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Volvo: Safety Beyond the Star RatingsShocking Facts About the Hellcat Engine
For nearly 10 years, the Hellcat engine has defined the modern muscle car with insane power, but the last call has been issued for this iconic motor.
The Mighty Hellcat
Hard to believe that it’s been eight years since the mighty Hellcat engine screamed onto the automotive landscape, but the end is nigh. In the face of electrification, and let’s be honest, comically pathetic fuel economy, Dodge is shuttering Hellcat production. But wow, what a wild ride it’s been, replete with bonkers output figures, smoky burnouts for days, and some of the craziest engine swaps of all time.
What is it about the Hellcat engine that’s so shocking, so exciting, and so conducive to making gearheads speechless? Mostly it’s the horsepower rating that starts around 700 and goes up past 1,000. These are shocking numbers for any car. In this particular application, those figures are courtesy of a 6.2L V8 with induction-hardened crankshaft journals, powder-forged connecting rods, forged aluminum pistons, sodium-filled exhaust valves, 2.75-inch straight pipe exhaust, and so on and so forth.
Oh yeah, there’s also the supercharger sitting on top, spinning at over 14,000 rpm to add just a touch more air to the mix. This is all to highlight that while the Hellcat engine has become the stuff of social media legend – and epic fails – it is first and foremost a wondrous bit of automotive engineering.
The Hellcat is Modern MOPAR
The Hellcat’s present standing as a favorite toy of social media nitwits and as the preferred lyrical whip of the hip-hop industry is just the latest chapter in a decades-long love affair of all things Mopar. When Chrysler created the Mopar (Motor + Parts) line of parts of accessories in 1937, they likely didn’t know it would become the colloquially preferred catch-all for describing performance from the automaker’s portfolio of brands, including Dodge.
That sentiment was cemented during the Golden Age of muscle cars when Mopar performance was built around legends like the ‘Cuda, Dart, Roadrunner, Dodge Challenger, and Charger. It was around this time that the HEMI brand took off and ever since has been associated with an unapologetically brash style of car ownership. In the ‘80s and ‘90s, this image slipped somewhat and Dodge’s halo car became the exotic Viper. But in 2015, Dodge returned to its roots as an everyday Joe kind of performance company with the Hellcat engine.
At the time, the Charger and Challenger were deep into their respective generations and in need of a boost in consumer interest. It arrived, quite literally, with the boosted Hellcat variant that shocked the automotive industry with 707 horsepower. Mustang and Camaro who? The Challenger and Charger in SRT Hellcat form were bodacious, fast, loud, and 100% Mopar. Not cheap but more attainable than the Viper, these new Hellcat-powered Dodges took up the title of Most Coveted Mopar and haven’t looked back since.
A Hellcat Can Power (Almost) Everything
Following the immediate success of Hellcat-powered Chargers and Challengers, Dodge smartly looked for new opportunities to power its portfolio with fire-breathing motors. There was the Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk, because who doesn’t want a 707-horsepower track-attack Jeep? Obviously, the Dodge Durango cousin to the big Jeep was a recipient of Hellcat power. Currently for sale, this 710-horse SUV can shuttle six passengers around, hit 60 in 3.6 seconds, and sports a mean-mugging ventilated hood.
And most recently, Dodge Frankensteined a Hellcat engine and Ram 1500 to create a Raptor-eating TRX. Stats included 702 horses, 0-60 in under four seconds, a 6,800-lb curb weight, 35-inch tires, and 13 inches of suspension travel. This Hellcat-powered pickup is perhaps the most ludicrous application of the Hellcat ever. But it’s not the most potent variant.
Demons, and Redeyes, and Torque, Oh My!
The honor of the most powerful Hellcat belongs to the 2023 Challenger SRT Demon 170. One of the many special edition “Last Call” vehicles Dodge is rolling out as the Hellcat approaches the long dirt nap, this particular car is truly nuts. It starts with a beefed-up Hellcat motor that makes 900 horsepower when guzzling 91-octane. But when fed E85, the Demon 170 is rated for a staggering 1,025 horsepower and 945 lb-ft of torque. A street-legal dragster, Dodge claims the final Demon will hit 60 mph in 1.66 seconds and on to the quarter mile in 8.61 seconds. WOW.
And yet, that’s not all. Between 2015 and today, Dodge has created all manner of special Hellcat variants of the Challenger and Chargers like the Hellcat Redeye, Super Stock, Widebody, and the 2018 Demon. As we speak, Dodge is selling an entire sub-series of Last Call models that pull on nostalgic heartstrings with names like Black Ghost and Shakedown Special in colors like Plum Crazy and Sublime. Not to mention the endlessly customizable Jailbreak editions with a 10-hp bump. To say Dodge maximized the Hellcat engine success formula is an understatement.
Add a Hellcat to a Miata = Amazing
As any car enthusiast would expect, all this Hellcat-powered madness has spawned a whole sub-culture of projects from the Land of Customizers. Because what’s better than buying a Hellcat-powered vehicle? Building your own. Unsurprisingly, when you put racecar levels of power in the hands of the general public, there are going to be a lot of mishaps. The result is a ready supply of Hellcat engines with no car. And the result of that is wild engine swaps. There are so many to choose from, it’s hard to pick favorites, but a couple stand out.
YouTuber Stephen Crapps of the KARR channel is famous for stuffing a Hellcat engine in a 1999 Mazda Miata. Named “HellKitty”, it’s hard to imagine what driving this must be like. Or how about the PriuSRT8? Built by American Racing Headers, this dragstrip-prepped Toyota Prius can do the quarter mile in nine seconds with a Hellcat stuffed up front. There is the 1968 Charger that received a Hellcat on the Roadkill series, the Dodge Magnum with a Hellcat transplant on the ThatDudeInBlue YouTube channel, and on and on.
It’s the End of the Road for the Hellcat
Whether you love or hate the lunacy of Dodge’s Hellcat engine and associated antics, there is no denying it has left an indelible mark on the automotive industry. I for one am bummed to see the Hellcat go bye-bye even though I find much of the marketing behind it to be over-the-top. But the EV future is coming, even for Dodge, so if you’ve always pined for the awesome blend of Mopar and Hellcat, don’t wait too long as the 2023 Challenger and 2023 Charger are the end of the line.
