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Dodge Blew Up 7 Engines In Testing

Dodge Blew Up 7 Engines in Testing

No one can argue that the Dodge Hellcat is a beast, and most people would be satisfied.  Not Dodge CEO, Tim Kuniskis.  Mr. Kuniskis has instructed his development team to squeeze even more horsepower out of Dodge’s mighty Hellcat.  

The catch is that he wants the cars to be reliable.  isn’t hard, but getting those horses to behave in front of the Stellantis grown-ups is another matter.

The goal is to deliver the 7th Challenger dubbed the ‘Last Call Challenger is slated to receive the most powerful V8 yet. The Last Call Editions will be special cars. Dodge is currently sending the Charger and Challenger on a farewell tour, rolling out a series of “Last Call” special editions. It has already released six of them including the recent ‘Black Ghost’ and ‘Swinger’, and there’s one more remaining, the seventh and final still-secret car that was supposed to be more special than most. Because this model, which commemorates another as-yet unnamed muscle classic from Dodge’s back catalog, is in line to get the most powerful street-legal factory Hellcat motor ever produced.

But this Challenger is proving challenging. The engineering team has blown up seven Hellcat engines trying to get a more powerful variant through Dodge’s grueling certification process, forcing the cancellation of the car’s planned SEMA debut.

“It’s not so easy to do. We run these things on wide-open throttle for hours and hours on end, 24-7. The testing on these things is just brutal. So far we’ve grenaded seven engines, but I think we’ve got it figured out.”

Kuniskis said that if the undisclosed fix works we can expect to see the finished car unveiled early in 2023. As for how much power we’re in line for, Dodge’s CEO isn’t saying, but previous reports have suggested it could be even more powerful than the old Challenger SRT Demon.

The 2018 Demon got a boost from 707 hp (717 PS) to 840 hp (852 PS) thanks to a bigger supercharger, higher rev limit and a new powertrain module designed to work with 100+ octane gas. Zero to 60 mph (97 km/h) took 2.3 seconds and the Demon could demolish a quarter mile of asphalt in 9.65 seconds at 140 mph (225 km/h).

The horsepower target has not been released, but it may be as much as 1000hp.

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