How much?….707hp?!?
I remember when the Challenger Hellcat was first announced back in 2015, it marked the beginning of Dodge’s horsepower success. It gave the automotive world new excitement, the fastest production vehicle available. 707hp was unheard of from a mass production manufacturer. Its almost like horsepower is growing on trees or something, we’ve got the Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 760hp, the Chevy Camaro ZL1 at 650 hp. Now in 2020, cars with over 600hp seems normal. Since Dodge seemed to start this trend, I’ve always looked at them year after year to see what they will do to get their fans excited again.
This time, they’ve taken an interesting approach. Dodge introduced the Challenger SRT Super Stock, Charger Hellcat Redeye and the most surprising of the three, the Durango Hellcat.
Im sure you’ve already checked out the specs for each of the new releases and saw all the crazy horsepower numbers so I won’t bore you with that here. What I really want to talk about is Dodge’s approach and if its beneficial to them and the car culture.
The Dilemma
Ever since 2015, Dodge has wowed us with throwing a bunch of horsepower at a mass produced vehicles, gave it a cool name with a reasonable price and put it on the showroom floor for us to purchase. How long is this “ put a bunch of horsepower in all of our cars” thing going to last? At this point, its not really a surprise when vehicles are announced with high horsepower. I still think the introduction of these three products are very cool but, it just seems like an endless cycle. I actually think that its making the uniqueness and rarity of having a high horsepower car very normal and less interesting.
Its just not that special anymore to have such a fast car, especially when you can just go buy one whenever you want. As car enthusiasts, its fun to buy a vehicle from a manufacturer and make it as fast as you can, whats the point of doing all that now? Is it still fun to put your all into you build and go out to the track and race knowing that someone who bought their car yesterday will most likely beat you? Not to mention, they haven’t put in any of the blood sweat and tears you put into your car. To top it all of, you probably spent more money making your car as fast as a hellcat with all of the trial, error and broken parts. Dodge is making it very easy to go fast, and im not sure if that’s a good thing for the spirit of speed.
The Solution?
Maybe Dodge should take a new route in the future. They have an amazing fan base, I think the return of the SRT4 being the ultimate handling machine from Dodge with reasonable power would be the start of a new era for them. Its time for a new challenge, they have built their reputation back, improved their quality with recent J.D. Power awards; now lets see if they can be more than just a straight line horsepower factory.
So, is this concept from Dodge conducive to the car community and culture? If they continue doing this with all of their products, will they continue to be successful? Or have they reached their peak?
Let us know what you think in the comments below!
In the mean time, checkout this video from DPCcars for the Charger Hellcat Redeye.
Thanks for reading!!
Marcus Cowan