Muscle car enthusiasts will have their heads turned on every corner of every street on Long Island, from Port Jefferson to Ronkonkoma, from Patchogue to St James, from Sayville to Riverhead. “The 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Widebody completes our strongest Dodge muscle car lineup in history,” said Tim Kuniskis, Head of Passenger Cars – Dodge, SRT, Chrysler and FIAT – FCA North America. “Our brand, engineering and design teams poured a ton of effort into making the new SRT Demon the world’s fastest quarter-mile production car, so now we’re leveraging that know-how, and some of those vital elements and transferring them to the new Challenger SRT Hellcat Widebody for improved performance on the street and a bolder, more aggressive new look.”
The new 840-horsepower Dodge Challenger SRT Demon raced down the drag strip to open the New York Auto Show in April, Dodge unleashed the ultimate street-to-strip car. Today, the brand is following up on its performance car mantra, introducing the new 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Widebody, answering enthusiasts who have been clamoring for a factory-production Hellcat with even more grip.
The Challenger SRT Hellcat Widebody model features the same fender flares first shown on the SRT Demon. These wider fender flares add 3.5 inches to the SRT Hellcat’s overall width, covering the new 20 x 11-inch “Devil’s Rim” split-five spoke aluminum wheels, which ride on new, wider 305/35ZR20 Pirelli P-Zero tires with a new tread pattern. A new electric power steering (EPS) system with SRT Drive Modes adds new selectable steering tuning for the first time on a Hellcat model.
With awider, more menacing stance, this new Challenger SRT Hellcat Widebody delivers improved lap times, lateral grip, acceleration and braking, compared with the already ferocious performance numbers of the Hellcat:
- Road course lap time on a 1.7-mile track lowered by approximately 2 seconds per lap, approximately 13 car lengths after one lap
- ¼ mile elapsed time (ET) improved by approximately .3 sec (10.9 ET in Widebody vs. 11.2 ET in standard Hellcat)
- Lateral skid pad grip increased by .04 g (.97 g in Widebody vs. .93 g in standard Hellcat)
- 0-60 mph acceleration improved by .1 second (3.4 in Widebody vs. 3.5 in standard Hellcat)
- Top speed of 195 mph
New EPS – a First for Hellcat
The 2018 Challenger SRT Hellcat Widebody features a new standard electric power steering (EPS) system – a first for Hellcat. The system uses SRT Drive Modes with selectable settings for Street (Auto), Sport and Track.
Not only does the EPS system improve handling performance, owners will also notice better steering feel and ease of turning efforts at parking lot speeds.
With EPS and SRT Drive Modes, drivers can tailor their experience by controlling horsepower, transmission shift speeds, steering, paddle shifters (automatic transmission only), traction and suspension. There is also a Custom setting lets the driver use individual preferences.