“When I decided to buy a Challenger Scat Pack, I had two requirements; it needed to be white and have a manual transmission. I ended up having to search for a while to find exactly what I wanted but I did,” shares Jesse Roland from Washington State. Once he got his Challenger, it was only a couple of weeks before he took it to the race track. In bone stock trim with all season radial tires, Jesse managed to run a few mid to low 13 second runs down the quarter mile.

Naturally, like most car enthusiasts would, he wanted to go faster so he started looking for ways to bump up the power in the 6.4L Hemi and make quicker quarter mile passes. He says, “After a couple of months, I found a supercharger that offered to match the manufacturer’s powertrain warranty; as long as I kept the boost under 6 PSI.” For those that don’t know, 6.4L Hemis aren’t massive fans of boost. Anything generally around 6 PSI and under is safe but once you go over that, you really risk breaking something in the engine.

Once he got the supercharger installed, Jesse figured the extra 100 horsepower would keep him happy for a while. He was incorrect. While the extra power was nice, the temptation to run a different pulley setup and double the boost proved to be too much to resist. After a few months, he decided to forget about the warranty and remove the engine to upgrade it to handle the extra boost. He made a call to Dave at Modern Muscle Xtreme (MMX) and ordered forged pistons and rods that would make the 6.4L Hemi handle the extra horsepower he was aiming for. He also upgraded the fuel pump, clutch, and added upgraded axles along with an aluminum driveshaft from the Driveshaft Shop.

Jesse shares, “The car was an absolute blast at this point but the best run I could get out of it was 11.01 in the quarter mile. While it’s not bad at all for a manual transmission car that weighs over 4,600 lbs, it was still not good enough for me for some reason.” In the search for more horsepower, he upgraded to a Whipple supercharger and added a nitrous kit from Nitrous Outlet. Of course, with the added horsepower comes a downside. This is where parts starting breaking.

Over the course of the next year or so, Jesse installed several different camshafts and upgraded the Challenger with just about every supporting modification one could think of, in hopes to stop breaking parts. However, that wasn’t the case. After countless times coming home from the race track and not even being able to make a full run without something breaking, Jesse decided to take a step back and start from square one all over again.

The one big issue with the Challenger was the manual transmission. When he would launch the car on boost with the 2 step, it would break; every time. To avoid that, he had to take off slowly, and once he reached 30 mph or so, he would punch it. This of course meant poor elapsed times. For example, a normal time slip would read 10.3X at 148 mph with a 1.8-1.9 60 foot time. It just wasn’t acceptable. So, the next logical thing to do was to ditch the manual transmission.

Jesse reached out to ATI Transmissions and had a Turbo 400 automatic transmission built that could handle the power being put out, combined with the weight of the car. The Turbo 400 was fitted with an ATI Outlaw Racing torque converter. An ATI “Wicked Quick” Transbrake and an M&M Air shifter were also installed. The Driveshaft Shop came through once again with a custom driveshaft built to fit the new transmission.

While the car was apart, Jesse worked with Modern Muscle Xtreme and had a 411 Stroker built for the car. The engine features a MMX custom camshaft, CNC ported cylinder heads and Stainless Works headers. Up top sits that massive Whipple 2.9L supercharger with an MMX 8 rib belt conversion. Extra power is provided by a Nitrous Outlet kit. Jesse also upgraded the Challenger with a dedicated nitrous fuel cell, a Fore Innovations triple pump fuel system, an ice box and converted it to run on E85 fuel. He also has the previously mentioned 2 step launch control system.

To handle the extra power, the Challenger has an 8.50 second certified roll cage from Fincher Fabrication and a welded reinforced rear differential. It runs on 15” Race Star wheels wrapped in Mickey Thompson tires. He occasionally runs Hoosier’s as well. The brake system has been upgraded to Wilwoods for extra stopping power and a Stroud parachute sits out back. The car is full weight and still has the original interior with no weight reduction done. Jesse tells us that he hasn’t weighed it in a while but the race weight before the new cage, extinguishers, etc., was 4,600 lbs. He imagines that it is at least 100 lbs heavier now.

He shares, “This setup is still brand new and has only been out for testing twice. Needless to say, there are a few bugs to work out and the tuning is still way on the soft side. However, with semi-soft launches and safe tuning, the car ran a 9.41 and traps around 146 mph. As you can see, the trap speed is lower than it used to be but that is because the tune is dialed way back while we iron out the bugs. I fully expect the car to run consistently in the 8 second range once we fix a few things. Unfortunately I broke my good foot just after this new setup was installed so I wasn’t able to get as much testing in as I would have hoped this year. We’ll have to wait until spring to see what it can really do.”

He continues to say, “The car has been through several wrap designs and the wrap work has been done by CW Wraps out of Idaho. The cam idles like a beast but I still drive the car on the street. I have taken it on many trips up and down the West Coast but the only thing that stops me from doing any long distance travel now is the fact that it runs on E85. It still gets about 10 mpg but the only fuel I use is a special blend out of a barrel so I can’t get too far from home. The exhaust gets quiet with the push of a button, so aside from a few minor details, it’s pretty much street legal.”

Jesse also has his own website that features custom Scat Pack logo T-shirts, emblems, stickers and much more! He also has a popular Instagram account that we highly recommend you check out if you dig the car.

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