What would you do if To dodge called you to say they wanted offer you a free Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye AND $10,000 to modify it? It doesn’t seem like it takes a lot of persuasion to say yes. But the catch is that there is a challenge at the end.
The challenge being to build the fastest Hellcat in six weeks. And then compete on the drag strip against other influencers who received a Charger or Challenger, in the aptly named Influencer Shootout. Sounds like a recipe for something epic! Especially when you’re only allowed a handful of practice sessions to test and set up those freshly built drag cars at a new location – at one of the nation’s largest sponsored drag racing events, Roadkill Nights!
It sounds tough, but these wildly popular automotive influencers are anything but quitters. The list included notable YouTube channels Throtl, Tavarish (aka Freddy Hernandez)Westin Champlin and Alex Taylor.
So how does Influencer Shootout and Hellcat Grudge Match work, and why did these automotive influencers get free cars from Dodge?
No better way to sell Hellcat Redeyes than to take them racing
The Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat is something of an outlaw in itself. In an age of increasingly stringent emission standards and MPG watchers, the Hellcat is a tire-chewing muscle car in the true sense of the word. And then there is the Hellcat Redeye, which pushes the power of the supercharged 6.2-liter V8 from 717 HP in the standard car up to an incredible 797 HP! From the factory !
That’s good for a 0-60 mph sprint in 3.6 seconds, if you can cut the power. He completes the quarter mile in 11.8 seconds, crossing the line at a breakneck speed of 125 MPH. All very serious numbers and better than the competition, but the best way to make people believe is to actually let them see what the Redeye is capable of with their own eyes. Racing on Sunday, selling on Monday rarely works.
Dodge has been sponsoring the Roadkill Nights drag racing weekend at various venues across the United States for the past few years, only taking a break in 2020. It’s definitely become an event to experience drag racing cars the faster and impressive Dodge muscles.
How did these influencers get free Dodge Muscle Cars?
You’ve probably heard of the Westin Champlin, Throtl, Tavarish and Riding With Alex Taylor. These are some of the hottest YouTube channels when it comes to building and tinkering with American muscle. It is so a natural fit with Dodge’s muscle cars and this challenge, one wonders why no one launched it earlier! In Dodge’s case, they also had a surplus of pre-production Chargers and Challengers. Instead of sending them to the grinder, Dodge sent them to these influencers to build and prepare for the drag face-off. It’s quite ingenious. The only rules were that the body should always appear stock, the stock block should still be used, and the stock compressor should be part of the build.
Throtl wanted to keep his construction simple. So they pushed the horsepower up to 1,000 HP, but continued to experience traction issues in testing. This is an issue that has cropped up time and time again with this particular build, attributed to the thinner drag plies they used. Tavarish also kept it relatively simple, adding nitrous, a sick Plastidip orange color change… and massive drag slicks. Everyone’s favorite redneck science teacher Westin Champlin slapped a twin-turbo kit making his Hellcat Redeye double-charged – turbocharged and supercharged. Alex Taylor nailed the case and focused on good traction and other weight-saving measures, as well as chassis stiffness. That meant installing the biggest drag slick it could find and switching to solid rear axles to help keep the horsepower down—all 800 HP to the wheels.
The fastest Dodge Hellcat Redeye wasn’t the most powerful
Drag racing is really all about traction, even on pure horsepower and mega torque. The Throtl Hellcat Redeye with all its massive power just spun its tires on the site’s less than ideal surface. Tavarish’s Charger did a little better but still proved to be no match for Alex Taylor’s car with its big rear tires. Even the Westin Champlin’s double-charged monster couldn’t hold a candle when the lights went green.
In the final showdown against ‘Fastest Cars In The Dirty South’ TV show host Eric Malone jumped the start and automatically lost. In the end, Alex Taylor was crowned the Hellcat Grudge Match champion, showing that traction truly is king on the Strip.
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