, just for the grins.
I saw a 392 wide body charger yesterday, very drool worthy.
The want is strong
Go back 10 years: Did you ever think that a car boasting something even close to these numbers would be sold through the local dealer? No special tuners, no one-off builds.
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