1,000 Mile Hellcat Impressions
 

I eclipsed the 1,000 mile mark in the Hellcat. Can you tell I enjoy driving it? I figured I would write up a casual review of the car since I've had a good amount of seat time in it so far.

Pros
- Power is immediate thanks to the roots style blower
- Transmission is as smooth or aggressive as you would want
- Ride is comfortable but solid, no rattles, shakes or other bad chassis vibrations
- Exhaust sounds excellent even when the active valves are closed
- Fit and finish is pretty good. The leather is softer than what is in my wifes Lexus
- Heated/cooled front seats, heated steering wheel, heated rear seats
- Infotainment system via the 8.4" screen has a ton of features allowing for a lot of customization
- SRT performance pages provide a lot of good information
- Changing drive modes ACTUALLY changes the cars character quite a bit
- Brakes are VERY effective (at least on the street)

Cons
- The car is quite large/heavy (expected)
- Vision through the front windshield is partially limited by the hood scoop
- You can't see any real corner of the car
- Had to have the wheels/tires rebalanced after taking delivery
- Brake dust is heavy even with very casual use
- 275mm width rear tires
- Tiny flappy paddles

Overall the car is actually more than I expected. The car shrinks in size the more you drive it so while she is a big girl, she can dance. The car corners flat in almost all driving modes (Street, Sport, Track) and the brakes inspire a lot of confidence. When I hit 500 miles, I immediately put my foot to the floor and was impressed with the power. From a highway pull, the car jumps out aggressively and pulls with authority as one would expect. The concerning thing is it does it rather smoothly meaning it's all too easy to break the law. With the Firebird, while its certainly faster, a WOT run includes a lot of drama. This is simply not the case with the cat. On a colder road and low speed, she will spin/wheel hop. I like the fact that you can hear the blower at low speeds with even mild throttle input. It adds to the experience which plays well in concert with the exhaust note. It's odd but as much fun as this car is to drive fast, I also enjoy to just put around in it.

In street mode, the suspension is very compliant, shifts are very smooth and it doddles along like any other car. Switching into sport, you feel the car shift higher up in the rpm band, it will engine brake/downshift more aggressively and the suspension tightens up. The cool thing about sport mode is it will let you spin the tires as long as the car is going reasonably straight. If it senses the back end stepping out, it will stop the fun. In track mode, everything is taunt, shifts are much more aggressive and downshifts are immediate. The sound the car makes in any of these mode when it shifts at WOT is intoxicating. You can watch all of the youtube videos but it's something best experienced in person.

The interior is a nice place to be. My last new car was a 2008 model year and it was a couple steps behind many current standard and common options found on other cars at the time (bluetooth, Navi, etc). The UConnect system in the Chrysler cars is well sorted and full of customizable features. You can completely tailor the car to what you want it to do and when. If you remote start the car and its below a certain temp, it will kick on the heated seats/steering wheel, etc. On a hot day, it will turn on the vented seats. The mirrors can either tilt down when you reverse or you choose to leave them up. You can use "fat guy mode" when entering/exiting the vehicle when turning the car on/off (steering wheel goes up and away, seat pulls back). Your blind spot warning system can be nothing more than a light or you can have it beep at your if you signal while someone is hiding there. Interior space is just about equal to my 08 G8 but maybe a touch larger. I was always impressed with the interior space of the G8, especially the rear seats. The trunk is size-able as you expect and will pop all the way open when you command it from the key fob, button on the trunk or interior.

The styling of the interior is fairly simple but very effective. Redundant controls for most common functions are included below the touch screen. The steering wheel includes a host of controls like most cars in this class. The center screen between the tach/speedo can be customized as well. You can put any of the performance gauges from the big screen front and center. Some of the performance gauges include lateral, accel/decel G's, AFR, Boost, various timers, IC temp, etc.

Exterior styling is always subjective but I think the new body refresh comes alive in the SRT and up format (Scat Pack, SRT392, Hellcat). The differentiation between a Hellcat and a SRT392 would be the heat extractors on the hood, brakes, suspension, lack of fog lights/auto distance cruise control, wheels and minor badging. I'm not a fan of the new style cars in the R/T and lesser models.

Being a lighting nerd, I appreciate the car comes with bi-xenon HID projector headlights accented by LEDs as DRLs. The tail light section is lit with LEDs including the reverse and license plate lights. The interior lighting will get changed at some point since it's the typical halogen stuff in there. The headlight performance is good but I've seen/built better. I doubt I will take these headlights apart for an upgrade.

