Want to Live a Happier Life? Buy a Hellcat
There are normal cars, there are sports cars, and then there’s the Dodge SRT Hellcat, whether it’s the grocery-hauling Charger, or the epitome of the muscle car—the Challenger, you truly can’t go wrong with either one.
Never ending smiles, villain-style laughter, wide eyes, and the squirming and screaming (of happiness or fear) of your passengers, will indeed make you one of the happiest people alive. If you don’t think so, ask your rich and badass neighbor to let you hit the start-button of his bad boy. The violent sound wave explosion of the tail pipes, combined with the slight but authoritative “torque-flex” that shakes the car, will make you a believer in no-time.
I recently spent some time daily-driving a Hellcat Challenger, and such experience will forever stay with me. I’ve driven most of the Ferrari line up, a few Lamborghinis, and even plebeian Porsches, but the Hellcat is on a league of its own. In fact, if you think the Hellcat is nothing but a clumsy and overweight American muscle car (I hear that a lot), you should drive one, and then jump off a cliff as an apology.
A massive and aesthetically beautiful 6.2 liter supercharged V8 Hemi motor lays low in the engine bay, and although it’s not as artistic as a hand-signed Mercedes AMG engine, it sure is more powerful than anything from Affalterbach. Power goes to the rear wheels only, as it should, and perhaps the most beautiful thing about the Hellcat is—its drivability. It’s smooth, relatively quiet, and shall I dare call it—refined?
See, it’s not easy to tame a 707 horsepower beast, even when you tap the “slower” mode which grants you only 500 horsepower, it’s fast and violent, but it’s manageable, and it highlights the world-class level of engineering that FCA put into it. Its TorqueFlite 8 speed automatic transmission is one of the smoothest and best responding gearboxes I’ve ever worked with, and should take most of the credit for making the Hellcat an easy-to-operate super car.
All in all, respect the Hellcat, because even with its many high-tech nannies, it could potentially send you to hell in a heart beat.
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