Mopar Legends: 10 Most Significant Modern Dodge Muscle Cars
2015 Challenger SRT Hellcat
In the years following the introduction of the Challenger in 2008, the Hemi-powered Dodge muscle car served as a worthy competitor to the Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro. However, it was always the third place car in the segment in both sales and performance. There were years where Dodge would up the power of the SRT8 model to more closely compete with the crosstown rivals, but Ford and Chevy generally had an advantage in performance.
That all changed in April of 2014 when the 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat was introduced. At that initial auto show debut, Ralph Gilles promised that the Hellcat Hemi would deliver at least 600 horsepower, which would make it the second-most-powerful car in the segment, trailing only the 662-horsepower GT500. When the official power numbers were announced later in the summer of 2014, Dodge shocked the world with the first American production road car with more than 700 horsepower. In fact, Ford wouldn’t offer a 700-horsepower car until the 2020 GT500 and Chevrolet still hasn’t introduced a Camaro with more than 700 horsepower.
The 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat offered 707 horsepower and 650 lb-ft of torque, making it the most powerful road-going American car to date. In addition to being the most powerful, the Hellcat Challenger was also the quickest American road car, running in the low-11-second range with stock Pirelli tires and dipping well into the mid-10-second range with stickier tires.
Those numbers were considerably better than the numbers of the 2014 GT500 or the 2015 Camaro ZL1, placing Dodge at the top of the American muscle car segment. Also, thanks to big brakes and a high tech suspension setup, the Hellcat Challenger offered superior handling to any of the earlier Mopar muscle cars.
2015 Charger SRT Hellcat
Shortly after the 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat was introduced, FCA debuted the 2015 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat.
The Charger was mechanically identical to the Challenger, with the key exception being the manual transmission from the coupe not being offered in the high performance sedan. The 8-speed automatic transmission was standard, as was the supercharged 6.2-liter Hemi with 707 horsepower and 650 lb-ft of torque, the big Brembo brakes and the Bilstein adaptive dampers.
The 2015 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat was, and still is, the most powerful four-door sedan in the world while also being the first with more than 700 horsepower. Prior to 2015, the other SRT Chargers were loosely competitive with the top sedans from Europe, but with the Hellcat debut, Dodge officially offered the best-performance four-door car in the world. Also, like the Challenger, the Hellcat Charger featured a heavily appointed cockpit with plush leather seats and an award-winning infotainment system.
Chevrolet and Ford still haven’t offered a sedan that comes close to competing with the Hellcat Charger. More importantly, thanks to continued improvements over the years, the high performance Dodge sedan has maintained its lead over the pricier European four-door movers.
2018 Challenger SRT Demon
In 2017, Dodge spent the better part of three months teasing the 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon and on the night before the New York International Auto Show that year, the brand introduced the Demon at a private event in New York City. The Demon was the quickest and the most powerful American production car to date and it is still the most powerful American production car while also being the quickest stock road car in the world.
The Challenger Demon came from the factory with 808 horsepower and 717 lb-ft of torque, but with the race gas PCM that came in the included Demon crate, power levels climbed to 840 horsepower and 770 lb-ft of torque on 100-octane fuel. Those numbers are still unrivaled by American production road cars and only a few cars sold in the world offer more power. Also, with the ability to cover the quarter mile in just 9.65 seconds, the Demon was and still is the quickest production road car in the world. The Demon was also the first American road car that could lift the front wheels off of the ground, thanks in part to the factory-mounted drag radial tires and the uniquely tuned suspension setup.
The Demon was only offered for 2018 and only 3,300 units were sold to the public, but there is still no car sold by any automaker in the world that offers the power and performance of this limited edition Mopar muscle car.
Really, the world may not ever see another car like the Demon, so in addition to being one of the most significant Dodge muscle cars, this is also one of the most significant performance cars in the history of the global automotive industry.
‘Mopar Legends: 10 Most Significant Modern Dodge Muscle Cars’ continued…