Since taking delivery, I've had the front bumper cover, headlights and side mirrors protected with Xpel Ultimate. I saw this stuff in action during my trip to SEMA and was convinced this would go on the car as soon as I took delivery. I am scheduling to have the hood done as well at some point. This was the only drawback to my G8 and wife's vehicle. We do a lot of highway travel and the front end took a lot of stone damage. The Xpel will protect the front end and comes with a 10 year warranty. If it gets scratched, it will literally heal itself with heat from the sun. I installed small fender guards (no not mud flaps) to protect the front and rear fenders. The body work tucks in quite a bit past the front wheels and you really notice how much garbage gets tossed up on the fenders. With these small guards, no issues. I removed the DODGE letters from the rear tail light area and swapped the SRT letters on the bottom of the trunk lid for a different one with the Hellcat emblem.

Other than that, I expect to get the windows tinted at some point and likely some small cosmetic touches. It will go to the drag strip next season to see what it will do. I will likely get a set of DR's and an upgraded driveshaft. I'm hoping the car is reliable but if not, that's why I have a warranty. My G8 was generally trouble free so we will see how this one does.

I will post some pics and videos at some point even though there are already a ton on the web already.

8-)

Who did Xpel or did you buy and install?

Glad you like the car.

My Pop hates the brake dust on his Camaro. One day of driving and the rims are covered enough to bother him.

Leeberbs in Hillsborough. After watching the process, I feel like I could probably handle an easier car but the material isn't cheap so it certainly wasn't worth a try as a first attempt.

Guys are swapping the stock pads for ceramics to reduce the dust. I'd rather maintain the performance and just bought a lot of wheel cleaner lol.

tl;dr

You got the live experience so I didn't expect you to read it. Doubt most would anyway. :bertstare:

I know this sounds stupid but a lot of those key points you made are why I enjoy blowers so much. The sound, the immediate power and the fact that when youre not in boost its pretty much a regular motor/gas mileage. Damn I love those Hellcats so much.

The drive-ability of these cars at part throttle were the real surprise to me. IMO, you don't fully appreciate all of the power until 100+mph(which is completely idiotic and amazing at the same time).

On your complaint about the size of the paddles, we still get customer complaints about people accidentally hitting them while turning and getting put temporarily in manual mode(depending on the package, it times out of paddle mode in ~7 seconds unless in sport or manual gate), so if the paddles were made any bigger, we'd most likely see more customers complain about accidentally hitting them.

The power past 100 is quite good....so I've heard...and uhh...seen on YouTube. Regarding the paddles, it's not much a complaint but just something a little odd. Basically to use them, your fingers go up versus straight back from the 3 and 9 position. Since there are controls right behind those same positions, I understand why they are smaller. Just having them extended a touch back from the wheel and longer may work. I can see how they could be easily hit though is doing any hand over hand wheel motions.

Traveling to and from work is kind of funny in the car. I see an open spot on the highway, breathe on the throttle and she kicks down and scoots immediately. Too much fun.

My 1,000 mile hellcat impressions:

1. I hate you.
2. Me Jelly.

:)

In all seriousness, congrats. Glad you like the car, wish I had one. I'm just waiting impatiently to pay off my truck, then I'll be looking.

Lol. I'm jelly of your craft brew skills.

So.... Tldr yet? Not surprised at the wheel balance. Can't tell you how many I had to do when I worked for Toyota lol.

So, I teach you to brew, you let me drive the 'Cat?

:lol:

Honestly, it was a good read. Pair it with your morning coffee tomorrow.


BLS:
Sounds like you made the right choice. Glad Dodge is trending upwards.

I assumed the ADHD kicked in ;). I'm taking it back this Thursday since I'm still getting a slight shimmy. I don't consider it "road feel" so we will see what's up with it.

I know how to brew....generally. Happy to provide a ride for a pint though. :)

Hopefully my current reactions continue with long term ownership. I'm more excited to let her loose on warmer roads and hitting the 1/4 at some point. Is Spring here yet?

I feel you, man.

How was the dd in the snow?

Check the sig brah. Drove fine in the garage.

Did I say hellcat bro?

It was inferred. How did yours hold up? Prob the most wheeling you have done since the last storm.

Is it even wheeling if you are driving on the asphalt bro? Did snatch strap the bronco a few times. Damn plow driver trying to make an igloo...

I wouldn't know. Guess its a J33pBro thing.

What did you ever do about wheel balance? I remember you have an issue. The reason I ask is a customer of mine just bought a scat Pak challenger and it has a horrible vibration. Dealer says no problem. Tire shop says Goodyear has a known problem with those tires and is doing nothing about it. He had a tire shop remount and turn tires on rims and re balance. He said it's better but still has a vibration around 60mph. I thought of your issue when he mentioned it.

275mm bad because too skinny? hahah

Basically they kept replacing tires. The wheel and tire place I go to was good about being pushy. Dodge would have replaced them if it kept going. One dealer reinstalled my aftermarket driveshaft incorrectly which caused it to vibrate terribly above 55. They replaced with the stock unit and the aftermarket company sent me a new one.

Have them push on getting tires replaced and have them pay for road force balancing.

They are too skinny.