zzdcar
Home
/
Reviews
/
Culture
/
I Cannot Figure Out Whether I Love Or Hate The Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye
I Cannot Figure Out Whether I Love Or Hate The Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye-May 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:12:58

Image for article titled I Cannot Figure Out Whether I Love Or Hate The Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye

The is the vilest car I have ever driven. The Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye is the best vehicle I have ever driven. I believe both of these statements completely, but neither of them are true.

Or maybe they both are. The cognitive dissonance inspired by the $90,040 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye I’m driving this week is real and significant. More than any of the 100+ cars I’ve reviewed, I can’t figure out whether or not it’s good.

On the one hand, 797 horsepower is hilarious. It’s a number that embarrasses Lamborghini Huracans and mocks McLaren 720S’s.

The supercharger noise is amazing, the roar of the 6.2-liter V8 is intoxicating and the tires exist in a perpetual state of screeching. There is a lot of noise and a lot of smoke and a moderate amount of 911 calls.

So you cannot drive a Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye anywhere near where you live in the daylight for fear of becoming a social outcast. Even when not speeding, any acceleration is loud enough that you will receive glares from people in their yards.

“There are children here,” their eyes will say. “Please leave in your angry machine with its appropriately named ‘destroyer gray’ paint and do not return.”

Parents hate the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye. Men who only take selfies while wearing sunglasses in the driver’s seat of their pickup trucks love the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye.

When you hear the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye roar as it wags its tail around a corner, you will love the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye.

When it squirms and tries to slide during straight-line acceleration, you will fear for your life and hate the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye. You will love that the traction and stability control will probably always save you. You will hate that you trust them to, even though doing so will eventually bite you.

A man in an E30 gave me a thumbs up. A man in a Miata glared at me as I accelerated. I don’t know what to make of any of this.

Mainly, the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye is an insanely fun vehicle if you don’t really care about actually moving fast or about everyone hearing and hating you. In day-to-day driving, it’s so outwardly aggressive and absurd that you feel like an idiot.

Which is a shame, because it’s a really good daily driver. The interior is modern and spacious, with room for four people in relative comfort. UConnect is still one of the most polished mainstream infotainment systems, though luckily there are knobs and buttons for volume and climate control.

It’s also more comfortable than its rivals, in large part thanks to its focus on straight-line speed rather than cornering. The Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye definitely feels firmer than its unsupercharged Challenger stablemates, but it’s plenty compliant.

But you’re also perpetually testing your own self control. Even with traction control on, the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye is happy to let its wheels spin for a bit. You truly cannot ever floor it. So it is a good daily driver, but very hard to enjoy properly in everyday situations. Driving it at night in a rural area, though, is a different experience entirely.

When I cruise around in the dead of night in my massive Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye and do pulls down empty country roads, I feel extremely cool and only slightly like a creepy night prowler. If you start to feel self-conscious, you can speed up until it’s too loud and scary to even consider how far the noise is carrying.

When I drive in any area with houses or business, I must only use 10% of the throttle pedal or probably go to jail. Life with the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye is about balancing these moments. For every blast down an empty road, there is a tree-lined suburb filled with people that despise you.

It’s absurd. I hate it. It’s amazing and I would die for it. At the very least, it’s never boring.

Comments
Welcome to zzdcar comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Culture
Subaru Had It Right All Along
Subaru Had It Right All Along
When first came to the United States, it sold small funky cars that were decidedly un-American. As the company grew its own identity and became more established in the U.S., it became the first automaker to offer an all-wheel-drive passenger car in 1975. Subaru was also an early-adopter of...
May 13, 2025
2024 Kia EV9: What Do You Want To Know?
2024 Kia EV9: What Do You Want To Know?
At long last, we are about to get behind the wheel of for the first time. Sure, , and sure, , and sure , but hey — what can you do? Anyway, before we get behind the wheel of this three-row electric beast, we want to know what you...
May 13, 2025
I Entered My Lifted Miata In A Real Off-Road Race, Here's What Happened
I Entered My Lifted Miata In A Real Off-Road Race, Here's What Happened
I have two automotive loves: The first is the Miata, the second is off-road racing. For a while I raced air-cooled Volkswagens in the deserts of California and Nevada and I was lucky enough to co-drive in a class 11 stock bug in the Baja 1000 a few years...
May 13, 2025
Watch ABS Fail When MotorWeek Tests A 1997 Chevy S-10
Watch ABS Fail When MotorWeek Tests A 1997 Chevy S-10
MotorWeek’s is some of the on the internet. The long-running automotive news magazine has a treasure trove of tests after being on the air for over 40 years. Where else can you find detailed instrumented testing of long-forgotten cars like the or a ? MotorWeek’s recent Retro Review upload is...
May 13, 2025
Toyota Is Moving A Prewar 700-Ton Press Machine Halfway Around The World
Toyota Is Moving A Prewar 700-Ton Press Machine Halfway Around The World
closed its São Bernardo Plant in November 2023, marking the end of its first overseas production facility. The closure caps off a period of continuous car production in São Paolo, , lasting over 60 years. The plant was home to a Komatsu 700-ton press that predates itself. And now...
May 13, 2025
I Can't Get Enough Of This YouTuber Who Builds Tiny, Fully Functional Scale-Model Cars
I Can't Get Enough Of This YouTuber Who Builds Tiny, Fully Functional Scale-Model Cars
I love tiny, of . I have a that is roughly half the size of a normal cat, and she’s perfect. I own a 2013 , which is like the miniature version of a normal-sized vehicle (at least here in Texas) — but beyond that, I also own a Hot...
May 13, 2025
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.zzdcar.com All Rights Reserved