Hellcat Challenger Widebody Rockets Around Charlotte Roval: Track Time Tuesday

Quickest muscle car of 2019 is a beast on a road course, as displayed by this gorgeous Indigo Blue Challenger in North Carolina.

This week’s Track Time Tuesday video comes to us from the ckeys06 YouTube channel and it features the 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Widebody owned and driven by Craig Keys. Keys is an active sportsman road racer and has been for a few years, since getting into the world of road racing with his previous Challenger Scat Pack.

Once he cut his teeth with that 485-horsepower Mopar machine, he upgraded to a supercharged Hellcat Widebody, combining his experience with 707 horsepower to showcase what the brawny street brawler can do on a curvy course. With the help of an on-board camera system and a pretty detailed telemetry system, we get to ride along as Keys tears around the “Roval” of Charlotte Motor Speedway, creating a symphony for the eyes and the ears.

The Machine

Keys’s track chariot is a 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Widebody with the 8-speed automatic transmission and, of course, the 707-horsepower supercharged Hemi. To improve the handling capabilities of this already-grippy Mopar machine, he has added Petty’s Garage subframe connectors, Petty’s Garage 4-point rear strut tower brace, Mopar stage 1 springs, Spohn rear end links, Spohn rear lower control arms, a Speedlogix four-point front strut tower brace and a Per4Mance Development DIRS differential brace. The only power-adding modification is the carbon fiber cold air intake from Legmaker, which also allows the blown Hemi to roar a little louder as it powers around the track.

Other than that, the key feature of this Hellcat Challenger is the driver, as Keys has now spent significant amounts of time on eight different tracks and layouts, with those tracks being displayed in red under the hood of his deep blue Dodge. While the Hellcat Widebody is a far-more-capable car on a road course than most people would expect, having an experienced, skilled driver makes a tremendous difference.

In the video above, we get to watch at Keys and his supercharged Challenger rip around a NASCAR road course.

Rocking the Roval

If you aren’t familiar with the terminology, the Charlotte Motor Speedway “Roval” is a road course-oval hybrid that plays home to races for NASCAR and many other professional racing associations. Keys and his Challenger are working out on a similar configuration to the NASCAR map shown below, except turns 15 through 17 are omitted for this sportsman track time.

Thanks to the on-board camera and integrated telemetry system, we can monitor the gravitation forces, the vehicle speed, the gear selected, the lap time, a small track map, the engine RPM and even a gauge that shows the horsepower output. Also, in addition to watching Keys’ hands and listening to how he works through the gears, we can see when he is applying throttle and when he is hitting the brakes. This should be particularly interesting to someone who doesn’t have road racing experience, as the points at which you brake and turn-in are critical with a vehicle of this size and weight.

The sheer size and mass of this car both play a role in the uneducated criticism of the Hellcat Challenger’s ability to navigate a curvy course, but as Keys shows us in the video above, this Mopar muscle car gets around a NASCAR road course in impressive fashion.

Crank up your speakers and enjoy.

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Patrick Rall

"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.

"Being based on Detroit," says Rall, "I never miss the North American International Auto Show, the Woodward Dream Cruise and Roadkill Nights, along with spending plenty of time raising hell on Detroit's Woodward Avenue with the best muscle car crowd in the world.

Rall can be contacted at QuickMirada@Yahoo.com

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