DodgeForum Drives the 2015 Charger SRT Hellcat: The World’s Fastest Sedan
I recently was one of the first person in the world to drive the 2015 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat and rather than writing a traditional new car review where I talk about all of the numbers that Mopar lovers already know, I’m going to talk about what it was like for a lifelong Mopar man like myself to attend the media launch of the world’s most powerful 4-door sedan – ever.
I am a professional automotive journalist so I attend a great many new car launches, but shy of the Challenger Hellcat launch, none have had me as excited as the media launch for the 2015 Dodge Charger. Not only would I get to drive the entire Charger lineup on the road and on a road course, I would get to drive the 707hp Charger Hellcat. I flew to Washington DC and did the tourist thing on the first day of the media launch and after dinner and drinks with a bunch of other journalists, I went to bed feeling like a kid on Christmas Eve.
I’m not a morning person and I absolutely hate getting up before 9am for any reason but when I woke up on the day of the Charger Hellcat drive, I had a snap in my step as I was preparing to experience one of the most incredible American production cars of all time. Ive driven the new Viper and Ive driven the Hellcat Challenger, but while those cars are both incredible, the Charger Hellcat is the fastest and most powerful sedan ever built by any full line automaker in the world – and it was a Dodge.
Our day began in an airplane hangar at DC’s Reagan Airport, where I arrived to one of the most awe inspiring sights Ive in my days of a writer. There were some 25-30 2015 Dodge Chargers lined up in rows and at the front of the room we one of each of the new trimlines, including the “base mode” Charger SXT, the Charger R/T, the Charger Scat Pack, the Charger SRT 392, the Charger Pursuit and – of course – the Charger SRT Hellcat.
As one of the first people to show up in the morning, I was quick to get my car assignment for the day and much to my delight, the key fob was red. I would be driving the 707hp Hellcat Charger from DC through Virginia and onto Summit Point Raceway in West Virginia. After listening to the presentation where the PR people tell us a bunch of stuff that I already knew, it was time to drive. While the old guys in the group hit the head as to carefully plan out their day or urination, I headed straight for my chariot for the day – a silver Hellcat Charger with black wheels and a black leather interior.
I get in, adjust the seat and steering wheel as quickly as I could and reached for the starting button. Realizing that no one else had started a car yet and I was in an airplane hangar with a Hellcat Charger, I knew how great it would be to hear this beast roar indoors. As the 707hp Hemi came to life, I was right. Everyone in the hangar turned to see who was already in a Hellcat…and it was me. I gave it a few good, hard revs and I nearly melted from the sheer awesomeness of the screaming Hellcat engine through the unique exhaust system. Other drivers began starting their car and the others with Hellcat returned the revs, but none of that mattered to me. It was time to drive the Hellcat.
I put the car in gear and headed towards the narrow hallway that lead from the hangar to the road around Reagan Airport, revving the Hellcat Hemi over and over as photographers and videographers alike were quick to capture the start of the first Hellcat Charger media drive. I was car #1 to hit the road so by my math, I was the first person outside of the Chrysler Group to drive the world’s fastest sedan on public roads.
That’s right – a “forum guy” was the first person to drive the Hellcat Charger on the open road and that forum was not surprisingly DodgeForum.com.
I managed to control myself as I drove the Hellcat Charger through the tight roads around the airport, but as soon as I got away from airport traffic – it was time to let this beast run free. A stop light was all that separated me and my 707hp steed from blasting out onto the open road and when that light turned green – blast I did. Not surpassingly, hammering the throttle put so much torque to the wheels so quickly that the car barely moved forward due to the fact that they were spinning and smoking. However, with a little lift to the throttle, the back tires settled down and I blasted down the road, reaching (and obliterating) the speed limit in the blink of an eye.
