Watch a Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat take down a Ferrari 458 in a quarter mile battle.
The Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat is one of the quickest production road cars in the world when it comes to quarter mile runs while also being one of the most capable Mopar muscle cars to date when it comes to a track with turns. The 2012 Ferrari is a quick car in the quarter mile, but like all supercars, it is built to perform best on a track with turns.
However, when a Ferrari 458 and a Hellcat Challenger show up at the drag strip, it doesn’t matter what the engineers had in mind when designing the car – it only matters who gets to the finish line first. In this case, a B5 Blue Hellcat Challenger driven (and owned) by Richard Norris is going head to head with a bright red Ferrari 458 in an epic clash of a muscle car and a supercar – and the muscle car shines at what muscle cars have always done best.
In all fairness, Richard Norris lays down a far better reaction time with his Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and at that point, the race was pretty much over. All the Ferrari driver could do is watch the back end of the Challenger as the Mopar muscle car won by nearly a half second.
In the end, Norris ran an 11.46 at 123.94 miles per hour in the Hellcat Challenger while the Ferrari 458 ran an 11.837 at 118.45 miles per hour. With that difference in ETs, even a great reaction time for the Ferrari wouldn’t have made any difference in the end, but when coupled with the advantage on the line – this supercharged Dodge handed out a whoopin’ to the Italian exotic.
"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.
