Watch as Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat owner David Abel shows how the modern Mopar muscle thrives on the drag strip.
The Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat is the quickest and most powerful factory-built American muscle car, and while the brawny Mopar machine was designed and engineered to be a great street car, the Hellcat Challenger is one of the greatest drag strip cars of the modern era. In stock form with drag radial tires, the Hellcat Challenger will run high 10s in good air, which is a feat which few factory-spec production cars can do, but sometimes high 10s isn’t good enough.
One owner who wasn’t happy “only” running high 10s is David Abel, who turned to the folks at BadBoyz Motorsports to beef up his Hellcat Challenger.
The mod list of Abel’s Hellcat Challenger is fairly short, including only an 10% overdrive crank pulley/damper (which adds a little boost), a Legmaker cold air intake, a catch can, a 180-degree thermostat, a 93-octane engine tune, a heavier duty driveshaft and a set of sticky drag radial tires. The result of those simple engine modifications is 599 rear wheel horsepower, which we get to see in action on a dyno just before the 2-minute mark of the video, but the star of this video is all of the racing action.
During the course of the 8-minute video, Abel’s Redline Red Hellcat Challenger flexes its muscles over and over again, running in the mid 10s and beating all sorts of purpose built drag racing vehicles along with a couple races against other Hellcat cars.
From beginning to end, this video is chock full of Hellcat racing action, including some slow motion clips of the 4,500lb car ripping away from the starting line – with the appropriate soundtrack provided by White Zombie and, of course, the lovely roar of the supercharged 6.L Hellcat Hemi.
"Before I was old enough to walk, my dad was taking me to various types of racing events, from local drag racing to the Daytona 500," says Patrick Rall, a lifetime automotive expert, diehard Dodge fan, and respected auto journalist for over 10 years. "He owned a repair shop and had a variety of performance cars when I was young, but by the time I was 16, he was ready to build me my first drag car – a 1983 Dodge Mirada that ran low 12s. I spent 10 years traveling around the country, racing with my dad by my side. While we live in different areas of the country, my dad still drag races at 80 years old in the car that he built when I was 16 while I race other vehicles, including my 2017 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and my 1972 Dodge Demon 340.
"Although I went to college for accounting, my time in my dad’s shop growing up allowed me the knowledge to spend time working as a mechanic before getting my accounting degree, at which point I worked in the office of a dealership group. While I was working in the accounting world, I continued racing and taking pictures of cars at the track. Over time, I began showing off those pictures online and that led to my writing.
"Ten years ago, I left the accounting world to become a full-time automotive writer and I am living proof that if you love what you do, you will never “work” a day in your life," adds Rall, who has clocked in time as an auto mechanic, longtime drag racer and now automotive journalist who contributes to nearly a dozen popular auto websites dedicated to fellow enthusiasts.
"I love covering the automotive industry and everything involved with the job. I was fortunate to turn my love of the automotive world into a hobby that led to an exciting career, with my past of working as a mechanic and as an accountant in the automotive world provides me with a unique perspective of the industry.
"My experience drag racing for more than 20 years coupled with a newfound interest in road racing over the past decade allows me to push performance cars to their limit, while my role as a horse stable manager gives me vast experience towing and hauling with all of the newest trucks on the market today.
