Challenger Becomes Supreme Overlord at 2019 Auto Roundup in Texas
Challenger autocrosses, accelerates, and brakes its way to victory at Texas Auto Writers’ Association event and takes home the top prize.
Every year, automotive journalists from all over the country meet in Texas for the Texas Auto Writers Association‘s Auto Roundup. I’ve been lucky enough to be one of them for the past five years. Over the course of two days, my fellow writers and I drive dozens of cars on a private track and public roads to determine the winners of a variety of categories. Those can range from Compact Car to Minivan to Performance Coupe. The best vehicles take home the titles of CUV of Texas, Family Car of Texas, and Performance Car of Texas. The biggest trophy of the event goes to the manufacturer who makes what TAWA’s members deem the Car of Texas.
It hasn’t always been that way. TAWA has only been around since the 1980s. Peter Hubbard knows that well. He started TAWA and served as its first president. In the mid-1980s, he was writing about and reviewing cars for the Houston Post newspaper. As he attended more and more new vehicle media launch events, he began to notice that he was the only Texas writer at them.
At the opening dinner for this year’s Auto Roundup in Denton, Texas, Hubbard said, “I realized … that Texas is a big place and there’s other major cities around here. There’s probably got to be some other people that write … something about cars.” He checked with a Ford PR representative to see which other Texans were in his line of work and got a list of contacts. “We needed an official organization to try to recruit … and open the door for … other writers to be involved in this fabulous industry.” Hubbard and his fellow journalists created just that in 1989: the Texas Auto Writers Association.
Tim Spell was the fifth person to head TAWA. During his tenure, TAWA held one of its signature events, the Texas Truck Rodeo, for the first time. Since 1993, TAWA has been testing pickups on- and off-road to find out which one should be crowned the Truck of Texas. According to Spell, it held its first Auto Roundup in 2003..
Since I’ve started going to the Auto Roundup, the venues have changed almost as much as the cars. The first two years I was a member of TAWA, the event took place at the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth. We ran a Charger Hellcat, Viper, Nissan GT-R, and other performance cars on the infield road course, which offers four configurations that range in length from half a mile to 2.3 miles. After that, the Auto Roundup moved to the Circuit of the Americas near Austin.
TAWA divided the 3.4-mile F1 track into several test sections, which included a slalom course, 0-60 mph run, and chicane, where my colleagues and I could evaluate cars such as the Lexus LC 500h and Mercedes-AMG GT S. Last year, the Auto Roundup was relocated to Eagles Canyon Raceway in Decatur. TAWA set up a shortened version of the 2.6-mile course in the same way it arranged the track at COTA. Once the tires cooled and the smoke cleared, it became clear that the Lexus LC 500 was the 2018 Car of Texas.
The staff at Eagles Canyon Raceway is in the process of upgrading the track so TAWA had to find a different venue for this year’s Auto Roundup. They decided to base it at the host hotel. We would start and end our public road drives in the hotel’s parking lot. The first day of the event we were also able to put the performance vehicles through more rigorous autocross, acceleration, and braking tests in the parking lot of the nearby CH Collins stadium.
Automakers such as Mercedes-AMG, Volvo, and Lexus brought down 29 vehicles and entered them into 11 categories. FCA showed up with at least one car, van, or SUV from almost every one of its brands. With the exception of the hybrid and gas Chrysler Pacificas, FCA’s entries were all heavy-hitting performance models. There’s no one particular way to win the title of Car of Texas, but it was clear which approach FCA was going to use: outright horsepower.
Alfa arrived with its turned-up-to-undici Giulia ($79,995 as equipped) and Stelvio Quadrifoglio ($84,390) siblings, both of which generate 505 horsepower. Maserati turned heads with its 454-horsepower GranTurismo Convertible Sport ($167,530). Dodge entered its 485-horsepower Challenger R/T Scat Pack Widebody ($51,116) and 797-horsepower Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye ($88,900) in the Performance Coupe segment, where they would face off against the Maserati droptop, Lexus RC 350 F Sport ($56,790), and Mazda MX-5 Miata RF ($35,905).
