2022 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Review _ The V8 remains... for now..

This is the end of an era. Rear wheel drive V8 muscle cars from Dodge with over 700 horsepower. We've seen this for the last eight model years. This is the 2022 Charger Hellcat. There's going to be one more final model year for 2023. And after that, well, Dodge says it's going all electric. So let's see what the last of this breed can do on a colder day with very, very wide tires and over 700 horsepower. Before it's too late, go sell your car with CarGurus. The market's hot. So just type a few details. Get a cash offer from thousands of dealers nationwide. If you like it, they'll pick it up and pay you. The Charger Hellcat is the Mad Hatter of the car world. Looking at it, it's a combination of Miley Cyrus, Dennis Rodman, and a lot of tequila. Now, the Charger was new for 2006. Dodge brought an old name back from the 60s into an entirely new car. But it wasn't until 2015 when they released the Hellcat. But underneath this car, it's actually a 1990s era Mercedes-Benz E-Class. That's the chassis. Because when the Charger first came out, it was a product of Daimler Chrysler. And even though Dodge has made a lot of changes underneath, it's still basically a really old car. Get a good look at this engine because pretty soon you're not going to see something this monstrous. 6.2 liter supercharged V8. 717 horsepower is the new baseline if you get a Hellcat. That's also 650 pound-feet of torque. But this isn't the fastest Hellcat. There's the Redeye, which does 797, and the brand new Jailbreak that does 807. So there's still ways to go in the Hellcat family. Now, this engine, honestly, this is where all the technology really is. There's features like an air chiller that takes coolant from the air conditioning to just cool the supercharger under high load. No other car does that. And that supercharger on this engine is bigger than most economy car engines. The entire engine. That's just the supercharger. It barely fits in this car, which is why there's this giant dome here on the hood. It's loud. It's crazy. And there really is just nothing else like it in the automotive world. That's me struggling to control the car with the traction control fully on. Oh, my God. If you put this thing in the sport or the track mode and try to do that, it's undriveable. I've driven lots of fast cars, but not every fast car is as terrifying as this. It's really because at any given moment, you're on the verge of losing it. Really, the only thing that saves you is how far you're pressing down with your right foot. Dig in a little too deep too early. Problem. But man, is it tempting? Driven with care, it's possible to have a very calm experience in the Charger Hellcat because the gears, I'll put it in auto now. That's the calmest mode. There's even an eco mode. Let's press that. Ah, I'm just gliding along here. Just a little bit of wine. Nice and quiet and calm and comfortable. It's really good. But that's not how you stay for very long because on a nice wide open stretch of road, you just kind of, well, you hear a little bit of sound and then you really go for it. And you try not to endanger anyone's life in the process. Wow. So doing this all the time gets you a car with less range than most electric cars. On a full tank, it's maybe 220 miles. That's because I've been getting around 12 mpg, and that's only because I've been driving on the highway. Before that, I was below 10. Unlike a lot of cars where there's no difference or very minor differences between sport and touring and all the other driving modes, you can clearly tell when the Hellcat is an auto, sport or track. And I can adjust everything from the dampers to how rough the transmission shifts to even how much power the engine is outputting. Now, if you remember, the Charger Hellcat comes with two different keys, not just two of the same ignition key, a black key, which limits it to 500 horsepower or the red key, which is 717. And it just boggles my mind that as fast as you can go with this Hellcat, there's one that has almost 100 horsepower more. So if you really think about what you're driving here, at any given moment, you have between five and seven times as much power as almost any other car on the road. The best part about the Hellcat is that once there is traction, this thing stays glued. And that's where all of that power really gets put to good use. On the top Hellcat model, the speed is 203 miles an hour, zero to 60 in under three and a half seconds. And honestly, you better own your own Texas oil field because after just a few weeks with this car, yeah, you're going to be spending what do they say on the EPA fuel sticker? Your average fuel costs are what? $5,000 more than the average car. I would go higher. Despite how old and remember, this car is super old. It's got the bones of a 1990s era Mercedes E-Class underneath here. And Dodge has changed a lot to this car. Yes, they have. They've strengthened it, stiffened it for modern crash tests. But underneath this is just ancient technology, but it works. Aside from that loud exhaust, this car actually tracks really well. It's pretty civil. It really is that frequency right there in eighth gear. Better to keep it in sixth. It's not a BMW M5 or a Mercedes E63, but it can actually turn. It really can. And the front tires being 12 inches wide. Well, you don't end up having the traction issues that you might think you have. You just got to be very judicious with that gas pedal to not come in too early with it until that wheel is pointed straight, because otherwise you'll be pointed straight into every tree and house around you. It's very, very bad. Steering feel is one of the Hellcats better features. You wouldn't think so, given that this is a Dodge that dates back to the early 2000s. Despite all those improvements on the screen, it doesn't seem like it's going to be a handler. And it's not like it's a super agile car, but it truly does have German bones. It shows up every single time you turn the wheel. The feel is good. The on center everything. When these cars came out, well, we didn't know what to do with them, right? We thought, oh, God, Dodge is only going to do this for just a, you know, a few short years. Well, that was back in 2015. There's been so much demand for the Hellcat that they put this engine and the whole powertrain into almost everything, including Jeeps and Rams. Those are the only ones you can get with all wheel drive. Plus the Dodge Durango. That's coming back. They only had that for one year. People want this stuff. They do. And it shouldn't make any sense, right? What other car does that? Name one. And thank goodness it's got very good brakes. The Hellcat is immediately recognizable thanks to these front fender extensions. It's the wide body and it's the standard body on the Hellcat because it clears 12 inch wide front tires. 