Mopar Madness: Dodge Trio Flexes 2,000 HP in Epic Race to Vegas
Challenger Redeye, Hellcat Charger and Dodge Durango SRT duke it out on a long drive to SEMA.
The crew from the Donut Media YouTube channel were given three high performance Dodge products to drive from their headquarters in Southern California to the 2018 SEMA Show in Las Vegas. Their fleet of go-fast Mopar machines included a Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye Widebody, a Charger SRT Hellcat and a Durango SRT. The Redeye has 797 horsepower, the Charger has 707 horsepower and the Durango has 475 horsepower, so all together, these cars pack 1,979 horsepower.
When you have that much power, it is safe to round it up to 2,000 for the sake of a jazzier video title, but in the end, the race across the dry lake bed with these monstrous Dodge products is as interesting as you would expect.
Hitting the Road
The video begins with the crew leaving SoCal with a fleet of vehicles that included the Redeye Challenger, the Durango SRT, the Hellcat Charger and a handful of support vans that all appear to be Dodge Grand Caravans. James Pumphery drives the Durango, Nolan Sykes drives the Challenger and Bart Bidlingmeyer is in the Charger as they all slowly make their way out of town, getting lost and split up several times.
During the chaos of escaping L.A., Bart spent some time doing burnouts in the Dodge Charger and later on, Nolan does some monster burnouts in the 797-horsepower Challenger. There are also some higher-speed sprints out on the open road and plenty of engine revving as the team heads to their first stop.
Rather than staying at a hotel, the crew decides that they will camp out in the wilderness in rented tents, but Pumphery makes the most of his Durango, sleeping in the rear seating area while watching a movie on the entertainment system.
In the morning, they all set out to look for a dry lake bed where they can race these Dodge performance vehicles and on the way, Pumphery gets a little emotional, reminding us how important it is to get out do and fun things with your friends. In this case, he is going to drag race 2,000 horsepower of Dodge muscle on a dry lake bed. We know that because they spell it out across the screen a dozen times during the lead-up to the main event.
Frankly, if you aren’t into Youtube antics, you can just skip ahead to the 16:30 mark to see the actual race.
The Battle
Once the crew arrives at the dry lake bed somewhere between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, they assess the “track” conditions, taking note of the loose dirt where they are parked. Fortunately, they are told that the area where they will be racing is packed down harder, likely making traction more reasonable.
As they prepare for the race, Sykes explains that he has been drag racing since he was 10 years old, so he has far more experience and expects to win. Bidlingmeyer simply states that he would like to win and in the all-wheel-drive Durango, Pumphery is all-but-guaranteeing a win.
When the race begins, the three vehicles are actually pretty tight, but it doesn’t take long for the all-wheel-drive, 475-horsepower Dodge SUV to begin pulling ahead. On the big end, the Charger is closing, but the Durango takes the win with the sedan second and the Redeye third.
In the replay, we can see that the Durango can run pretty much wide open from the start, allowing Pumphery to build a huge lead so even when the supercharged cars were able to get traction, they were too far behind to challenge for the win.
Crank up your speakers and enjoy.
Join the Dodge Forums now!
