Motor Trend - 2015 Challenger SRT Hellcat vs 2015 Camaro ZL1

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from the article:
Jonny Lieberman travels just over the Golden Gate Bridge to beautiful Marin County in two of the most powerful cars ever to roll out of American factories. Five years ago, the idea of a Chevy Camaro ZL1 with 580 horsepower would have seemed like nothing more than the bedroom poster fantasy of a 12-year-old. However, in 2015, 580 ponies seems like something’s wrong. That’s because the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat comes strapped with 707!

Pictures and video in the gallery

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[Bigtime53]

I could tell early in the video which way he was going on saying which car was the best. There is no doubt the hellcat is a hell of a car and it does give GM and Ford something to think about as far as performance but I really do not think they will try and match or out do the hellcat on HP. Over 700 HP to me is pushing it for a production car for the general public to buy. I really do not think we will see another car built with more HP than the hellcat due to the cafe standards being enforced more now than ever but I think GM will get close to 700HP in the vette and 650hp in the camaro. BUT,what do I know?

[Mikamaro]

Dodge needed their signature pony/muscle car to finally win an honor in the Pony cars war, congrats to the Hellcat motor!
I also doubt that GM will produce something exponentially more potent. If one wants a 7 or 800+ hp Camaro, one will get a Hennessey. GM and Ford have already their marquee models.

[STOCK1SC]

Originally Posted by Mikamaro

Dodge needed their signature pony/muscle car to finally win an honor in the Pony cars war, congrats to the Hellcat motor!
I also doubt that GM will produce something exponentially more potent. If one wants a 7 or 800+ hp Camaro, one will get a Hennessey. GM and Ford have already their marquee models.

The thing that most people tend to forget is that the Challenger is not a Pony car and gets thrown into the match up with the Mustang and Camaro because it is a 2 door V8 rwd vehicle but it is more of a modern day Ford thunderbird than a Mustang or Camaro competitor. The fact that a full size vehicle is being compared to pony cars is what makes it special. The fact that you can fit 5 adults in it alone and able to be compared to GM and Ford's best is what is so impressive. Loved my 94 Tbird! Wish i could have afforded the SC at the time.

[vicnkathy]

Who cares. It's ugly, handles like crap and is still a Dodge.

[Mikamaro]

Originally Posted by STOCK1SC

The thing that most people tend to forget is that the Challenger is not a Pony car and gets thrown into the match up with the Mustang and Camaro because it is a 2 door V8 rwd vehicle but it is more of a modern day Ford thunderbird than a Mustang or Camaro competitor. The fact that a full size vehicle is being compared to pony cars is what makes it special. The fact that you can fit 5 adults in it alone and able to be compared to GM and Ford's best is what is so impressive. Loved my 94 Tbird! Wish i could have afforded the SC at the time.

All pony cars were once based on the sedan chassis, still is the case for the Camaro and the Challenger. These are + 15ft long & 4000lb + cars, how much more full size do you want?

[jayno20]

I don't get these early reviews... I swear Dodge is paying these monkeys off to get them to say nothing but great things about their car.

At first he is talking about how great Dodge did with the struts on the car and h ow fast it was on the figure eight because of these amazing struts, then he shows the comparison later showing the ZL1 was faster, but never touches on how big of a deal that is. Not even just that he shows the ZL1 with like a .85G lateral and I've seen other car reviews putting this thing over 1.0 on lateral G's so technically its like they purposely nerfed it as much as they could to make the Hellcat look better.

Honestly, with my obvious biased-ness aside, it is still crap to get these paid off reviews of this car because anyone who is genuinely trying to pick the "better" car is getting crap instead of the truth.

Sure, I'd love if the ZL1 had 707hp from factory and honestly, that is the ONLY thing about the hellcat that interests me but seriously, what is with these reviews that make it seem like the car is the best thing since sliced bread? I'm not buying it. It seems like they are trying TOO hard to make you believe it is THE BEST!

[Tmick5jr]

the camaro is just so much better of a car. oh the challenger won the smoke show? cool, put a tiny set of 275 p zeros on the zl1 and you'll get the same damn result. The zl1's 305's are sticky when warm. That challenger needs every single one of its 700 hp to get that fat pig moving. the zl1 is the winner obviously, the review seemed biased

[Stephen12ZL1]

I love fast cars and both cars are awesome. My friend that races at VIR just picked up his Hellcat Challenger and plans to take it there. We will find out how awesome it is in April at VIR. My brother-in-law just purchased a 2011 M3 Competition package with the 414hp V8, and I bet he will be able to keep up with the Hellcat's (obviously not on the straights) lap times. I can't wait to make that Hellcat go to the kitty box with either my ZL1 or potential Z28.

[ToolFan66]

I personally like the Challenger, with that said I wouldn't own one over the ZL1 or Z/28..

If I was buying right now it would be the Z/28 hands down.

Now if I could afford to have a few cars, and I had a nice shop to keep them in I would own a Challenger in a hot second..

I love how all this keeps the car world going round!!!

[KaBoom1701]

Hellcat wins in a straight line...

ZL1 wins on the track and everywhere else...

Enough said.

[2NASSTY]

Guys, I finally saw the Hellcat in person this past weekend at GoFAST Ocala. Two actually were showcased. And one was driven by legendary driver "Big Daddy" Don Garlits on Day 2.



Day 1 while I was there was not impressive at all by owner of the Lime Green car. I was seeing trap speeds in the 130's and the car spinning badly on that poor track surface with rear factory tires that were way too narrow for the car.

The overall look of the car is Monstrous and flat out ugly in my opinion. The power of the car with trap speeds in the Video can not be denied however. I was trapping 150 and I am putting down 670 rwhp. I am sure Don Garlits would have gone faster in my car also.

[mrvenicess]

152 with Don Garlits in the car. He told me he loved how comfy it was. I went 160 in my Zl1 although its not stock. Wish I could have got Don to try mine, he probably would have gone 170!

[Mikamaro]

Guys, stop it with the Bias review whinging...MT voted the Z/28 as the 2014 Best driver's car, where they Bias then too?