The first portion of my drive was on the highway leading past the DC airport and the cloverleaf on ramp allowed me a chance to push the Hellcat Charger hard to see how well it could handle a curve. Surprisingly, even with the suspension set to street mode, the Charger handled the tightening turn very well and the biggest issue was that with a little too much throttle input, the back tires would spin and I would go from hammering a turn to drifting an on-ramp. However, I quickly found that while the Hellcat Charger was more than happy to roast the tires, just a touch of careful manipulation of the throttle allows for acceleration like I’ve never experienced in a sedan.
Over the next few hours, I piloted the 2015 Charger SRT Hellcat through traffic, along open highways and curvy back roads – all of which allowed me to occasionally throttle down and make a mockery of the speed limit. It should be noted that unlike many other 700+ horsepower cars, the Hellcat Charger drives like any other large sedan when you aren’t mashing the pedal. The ride is sporty yet smooth (in street mode) and in track mode, the suspension is going to be a little stiff for your grandma, but I would happily drive in track mode all of the time as I loved the combination of ride quality and cornering confidence. This ride quality aspect is important, as this is clearly a car that you could drive every day in traffic and on the highway without any concerns about a lack of comfort. The Hellcat Charger is a 700+ horsepower super sedan that will dominate most sports cars sold in the world on the drag strip, but it is still civilized enough to serve as a daily driver.
A daily driver that will hold 4 adults, run an 11 second flat quarter mile and hit a top speed of 204 miles per hour. Yes, the 2015 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat is every bit as awesome as you can imagine.
After spending a couple hours raising hell on public roads in Washington DC, Virginia and West Virginia, I arrived at Summit Point Raceway in WV. I turned in my “road car” for a wrist band following a track safety talk and I headed out to pit road of the two mile road course. There, I found five SRT Hellcat Chargers in one row and 6 non-Hellcat models including the Charger Pursuit, the Charger R/T and the Charger SRT 392 in the other row.
The beauty of Summit Point is that it has a long front straight that allowed us to run the 2015 Dodge Charger Hellcat (and the other models) wide open for a few seconds – which was enough time to hit 145 miles per hour between turns 10 and 1 as you cross the start/finish line. There were also a few sharp turns following high speed sections that allowed us to test the braking capabilities along with a few longer, sweeping turns through which you could still build some big speed thanks to the super agile suspension setup. Even at 4,500+ pounds, the Hellcat Charger would get down from 140+ to speeds manageable enough to make the first hard turn and through the higher speed turns, there was no real body roll even under hard cornering. Really, the car will send the back end out due to overpowering the wheels before the nose would push out, which really served as a testament to how well tuned the chassis and suspension setup is in the world’s fastest sedan.
The time spent lapping Summit Point in the 2015 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat was amazing, as this big, heavy sedan screams down the straights and handles the turns with an impressive level of ease. Based on this, it is safe to say that this family hauler can get the kids to and from school all week long while serving as a great track car on the weekends – even if your preferred track includes a bunch of tight turns. I could go on and on about how well the Charger Hellcat handled, but I imagine that my videos below make my point better than my words do so scroll down for a couple different angles of me piloting the 707hp Charger around the speed biased race track.
Driving the Hellcat Charger was one of the most enjoyable experiences of my professional life, even among some of the most impressive performance cars sold in the world. Based on my time spent behind the wheel of the 707hp Charger, I can confidently say that the 2015 Charger SRT Hellcat is dollar for dollar the best all-around sport sedan sold in America. It is the most powerful sedan, the fastest sedan and the quickest sedan in the world while still maintaining the ability to do all of the things that you would expect from a big, roomy sedan…and it will do it for right around $64,000. That makes the Hellcat Charger – which is fastest than any other sedan in the world – substantially less expensive than the competition from across the pond.
BMW, Mercedes, Audi and everyone else who builds a sport sedan can eat their hearts out, as the 2015 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat does the sport sedan thing better than anything from Europe and it does so for a fraction of the price.
Anyways, grab a drink, crank up your speakers good and loud and enjoy the videos below showing the Hellcat Charger in action at Summit Point Raceway.
