Dodge Challenger Hellcat Drag Pack: a long way to say “fast”
By Andrew Hulse
Dodge has gone all out recently with fast cars. The Hellcat twins, followed by the Demon along with the SRT trim on multiple other cars has endeared the brand in the hearts of many enthusiasts.
Spy shots and posts at the Hellcat.org forums seem to indicate another high-performance variant of the companies muscular coupe. -Note: none of this is confirmed by Dodge at the time of this writing, many other sources are reporting this which gives credibility to the speculation.-
The Challenger Hellcat Drag Pack is largely reported to contain Challenger Demon parts, just without the body kit and some of the other goodies. According to the posts, it is a 75% match to the Demon but mildly more streetable. There should also be a slight power bump to 725 horsepower over the “mild” 707 horsepower.
From the photos provided in the Autoguide article, it looks like the Demon Air Grabber hood is mounted on the regular Hellcat. This leads Dodge experts to believe it is mainly a toned down Demon. Just as a refresher, the Demon boasts 840 horses and is one of the only production cars that can wheelie.
Several parts aside from the hood should make their way to the Drag Pack from the Demon. A taller final drive, transbrake, and a special chiller system are all options that would make sense on a less extreme drag car. Another reminder, none of this is confirmed and this is all speculation by people more in the know than I.
Dodge is gambling that America will never sacrifice power.
Dodge has been continuously producing high power cars over the last few years. A long line of SRT models eventually led to what I call the Hellcat twins. The Charger and Challenger Hellcat literally blasted onto the scene with 707 horsepower, a performance bargain for the ages.
The performance theme extends to most of their current model line with the exception of the Journey and Grand Caravan. The brand’s homepage even welcomes you by saying “Welcome to the Brotherhood of Muscle”. Dodge is really targeting the nostalgia of the open road, motorcycles and dive bars with their current ad campaigns and marketing.
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America is not done with muscle. Although there is a heavy swing for fuel-efficient crossovers and sedans, I truly believe there will always be a market for muscle here in the United States. Dodge will have to work on some efficiency placeholders to keep the people who do not care about performance as buyers.