Yahoo Autos 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Widebody at Lightning Lap 2018
Lap Time: 2:59.8
Class: LL3 | Base Price: $77,080 | As-Tested Price: $77,870
Power and Weight: 707 hp • 4503 lb • 6.4 lb/hp
Tires: Pirelli P Zero PZ4, 305/35ZR-20 (107Y)
The Charger Hellcat we brought to Lightning Lap in 2016 was seriously undertired. Nevertheless, that 4564-pound 707-hp sedan stomped, spun, and slid its way around VIR’s Grand Course in a respectable 3:03.5. This year, we came with a Challenger SRT Hellcat Widebody and higher expectations. Its fender flares add 2.6 inches to the car’s width and accommodate an additional 30 millimeters of Pirelli P Zero at each corner.
It mattered little. The Hellcat’s foundational kill-all-tires attitude is still highly effective against a 305-section-width Pirelli. If frying rubber at every corner exit is your thing, this coupe will gladly indulge your sideways desires. We took a more measured approach (photo to the right notwithstanding), attempting to eke out every last tenth from this not terribly precise machine.
Hitting 0.97 g in Horse Shoe versus the Charger’s 0.89, the Challenger shaved 1.1 seconds from its big brother’s sector-one time. That pattern continued throughout the lap, adding up to a 3.7-second gap that put the Widebody on the quicker side of the three-minute milestone.
Even this smaller Hellcat is big and weighty-just 61 pounds lighter than that 2016 Charger-and it moves with consequence. You feel that in all its responses. But there’s no denying the joy when, after a seeming eternity, you finally get to straighten the steering wheel, flatten the accelerator, and let the big dog eat. It ate up 148.8 mph on the front straight. And that’s really what it came here to do, wider tires or not.
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