Epling Garage Challenger Drops the Hellcat Quarter Mile Record to 9.06
Watch a Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat run a pair of record-setting 9.0X quarter mile passes.
While racing at the first stop on the 2017 Modern Street Hemi Shootout schedule, the Epling Garage Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat set a new overall record for the quickest Hellcat car in the world. Coming into the MSHS Rockingham event, the High Horse Performance Challenger better known as the TopCat held the record with a run of 9.15 at 158 miles per hour, but as the first team to run in the 9.0X range – the father and son duo of Leon and Jason Epling have claimed the title of the world’s quickest Hellcat car.
Earlier this month, the Epling Garage Hellcat Challenger set the record as the world’s fastest Hellcat with a manual transmission when Jason drove the car down the quarter mile in just 9.27 seconds, but at Rockingham this past weekend, they destroyed their own manual transmission record and they took the overall Hellcat record as well.
Here is the most incredible part of this record – the engine of the Epling Garage Hellcat Challenger is stock. Nothing inside of the engine has been changed and the only exterior changes are a new upper pulley for more boost, bigger injectors, a Boost-A-Pump and a Q16 race fuel tune from High Horse Performance. Oh, he also has a huge nitrous setup, pipping in an extra 200+ horsepower, but other than the added fuel flow, the added boost and the nitrous – this is the same supercharged Hemi in a stock Hellcat car.
Of course, there are big changes elsewhere. The Epling Garage Challenger has a custom build 6-speed manual racing transmission with a pro stock style clutch, a prototype shifter, a prototype slave cylinder/housing, a Knoxville Driveline 1 piece steel driveshaft, a 9” rear end from the Driveshaft Shop, 35 spline axles from the Driveshaft Shop, smaller brakes (front and rear) to make space for the lightweight Holeshot 15” wheels and 29 inch Hoosier slicks.
That built driveline coupled with the nitrous-fed, supercharged Hemi allows the Epling Challenger to build enough power that when it is expertly driven by Jason Epling, it is the quickest Hellcat car in the world.
When running at the Rockingham MSHS event this past weekend, Jason started off by laying down a 9.08 at 153 and change, making it the quickest Hellcat car in the world, beating the 9.15 record held by the HHP TopCat Challenger. At that point, the Epling Hellcat was the quickest in the world, but later that day, Jason backed up that run with an even quicker pass – running a 9.06 at 154.88 miles per hour. The 9.06 run is available at the top of this piece and you can watch the 9.08 run below.
No Hellcat car has ever been this close to the 8-second range, and the father and son Epling Garage team did it with an engine that is stock from blower body and valve covers to the exhaust manifolds.