Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat (2015): the world’s fastest saloon

By Tim Pollard

First Official Pictures

14 August 2014 17:10

Following hot on the heels of the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat comes the four-door version - the new Charger SRT Hellcat, unveiled this week and due to be built from early 2015.

The company claims it’s the ‘quickest, fastest and most powerful sedan in the world,’ and a quick look at the specs suggests they’ve created a super-saloon to shame the fastest four-doors from Europe.

The new four-door Hellcat packs a 707bhp punch and is capable of a standing quarter mile in just 11.0sec. And - get this - it’ll top 200mph!

This is the world’s only four-door muscle car, says parent company Chrysler. It’s powered by the familiar 6.2-litre Hemi V8, supercharged to match those 707 ponies with 650lb ft of torque.

It’s frankly mind-boggling that this saloon can top 200mph - and it’ll charge past 100mph in less than 13 seconds.

Dodge has had to make some pretty sturdy revisions to keep the Hellcat stuck to the road and stop it bursting into flames. Hence the air vents in the bonnet, a new heavy-duty eight-speed automatic capable of swapping cogs in 160ms and uprated Brembo brakes to wipe off all that speed.

The 20in Pirelli P Zero tyres must be pretty special to be rated at 204mph, too. The V8’s crankshaft is forged-steel with specially hardened bearing surfaces, says Dodge: it claims they can withstand firing pressures of 110 bar - the equivalent of five Mondeos standing on each piston - every two revolutions. All the better for withstanding those crazy power and torque outputs.

You get two keys on the Charger SRT - a red and a black one, the scarlet key unlocking the full 707 horsepower. It’s akin to the maximum-attack Bugatti Veyron key or a BMW M5’s high-power button.

Drivers can tweak the responses of the adaptive dampers, gearchange violence, throttle and even the seven reconfigurable dials in the TFT digital instrument pack, depending on their mood.

‘For the last eight years, a large part of the Dodge Charger’s successful formula has been its many personalities,’ said Tim Kuniskis, president and CEO of Dodge and SRT Brands.

‘It’s a muscle car, a performance sedan, a family capable sedan; its success is that it can be any or all of those things, depending on how the customer chooses to equip their car. And now, with a NHRA-certified quarter mile time of 11.0 seconds and a 204 mph top speed, the new 2015 Dodge Charger Hellcat redefines itself again, as the quickest, fastest, most powerful sedan in the world!’

By Tim Pollard