I just had to see what my 2019 Raptor would do against a Hellcat, I have watched videos of a gt350 smoke them, but my 6 banger in performance mode stayed beside it to 85 mph. Then the guy asks me if I want to trade, I told him to go buy a gt350 or 500. His car was 1/2 the weight of the truck. Eighter he can't drive or the Hellcat can't get the power to the ground?
Ok I’ll take the bait. For starters why talk about racing muscle cars in a Baja truck? Do you think hellcat owners contemplate throwing a 6” lift on their cars while mounting 17” rims & 35”s w/ a locking diff so they can run dunes pre-runner style??
There’s too many variables to consider- was it a challenger or charger hellcat? Was it auto or manual? Did it have the skinny 275s in back or was it tubbed or did it have the widebody? Was the driver running in 707hp mode or regular 500hp (need a separate key)?
Also- it doesn’t weight anywhere close to “half” what the raptor weighs - it’s roughly 1000 lbs lighter, that’s it- a tuned raptor launching in AWD probably does stand a decent chance staying w/ or even inching out/beating a hellcat from a dig to 60mph- ESPECIALLY if it was a challenger hellcat w/ M6 tranny & skinny rubber out back.
Lastly- nobody cares/talks about hellcat 0-60 times, most performance peeps are More interested in 1/4 mile, standing mile or better yet IMO - comparable times around the ‘Ring or VIR
Hellcats, supposedly you can get a hellcat to dip into mid 3s 0-60, however as stated above very difficult to launch correctly- manual or auto.
To that point, To the poster who owns a hellcat declaring how much more powerful it is than a Raptor- sure, obviously, but the ridiculously heavy curb weight (like outrageously heavy these days), the shit suspension, shit tires/wheel setup factory, & tire melting torque make it quite a task to replicate any claimed 0-60 time starting w/ a “3”- a tuned automatic hellcat w/ 335mm DRs? Sure. Your average hellcat driver on the street? Negative. You could repeat the best 0-60 times from a raptor over and over again w/ way more consistency vs a hellcat (until you get into heat soak but kinda applies to both vehicles)
On other hand, a trackhawk is completely different- that sombitch is made for trampling the Hearts & expectations of traditional performance/sports car owners all over lol- definitely repeatable performance w/ the AWD & launch control + ZF auto.
I wish I could justify owning one alongside my built C5Z & Raptor....but not enough room in garage (or budget really) when ya throw in the wife’s MDX, an ATV & a PWC.
Before deciding to continue putting budget aside for “final” mods to my vette (A&A blower+****+clutch etc) I test drove a handful of cars I thought I’d consider trading the C5Z out for- a C6Z, C6ZR1, C7 Base, charger/challenger hellcat, M2, M3 - long story short only 1 that really had me was the C6ZR1 but I couldn’t justify the cost (obviously most expensive) - the hellcats were a ton of fun, I drove a manual challenger & an auto charger. They have a ton of power, it’s all there you can feel it for sure- BUT the cars so damn heavy & has so much trouble putting the power down it simply wasn’t as “fast” as I expected. I honestly think the charger felt faster in 500hp mode because @ anything 70mph or under w/ full 707hp it’s just spinning tires struggling for traction giving up acceleration.
The challenger was a wide body stick shift it definitely hooked much better but felt so horribly balanced & softly sprung in comparison to my vette I felt like it would’ve gotten boring to me after a while. I have fun driving my vette @ slower speeds on tight winding roads whereas the hellcat would just be cumbersome in those situations.