305 millimeters all the way around. Now, the car looks very visually similar to other Scat Pack and RT models. But let's face it, you're not getting the little kitty cat here on the side. And when that giant spoiler, the big exhaust tips, these oversized deep dish wheels and all different types of paint colors, stripes, you name it. And go mango, especially this car will get you noticed. In many states, if you sit in the back of a Dodge Charger, you've likely been arrested. And I can tell you right now, not from that experience, but from the street version, it's just as much of a penalty box back here. There's not a lot of legroom, but there are USB ports and heated rear seats. The interior is just as old as the rest of the Charger lineup. And even though you get some nicer materials here, it definitely isn't worthy of a luxury car. The interior design is definitely a few beats behind. The sizes of these screens, the chunkiness and the look of these dials and switches. Yeah, it's definitely old. But if you poke around, there are some good materials like this Alcantara suede steering wheel, the leather seats and real carbon fiber trim. There's also a really good Harman Kardon stereo and you can get an optional sunroof, things like that. But overall, it's definitely not a luxury experience. Just like the screens, the interior is really ergonomically sound. It's easy to find everything here, despite it looking very basic. Now, these seats are also pretty comfortable for long drives, but they don't have a lot of bolstering. Yeah, it's definitely not a race car experience by any means. But this is a straight line car, so I guess side to side action doesn't really matter at Dodge. There's also no adaptive cruise control or lane keep assist, anything like that you'll find standard on a lot of other cars costing a quarter of the price. The Hellcat uses an older version of Uconnect. It's not the newest, fanciest version like you'll find in Jeep and Ram models. The map is kind of cool. Look at that. The water is shimmering there. But that is just a little detail. This is why you have a Hellcat. It's the whole SRT dashboard that shows you everything from the drive modes. And I can customize these down to exactly how the paddle shifters work and how it shifts and all these scary traction control. This right here in track mode, you'll just be off the road into a tree, into a house. Don't ever press it. Seriously, don't do it. So keep it on street. And there's more technology that you'll find, such as a line lock function. Now, this will automatically break the front wheels so you can completely burn out the rears. What other car really has that other than some Mustangs? Not very many. There's also a launch control that you set the RPM. That's also pretty scary. There's a race cool down feature. So if you have constant drags, you can actually, well, see when the engine is ready to have another launch. And like I said before about that power chiller, it uses some of the AC coolant to cool down the supercharger. So this graph here will show you when it's ready. And just for fun, Dodge has a feature called performance pages that lets you see all the horsepower, torque and the supercharger pressure in real time. It even has an onboard dyno. Absolutely ridiculous. And if you have some USB media installed, you can screenshot it. I don't think you really want to share that and post it online. Just saying. There's no full digital dash, but this big screen between these pretty looking analog gauges, it does tell a lot. Including the fuel economy, which is, well, of course, it's horrible. There's also a lot of other information here that you'll find, including your quarter mile times, your maximum speed, which I will not show you here. And vehicle info, everything from the transmission temperature, the coolant, tire pressure, the intake charge coolant temperature. So much information at a moment's notice. Probably overkill. But if you pay for a Hellcat, this is what you want to read. The 2022 Dodge Charger starts at $32,645. There's eight trims and all but two come with a V8. Now, the cheapest V8 starts around $43 for the RT. The Hellcat is just over $79. My Hellcat widebody with all the options was $85,960. And there's still more options to get. You can get $100,000 worth of car here if you order everything, including that new Hellcat jailbreak. This is not a cheap car, but it also is holding value. This car is not sticking around for very long. And enthusiasts want some of the last and best V8 engines. This is your last and final chance to get a Charger Hellcat. Dodge isn't making them like this anymore. Not after 2023. So this truly will be a collector's item. I think it'll actually be a good investment. People are paying well in excess of $100,000 for a Charger. And why? It's the craziest car you could possibly have. If we're going out of style with gasoline engines, this is how you do it. It's one of the most terrifying and most excessive vehicles built within the last couple decades. And it'll stay that way for many, many years to come. So what do you guys think? Do you want to snap up one of these before it's gone? Or would you choose a different car, an EV? Well, we drive everything. So tell us what you want to review. Subscribe to CarGurus. We will see you next time.