SRT Hellcat Unleashes Bedlam of Horsepower at MPG Drive Day 2019
Driving the most powerful car on the scene is always a good feeling, especially when you have 707 Mopar-riddled horses.
Being the king of the street is easy with a Hellcat—Dodge’s flagship production brand comes out of the factory with gobs of horsepower and on-the-fly drive train customization. Which is why the 2019 Charger SRT Hellcat we drove at Motor Press Guild’s Drive Day 2019 caught our eye immediately.
First, a little background about Motor Press Guild (MPG) and Drive Day. Drive Day is one of MPG’s annual events, much like Drop Tops ‘n’ Dirt, and they typically choose Calamigos Ranch in Malibu, California as their chief location. However, Drive Day was renamed to “Drive Day: Miles 4 Miles” this year, as it became a fundraiser for MPG member Miles Branman, who was severely injured by a drunk driver earlier this year while riding his motorcycle.
Branman suffered both physical trauma and brain damage, despite wearing full protective gear, and is still undergoing treatment for his injuries. So all proceeds from ticket sales will go toward his medical bills and lost wages. Donations are being accepted right now at GoFundMe for Miles.
Hello, You Devilish Feline
Back to the event, we see a number of especially exceptional rides—a baby blue DB11 drop top, two NSXs, a gorgeous yellow Integra R, and an AMG GT-C. We knew FCA was going to have a presence, however we never know what any of the manufacturers are actually bringing to the field. So you can imagine our tongues hanging out of our mouths when we saw the gray and black Hellkitty hiding behind the more garish-looking Fiat and Jeep Wrangler as they took off.
This particular Charger Hellcat came equipped with all sorts of goodies. You’ve got Harmon Kardon audio system, blind spot/accident awareness system, red Laguna leather, SRT badging, etc. However, the real treats are underneath all this luxury.
You’ve got MagneRide-like suspension (as well as competition suspension), standard six-piston Brembo brakes, 275/40/20 summer tires, supercharger after-run chiller, anti-spin diff, launch control and a whole lot more.
SRT Button
Since its 2014 launch, Hellcats have had configurable drivetrains via a quick and easy “SRT” button located right on the center stack. Here, you can customize whether you want individual components (transmission, paddle traction, suspension, etc) in either “Sport,” “Street,” or “Track.” You can mix and match settings, or you can simply push preloaded settings. Having this amount of control is part of the what makes the Hellcat not only awesome, but shows the remarkable value the customer gets from the SRT brand in general.
Auto Mode is Great for Daily Driving, but Sport Mode Is Where It’s At
Let’s be honest, you don’t buy a ludicrously-powerful car like an SRT Hellcat and not drive it like a crazy person. It’s for this reason alone that I argue that while auto mode is perfectly balanced for everyday driving, “Sport” mode is so much more fun. In this config, your transmission shifts harder, your tires dead hook in nearly any gear, and body roll is kept to an absolute minimum (yet doesn’t feel distastefully stiff). The blower whine is present, though it’s nowhere near as prominent as the Redeye.
I hooked like a pro powering through a corner in second gear (not even realizing I was in that gear at first). Mind you, a vehicle with 707 crank horsepower and Pirelli PZEROs shouldn’t really be able to do that. At least not reliably anyway. Yet, this 4,500-pound car did it with no fishtailing, no oversteer and no trips to “spin city.” That is truly remarkable.
That being said, I did experience the backend getting away from me a little bit in one random instance. And oddly enough, the car was in 500 HP with traction in sport and transmission in street. Go figure.
Pinpoint Handling, Stopping Power for Days
Being in the Malibu Canyons, there are a lot of brutal twists and sharp turns. It’s for this reason that a car this heavy, theoretically, would simply be a nightmare to drive in these conditions. Yet, this is so far from the truth.
The extreme twists and hairpin turns pose no viable threat to the Hellcat Charger, regardless of what driving mode you’re in. Both the Hellcat Charger and Challenger use a 6.2-liter, supercharged, pushrod V8 with 707 and 717 hp, respectively. Like the Challenger, the Charger is simply a sweetheart to drive, and while it is narrower than its bigger brother, the car still has a massive presence on road. Arguably, visibility is better in the Charger, and lining up the body lines with the road is easier. Apropos, it is easy to carve corners without double-lining, a problem I particularly had with the Hellcat Redeye.
Straight Line Pulls Are Very Brutal
It’s funny—when you get to a certain point in your life where nearly dying (or at least feeling like you are) actually makes you giggle, you know you’re doing it big. Hellcats are for big boys and adrenaline addicts. And when you stomp on that throttle and feel your guts sink into the seat, you either love it or hate it. That’s it. There’s no in-between, and that’s totally ok.
Straight line performance in this car is nothing short of savage, and all of that low-end torque is actually surprising given the rear axle in this sedan is rather tall at 2.62. Nonetheless, 650 lbs.-ft. of torque is going to give you an amazing hole shot, every time. Yet, when it starts making its real power at 4,800 rpm, it’s as if the torque curve never tapers off. This is the way of the demonic cat, full-stop.
Dodge Is on the Verge of Perfection
I’m going to be brutally honest with you. When the Charger nameplate was revived back in 2004, I instantly hated it. At the time, I really could not believe that Dodge would take this iconic, world-beating Mopar of the ’60s and ’70s and turn it into a grocery-getter. However, I started paying more attention to SRT in this same period as well. And with every release of the Charger thereafter, I became more and more intrigued. The fact that it has come this far after nearly 15 years as a sedan says a LOT about Dodge and its vision.
That being said, there’s virtually nothing I can say against the Hellcat Charger (or the Challenger) because honestly, the 2019 model year is really that good. Back in 2015, my first drive with both of these raw power titans left good impressions on me, but they felt sloppy in several areas; namely traction, transmission, and what seemed like non-linear power delivery. Flash forward to 2019 and all of these things just seem perfect to me. Better aero, suspension and active damping makes it a definite winner for me. Dollar for dollar, you get pretty much exactly what you pay for here and you can’t argue against that.
Dodge already rules the streets and the strip with these behemoths, but with a little more tweaking and a little bit of weight loss, I truly believe these Mopars will be the “Kings of All Trades.” Never before have I eagerly wanted to get back into the seat of an SRT before this, and I’m 100 percent confident that the Charger is here to stay for good this time.
Photos & Video: Derin Richardson
Join the Dodge Forums now!
