Few people have driven a Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat and said, “Hmmm. Not quick enough.” Most who have, though, seem to work at Fiat-Chrysler as the company has gone all-in on a Hellcat Redeye variant of the muscle sedan that makes just shy of 800 horsepower. Oh yeah, and it can run the quarter-mile in 10.6 seconds as verified by the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA).
The Charger Hellcat Redeye carries over the aggressive stance from its Widebody brethren but packs an extra 80 horsepower for 797 in total (lowlier Hellcats get a 10-hp bump for 2021). It’s 3.5 inches broader from fender to fender than the “normal” Hellcat, allowing for even wider wheels and tires—20-by-11-inch rollers accommodate Pirelli 305/35 rubber at all four corners. They help launch the Charger Redeye to 60 miles per hour in the mid-three-second range, and it won’t stop until it hits 203 mph. Every elite Hellcat Redeye owner will try to hit that mark, likely on a public road. Kidding!… Kind of.
Keen eyes will notice the Charger Redeye’s newly redesigned and functional hood that pipes ample amounts of air to the engine. That air is then cooled by SRT’s Power Chiller, a trick piece of tech previously seen in the Challenger SRT Demon that utilizes air-conditioning refrigerant to keep intake temps low and efficiency high. In all, boost is cranked up to 14.5 psi from the Redeye’s larger 2.7-liter blower—that’s how they squeeze the additional oomph out of the same V8. There are 25 major component upgrades from the standard Hellcat to the Redeye, including strengthened connecting rods and pistons, a high-speed valve train, and more.
The Charger Redeye also borrows its improved torque converter from the famed Demon, allowing it to build 3.9 psi of boost at launch and deliver up to 55 percent more engine torque. This is crucial in straight-line performance and, if you lined the Charger Redeye up against a regular Hellcat on a 2.1-mile road course, Dodge says it would win by 1.2 seconds. That seems rather specific, but we’ll take the company’s word for it until we can try for ourselves.
We won’t make a big deal of it, but the Charger Hellcat Redeye is only a tenth of a second slower in the quarter-mile than the newly unveiled Challenger SRT Super Stock. If you’d rather have four doors and Pirelli street tires instead of a two-door muscle coupe on drag radials, no one would blame you. Plus, the Charger Hellcat Redeye isn’t limited by its tires when it comes to top speed, so it’s capable of going 35 mph faster.
Just know that for every minute you run at full-throttle, you’ll burn 1.43 gallons of fuel. Consumption is dialed back to 22 miles per gallon on the highway, however.
Pricing for the Charger Hellcat Redeye is yet to be announced, though it’ll likely slot in above its Challenger sibling of the same trim. Expect an entry-level model to cost around $71,000 with the ability to go up, up, up from there when production starts at the Brampton Assembly Plant in Ontario this fall.
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