As an automotive enthusiast, there was no way I could lose in that category. Each vehicle was enjoyable in its own way. The Maserati had beautiful flowing lines and provided unrestricted aural access to the naturally aspirated V8’s soul-pleasing exhaust note. The eye-scorching RC blended reasonable, everyday power with an attractive, driver-friendly interior. Even though the Miata is far from the fastest car on the market, few others have its blend of good looks, open-air fun, and satisfying driving dynamics.
The Dodge Challenger is a completely different kind of machine. It’s lovably old school. No turbos. No displacement reduction. No all-wheel drive to put the power down. Just huge V8s that rotate the rear wheels. Dodge does offer the Challenger with forced induction, but it’s there to boost power. Any fuel economy advantages are purely coincidental.
As the automotive industry has moved further and further toward electric and autonomous cars, Dodge has kept its foot down in the other direction. There was a time when the 707-horsepower Challenger Hellcat was the pinnacle of muscle car excess. The Demon that followed a few years later was even more potent and Dodge applied many of its performance technologies to the newest most powerful muscle car on the market: the 797-horsepower Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye.
Is the idea of a street car with nearly 800 horsepower ridiculous? Absolutely. Does anyone need a Redeye? No. But it still serves an important purpose. The automotive market would be boring if it were only filled with practical cars that everyone needed. You don’t have to buy the Redeye. But if you want to, it’s good to know that you can. Dodge makes that possible.
Members of the local Sports Car Club of America chapter designed two different autocross courses for the Auto Roundup. The first one featured a series of sharp left turns that led to a long slalom. That was connected to a long straightaway that ended only a few feet from the entrance to the second course. That started with a loose slalom. The path eventually hooked left and set me and my colleagues up for a series of gentle turns that ended in a long straight. Taking that around the outside of the parking lot and to the long road parallel to both of the autocross courses got me to the start of the acceleration course. We could go flat out for a few hundred feet, but once we entered a certain set of cones, we had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting the curb at the end.
I was fortunate to have racer and driving coach Bryan Whitehead ride shotgun next to me in the Redeye. Last year, his immediate, expert instruction helped me get almost every bit of performance out of the Stelvio Quadrifoglio at Eagles Canyon Raceway. He was just as helpful at this year’s Auto Roundup. He didn’t miss a beat. As each cone flew past the Redeye’s nose he told me what to do to get to the end of the course faster: “Brake, brake, brake. Get on the gas. More. More. Brake. Turn in. Go go go.” Whitehead’s coaching made me a better driver and the Redeye seem lighter than it was. I could feel how much grip its meaty tires had, but it was nice to know one stiff jab of the throttle could break the back end loose.
Losing traction is a possibility you just come to associate with powerful rear-wheel-drive cars. You know that they can get tail happy in the rain or around curves. The Redeye was special. The acceleration section of the course was straight, warm, and dry, but I felt the Redeye’s rear tires trying to bust loose two or three times at WOT. It was one of the craziest things I’ve ever experienced in a car.
Even the Redeye’s brakes were on another level. The second I passed the first cones of the braking zone, I put my foot down hard on the left pedal. Or so I thought. Whitehead knew the Redeye had more stopping power in it. He urged me to brake even harder…then harder than that. I had no idea a brake pedal could go that far down. I was convinced that pushing it that much in any other car would’ve snapped it off. The Redeye just kept slowing down. When it came to a rest, it felt as if my organs had shifted forward in my body. It was worth the discomfort. The Redye was an absolute savage, even when it was trying to be nice. It takes a lot to make a car that’s (almost) as exciting when it’s slowing as it is when it’s accelerating. Clearly, Dodge had that and put it into the Redeye.
I must not have been the only one who came away impressed by it. It took the top spot in the Performance Coupe category. The Challenger R/T Scat Pack Widebody came in second. The Challenger as a whole won Dodge the trophy for Performance Car of Texas, then topped that by being named the 2019 Car of Texas.
Photos for DodgeForum by Derek Shiekhi
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