The Dodge Charger Hellcat gets all the headlines for its 707-horsepower engine, but when it comes time to drive, the car you really want is the 2020 Dodge Charger Scat Pack Widebody.
That sound you hear is not the whine of a Hellcat’s supercharger but in fact Jonny Lieberman yelling about how wrong and dumb I am. Don’t worry, I yelled back. It’s what we do.
Yes, it’s true that for 2020 all Dodge Charger Hellcats will be Widebodies. They get 305-width tires on all corners and big fender flares to (mostly) contain them. Dodge says the wide rubber, along with upgraded suspension, will get you 0.96 lateral g on the skidpad and take 2.1 seconds off the lap time on 2.1-mile Gingerman Raceway in Michigan. Scat Pack Widebodies get the same upgrades, but with a slightly different suspension tune to account for the lighter engine and different powerband. Dodge says the Scat Pack Widebody pulls 0.98 g on the skidpad and is 1.3 seconds quicker around the same track than the standard, narrow-body Scat Pack but still slower than the Hellcat Widebody.
Gingerman, though, is a power track, mostly long straights and sweepers where the Hellcat can flex its power advantage and make up for its lower lateral grip. During the launch of the new Charger Hellcat Widebody and the Charger Scat Pack Widebody, I had the opportunity to take few laps of a restricted Sonoma Raceway in California in both cars. While Dodge wouldn’t time us, I’d bet real money on a tight, technical track like Sonoma in its full road course configuration the Scat Pack Widebody is quicker.
Why? For the same reason I prefer the Scat Pack Widebody in general: It can use its power. Even with big, fat tires, the Hellcat is still prone to blowing the rears off the rims with the slightest twitch of the throttle. Where the 305s on the Hellcat Widebody buy a little more safe zone between no throttle and power oversteer, that safe zone is much, much larger on the less powerful Scat Pack. As a result, you can go to the power sooner and use more of it as you exit corners in a Scat Pack where you’ll still driving like there’s an egg under the pedal of the Hellcat. Faster cornering speeds add up on a technical track and can easily cancel out a horsepower advantage.
Being able to use more throttle without fear of pitching the car sideways doesn’t just mean faster lap times, it means greater driver confidence, especially out in the real world. People like to repeat the stereotype that Chargers can’t go around corners, but it’s never really been true, and the Widebody makes it very not true. There’s no hiding the fact the Charger is a big, heavy car, but it absolutely corners when you put wide, sticky tires all around. What’s impressive is just how much lateral grip it generates. Off-throttle, both the Hellcat and Scat Pack Widebodies can carry a lot of speed in a corner, far more than before and likely a big part of their improved lap times. Here again, though, the Scat Pack can put more of its power down sooner than the Hellcat on the way out of a real-world corner. What it really means, though, is the driver can drive faster and harder without worrying (as much) about giving it too much, breaking the rear end loose, and wrecking the car.
Don’t worry, you can still smoke ’em if you got ’em. The Scat Pack has 485 horsepower and 475 lb-ft of torque, which for those not keeping score, is the same torque and 10 fewer ponies than the new C8 Corvette. It’ll absolutely still light up the tires anytime you want, including with the traction and stability control all the way on. Just goose the throttle at any given stop sign, and as long as the steering wheel is straight, it’ll light ’em up and even grab second to turn some of the noise into forward motion. Sport ESC is even more permissive, allowing you some drift angle before reining things back in, while Track ESC actually tries to keep the car straight for better lap times (drifting is slow, no matter how cool it looks). Or, you know, turn it all off and burn ’em to the cords. It’s your money.
OK, sure, the Scat Pack isn’t quite as quick as the Hellcat in a straight line. Dodge says it’ll do 0–60 mph in 4.3 seconds, but we got a 4.2 out of a standard, narrow-body Charger Scat Pack, so the extra rubber will probably buy you a few more tenths. Conversely, Dodge says the Hellcat will do it in 3.6 seconds, which sounds more reasonable since we got a narrow-body Charger Hellcat to do it in 3.7. Dodge also says the Scat Pack will do a 12.4-second quarter mile to the Hellcat’s 10.9, but the only way you’re getting a 10-second quarter out of a Hellcat is on a very well-prepped dragstrip with the perfect launch. Best we’ve managed on asphalt is a high 11.
Why does 222 extra horsepower only buy you a few tenths? Because the Hellcat is extremely tricky to launch correctly. The line between bogging and obliterating the tires is razor thin, and even if you do it right, you still can’t put all the power down. The Scat Pack might be slower, but it’s much easier to launch, and you’ll be far more consistent. On the street, you’ll probably outrun most Hellcats as their owners struggle to get the tires to hook up.
The cherry on top of this all-American sundae is not having to listen to that whiny supercharger. The 392 Hemi is all motor, and it makes a beautiful racket. Put it in Sport or Custom drive mode with the two-mode exhaust open, and it becomes positively antisocial. It’s loud enough to get you in trouble with any number of police departments and is guaranteed to piss off every last one of your neighbors. It’s glorious. You’ll be running out first gear every chance you get just to listen to it. Your every drive will consist of peeling out at every stop sign and running it out to redline before pulling an upshift from the dinky little paddles (which are more like toggles, really) while the engine drowns out your hysterical laughter and complaints from everyone else on the block.
Actually, there’s two cherries. The second one is saving $23,650 over a Charger Hellcat, enough for 18 sets of Pirelli P Zero summer tires. Or, 36 sets if you’re just replacing the rears. That’s a lot of burnouts.
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Source: WORLD NEWS
