Cars.com Runs 11-Second 1/4-Mile In Dodge Charger Hellcat


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There’s famous story about Ronnie Sox being called in by Chrysler to get the famous ’69 1/2 440 6-BBL Road Runner to run a sub-13-second quarter-mile pass. After a day’s worth of testing before a bunch of “suits,” Sox was told to “make it happen” and took that as a green light to do whatever was necessary. A decade later, Sox admitted that coaxing the Road Runner to a 12.98-second pass required rowing through the gears without the use of the clutch.

Apparently, getting the new 2015 Dodge Charger Hellcat to an 11-flat-second pass requires far less (damaging) methods. With its 707-supercharged-ponies erupting from a blown 6.2-liter V8, Cars.com discovered that the Charger required no less than 13 quarter-mile passes of tweaking variables like tire pressures and the HUD’s various electronic aids to manage a 11.03 second pass at 126.61 mph, which even bests their previous 11.41-second pass in a Challenger Hellcat last year.

2015-Dodge-Charger-Hellcat-Drag-Race

Riding on the optional Pirelli P Zero tires, Cars.com believed they might have made a run below 11 seconds, but got the wheels to spin. Using the factory-recommended pressures, the Charger Hellcat still performed flawlessly with an 11.27-second time recorded. Of course, dropping the pressures down to 25 psi proved the best trick for the fastest passes. As Cars.com reported:

“Getting the Charger Hellcat out of the hole was best accomplished by leaving the line as smoothly as possible from idle by gently squeezing the pedal before rolling into wide-open throttle at roughly the 60-foot mark on the drag strip; a drag strip’s timing system measure distance in intervals of 60 feet, 330 feet, an eighth-mile, 1,000 feet and a quarter-mile. Lower 60-foot times are a good indication of how well the car is leaving the starting line. The 1.77 seconds of the 11.03 run was bested by a 1.72-second 60-foot later in the day, but that run was botched when the tires let loose on the 2nd-gear shift, ending what could have been a glorious 10-second pass.”

Again, this is an 11.03-second sedan that you can buy straight off the showroom floor for $63,290. Frankly, if you’ve got more than that into your current project (unless it’s a OE restoration of a rare Mopar) and can’t outrun these times, it’s time to pack it in and go shopping for a new Hellcat.

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Kevin Shaw

Editor-in-Chief – kevin.shaw@shawgroupmedia.com Kevin Shaw is a decade-long powersports and automotive journalist whose love for things that go too fast has led him to launching Mopar Connection Magazine. Almost always found with stained hands and dirt under his fingernails, Kevin has an eye for the technical while keeping a eye out for beautiful photography and a great story. He's also the co-author of "The Chrysler B-Body Restoration Guide."

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