Hellcat Teaches Mustang GT a Painful Lesson in Traction
Hellcat initially loses to the built Coyote, but the Mopar’s ability to get massive power to the ground is a huge advantage.
Dodge has been winning the horsepower game for a long time. Even the new Ford Mustang Shelby GT500, with its 760 horsepower, falls short of the Dodge Challenger (and now Charger) SRT Hellcat Redeye by 37 ponies. A recent drag race video, posted to the Can I be Frank YouTube channel, shows how that experience building high-horsepower cars can be a big advantage for SRT Hellcat owners, even when going up against heavily-modified machines.
In the video, a camera person in a separate car follows a heavily modified Ford Mustang as it goes head to head with a modified Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat. The Ford is said to be running its stock motor that has been modded up to 1,000 horsepower, while the Dodge’s power has been bumped from 707 to around 800. The results here aren’t really surprising. The Mustang wins. But how the races play out is where things really get interesting.
Two Races, Similar Outcomes
In the first race, the Mustang leaves a broad pair of black tire marks for what seems like the entire time it’s moving. Even with big tires, the Ford seems to be too powerful for its own good. The car is not balanced, and though it wins, there wasn’t as much daylight between the two cars as the Ford’s driver probably hoped.
The story is the same in the second race, but this time, the Mustang driver appears to pull back as he starts losing the rear end. That split second hesitation was enough for the Challenger to get its footing and keep pace. Despite its power and weight disadvantage, the Hellcat is far more capable of managing its massive power output, which keeps it on the road and traveling in one direction.
More Power Off the Line with the Hellcat
It just goes to show you how far the Challenger’s factory construction goes toward helping it get power to the ground. Tuning a car from 707 horsepower to just over 800 horsepower is a far less dramatic leap than the mods done to the Mustang that more than double its factory power output. In both races, the Mustang struggled to get any of its claimed 1,000 horsepower to the ground, leaving the Hellcat enough of a window to just keep up.
Of course, we have no real indication of each car’s power numbers and we don’t know what’s going on under the surface. It’s entirely possible that the Mustang needs new tires or is suffering from some sort of driver error, but it’s still fair to say that the Challenger is able to keep its rubber on the road more efficiently.
Take a look at the footage below: