Dodge Tackles Grueling Pikes Peak with One-off Charger Hellcat Concept
Pikes Peak entry aimed to prove the SRT Hellcat Widebody is a race-ready family sedan, and Randy Pobst is just the driver to make the point.
Hot on the heels of Dodge’s hotly anticipated announcement that it will in fact offer a production version of the Charger Hellcat Widebody in 2020 comes news that it entered a one-of-a-kind Charger Hellcat Widebody concept at the demanding Pikes Peak International Hillclimb in Colorado. The concept joined a fully race-prepped Charger SRT Hellcat Redeye Widebody run by Wesley Motorsports, the second year the team has run a Hellcat up Pikes Peak.
None other than racing legend Randy Pobst was enlisted to pilot the specially modified Charger concept at the world famous hillclimb, which encompassed 156 corners over a 12.4-mile route that puts a priority on handling, braking and brutal acceleration to deliver competitive times. This is Pobst’s fourth run at the event and he will be behind the wheel of a Hellcat that was prepped by the seasoned engineers from SRT Engineering and the Wesley Motorsport Team. While the Hellcat he drove at Pikes Peak is not massively different than a stock version, it has been tweaked in key areas that help it tackle the hillclimb in a suitable sporty manner.
Perhaps most importantly the Hellcat SRT concept’s bodywork is identical to the pumped-up and flared sheetmetal of the production Charger Hellcat Widebody, but it’s in less visible areas that the concept has been upgraded to compete in the Exhibition Class at the hillclimb. For its Pikes Peak effort, Dodge treated the 707-hp, 6.2-liter supercharged Hemi V8 to some mild upgrades including a race-spec exhaust and reprogramed engine electronics, though the always excellent TorqueFlite 8-speed transmission (made by ZF) is left alone.
Dodge was also confident enough to use the production-spec Bilstein shocks and SRT suspension set-up at the world-renowned hillclimb event. They even utilized the Charger SRT Hellcat’s stock 20×11-inch wheels at all four corners, though these are shod with distinctly non-stock Toyo Proxes RR DOT Competition race rubber. On the stopping end of the equation are Pagid RST 1 brake pads. Naturally, there is also a bevy of safety enhancing modifications, including an FIA-spec roll-cage, a race seat for Pobst and a fuel cell in lieu of the stock gas tank.
Perhaps the coolest aspect of Dodge’s Hellcat concept is that any owner who desires can easily make their production 2020 Hellcat Widebody a dead ringer for a Pikes Peak contestant. “When you look at the Charger, you of course think ‘muscle car,’ but maybe not ‘Pikes Peak Contender,” said Kuniskis, who heads up the Passenger Car division for FCA North America. But he also says that most of what they did to the Widebody concept is “available off the showroom floor in the new 2020 Charger SRT Hellcat Widebody.”
Photos: Fiat-Chrysler