www.hotcars.com 8 Things Hellcat Owners Keep Quiet About

Hellcat owners are a breed apart. Continuing the muscle car tradition is a top priority to them. The vehicles that have these amped-up motors are always ready for some fun times but are more than able to become a docile pup when being used as a daily driver.

The owners of these beasts love to brag about how fast they are, and how they blend in with their surroundings. Many drivers are not aware of the outrageous amounts of power that these motors can produce. When pushed to race, they are untouched by most other cars on the roads.

But, as with other vehicles available, there are some things that Dodge Hellcat owners like to keep under wraps. Let us discuss some of the most common things that they keep quiet about.

8It Burns Through Tires

There is nothing like leaving black marks on the pavement for blocks; black smoke spewing up from behind the car as it tries to get a grip and shoot forward. Even better when it comes to driving a Dodge Durango that nobody would expect it from. Hellcat owners have found that it is not simple to go easy when there is over 700 hp under the hood.

The cost of a high-performance tire can cost you anywhere from $300 to $1000. That is for one tire. Of course, cheap tires can be purchased for under one hundred bucks, but they might last one round of burnouts. The bottom line is that as a hellcat owner a special budget will have to be set up to pay for the tires that will be burnt off on a regular basis.

Related: 10 Insane Facts About The 2021 Dodge Durango SRT Hellcat

7Terrible Off The Line

Speaking of tires, pouncing off the line requires a racer to grip and shoot. That is not an easy thing to do with a Hellcat tucked under the hood. The power settings will have to be activated and the gas pedal will need to be pushed down to the perfect depth. Too little and the challenging car will get the jump off the line, and too much gas and the vehicle will spin.

It is a heck of a show when the tires light up and smoke rolls out, but it does nothing for a lightning takeover. When in the heat of the moment it is hard to not stomp the pedal to the metal, which is why owners state that the car is terrible off the line.

Related: The Dodge Challenger Hellcat Would Destroy Any Of These Expensive Supercars In A Drag Race

6Power Settings Give An Advantage

Red and Black keys. If this sounds familiar, then the earlier models of the Dodge Hellcat are being discussed. The only way to activate the untapped power potentials was to use the red key. Which of course, is the one that most drivers used. It only makes sense. If a Hellcat vehicle is purchased, the power is what is wanted.

Newer models have changed things up a bit. The power setting is still there, but it is a button that can be found in the center console below the navigation screen. The button will be pushed twice to activate the top power setting of the Hellcat engine. Owners like to keep this little tidbit quiet until someone is crazy enough to challenge them on the street.

5Bad Corner Handling

The owners of the Hellcat engines will usually avoid street racing that involves curves. It is not common knowledge outside of the tightly-knit circle of owners, but the vehicles are not meant for drifting. They are not meant for s-curves and sharp corners. The Hellcat is a beast that prefers straight roads and all-out power wars.

The vehicles that have the Dodge Hellcat engines have been lowered down closer to the ground, and have been widened out, to compensate for the huge motor. This has added weight to the vehicle which causes it to sway around corners, When the power of the engine is added into the equation, hitting the gas pedal will cause slipping and spinning which can easily put the car into the ditch.

4Bad Vision In All Directions

To make matters worse when trying to blast through corners vision is not the best. In any direction. It is hard to see through the corner at normal speeds, but when pushing through them at higher speeds it becomes a guessing game.

Sitting low in the cab puts the door pillars directly in the line of sight. Vision straight ahead is not too bad, if looking through a tunnel when hitting the gas is needed. Being able to see the competition in the rearview mirrors is an exhilarating experience, but since it is hard to do so in these muscle cars and SUVs it is an emotion that is lost.

Related: 10 Rules You Have To Follow If You Want To Own A Dodge Challenger Hellcat

3Potential To Guzzle Gas

When purchasing a muscle car it is kind of an unwritten law that fuel economy is not a priority. When treated as a daily driver these rides can get around 20 miles a gallon. But when owning a hellcat nobody in their right mind can drive it like a station wagon or minivan. That is the point, after all.

The actual fuel mileage for driving in town is somewhere between 10 and 13 miles per gallon. That is based on driving with a few moments of kicking the motor into high speed. If the car is driven the way that it is meant to be, be prepared for a large gas bill added onto the already sizeable gas-guzzler tax that will need to be paid when buying.

2Special Code To Help Deter Theft

Theft is a huge problem when owning a muscle car of any kind. When the Dodge Hellcat is in the picture, the risk goes up even more. It is such a huge target that the carmaker is having a second code installed into the dashboard. A number will have to be entered for the car to run at maximum power.

If driving a monster of a car at 3 hp maximum output is not enough to deter a thief, the obvious lack of power will draw the attention of any police officers in the area. This is one aspect of owning a Hellcat that owners do not deviate from. The code is known to them, and them alone.

Related: Thieves Target Hellcat-Powered Vehicles At Orlando International Airport Garages

1Hellcat Engines Are Not For Everyone

Owners of Dodge Hellcat vehicles will never tell prospective buyers to rethink their decisions. They know deep down that they are not a car meant for the average person. And the SUVs available are not meant for the average soccer parent. It takes a special breed to handle the power that these beasts offer.

If an experienced driver sits behind the wheel the massive amounts of horsepower and torque will be a dream come true. A vehicle designed for them to tear up the roads. Inexperienced drivers will simply not be able to manage these vehicles and will end up wrapping it around a telephone pole.

The age of the electric car is upon us, and the engineers at Dodge know it. Regardless though, they continue to pump out these monster engines capable of producing over 700 hp. The carmaker dropped many lines in the last years, and they now offer this engine in any model or trim, for an added price.

The Hellcat engine is nearing its end. These muscle cars will be available for a few more years, at most. For now, the king of the beasts will continue to pump out excessive amounts of power for those willing to continue on with the tradition of having a car in the driveway that could easily lead to a few days in jail.

I have been a professional freelance writer for over twenty years. Mostly ghostwriting for other people but I do have a couple of websites that I run. I specialize in articles about the automotive industries, and on the side I take cars from the junkyard, rebuild them, and sell to people in need.