How it started:

Last year we picked up this 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat as a project car for our website and YouTube Channel. Equipped with a 4.5-liter Whipple Supercharger and supporting modifications, this low-mileage Challenger Hellcat seemed like an excellent street/strip car starting point. We spent a good part of the year chasing issues (you know what they say about buying someone else’s project) and then worked on re-tuning the car as it wasn’t performing as expected. 

Unfortunately, we ran out of racing season to get the car dialed in, but we picked the tuning back up with Mike at OST Dyno early this year. As we finally got the car dialed in, disaster struck with the 4.5 Whipple. The blower ended up locking up, and we found the culprit to be a non-thread-locked bolt holding the intercooler to the bottom of the blower. 

How it’s going:

At that point, I decided to turn a negative into a positive and substantially upgrade the car. I worked with my friend Charles and Whipple Superchargers to get a Whipple Gen 5 3.8 billet supercharger for the car. The new Supercharger necessitated a new throttle body, so I ordered one of the Nick Williams 130mm throttle bodies. As the whole setup is different than the old 4.5 setup, I also needed a new intake. After some searching, I decided on the Legmaker intake for Challengers and Chargers with the Gen 5 Whipple.

Since the car was going to make more power, I decided to tackle the rear suspension. I ordered the 60-foot package from OST Dyno, which consists of cradle lockouts, the AAD drag kit for the rear, and their alignment specs. I also decided to do the TCE 15-inch conversion and ordered a set of Billet Specialties drag wheels—15 inches in the rear and 18 inches in the front. 

With more power and more traction comes a greater possibility of breaking parts. I got ahead of that by adding GForce Outlaw axle shafts. To help the diff, I got the Per4mance Development DIRS diff brace and their race brace. I also added a DJ Safety engine diaper for extra safety at the track. This serves two purposes, keep from oiling the track down or getting oil under my rear tires if the stock bottom end decides it has had enough. 

With all that done, I found that the new supercharger wouldn’t clear the stock hood. I had ordered the race intercooler, which makes the already large supercharger an inch taller. I remedied that by adding a beautiful Anderson Composites Carbon Fiber Demon cowl hood. 

Where it’s going:

As they say, a racecar is never done. Tuning is the next hurdle with the new combination. I have had the car to the track twice with the new setup, and it hasn’t done anything impressive yet. Hopefully, we can get a few track rentals in before the end of this year and fine-tune the new setup. Over the winter, I plan to build a stroker motor and put a cage in the car so we can really turn it up. 

Check out the video above for more on our project Hellcat. We will keep you guys updated here and on our YouTube channel with how the car does.