Car of the Week: Dodge Charger Hellcat

13/22 mpg 3.4 sec 0-60 707 hp 650 lb/ft at 4800 rpm 6 piston front Brembo's, 4 piston rear.

The Dodge Charger Hellcat came to life in 2015 as gas finally dipped below 3 Dollars a gallon in much of America. With the underpinnings of both the Challenger and Charger dating from early 2000’s Mercedes Benz, what they lack in modernity is made up by their hellish engines.

The Charger is an American SuperSedan with its’ only domestic competition being the Chevy SS, Cadillac CTS-V and tentatively, the Taurus EcoBoost. The Charger dominates in performance and looks however, as the SS is amazingly bland. The SS is a sleeper, without the personal satisfaction of being built not bought. With 0 to 100 acceleration in less than 30 seconds and a top speed of 204 mph, the Charger is really only in league with the V.

Interior wise its’ a smorgasbord of contemporary FCA with an SRT touch. With a base price of $65,945 USD, you’d expect a lot for a family sedan. The front seats are surprisingly supportive and reminds me a bit of my friends Evo X Recaro’s but much more comfortable. On deeper curves extra side bolstering could be used, you slide, but not out of your seat like my Camaro. Car and Driver explains the Touchscreen system in “Tap the SRT button on the dash and the 8.4-inch touch screen becomes the ultimate gaming console. Track, sport, custom, and default modes let you tune engine output, damper effectiveness, the traction helpers, and transmission and shifter activity. In Race Options, you can configure launch control and an upshift light. Valet mode allows you to relinquish the car to a parking attendant without fear of catastrophe. In Performance Pages, you can read instantaneous power, torque, and boost, or conduct a full road test by recording acceleration times, braking distances, and peak g’s in all four directions. There’s even an eco mode complete with a green-leaf graphic.”

While the heat-treated aluminum heads lack true hemispherical combustion chambers, they do have twin spark plugs and large, canted valves. There’s one 2.14-inch intake valve and one 1.65-inch exhaust valve per cylinder, the latter with sodium-filled stems to dispense heat. IHI Turbo America manufactures the Lysholm-type twin-screw supercharger, capable of blowing more than 1000 cubic feet of air per minute. Maximum boost is 11.6 psi, and an electric pump circulates 12 gallons of coolant through the intercoolers and two front-mounted heat exchangers every minute. Half-inch fuel lines slake the Hellcat’s thirst for premium. At peak power, eight injectors shower the intake ports with a pint of gas every seven seconds. Per Car and Driver