2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Widebody – Redline: Review

This Redline review puts the 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Widebody through its paces, tackling the question every 707-horsepower muscle car eventually has to answer: how do you actually put that much power down on the street without spinning the tires at every stoplight? The fix borrows parts straight from the Demon’s playbook. Watch the full review to see whether the Widebody package actually delivers.

There’s a moment in almost every Hellcat review where the host stops talking and just lets the exhaust do it instead, and this Redline review of the 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Widebody is no exception. But the real story here isn’t the noise — it’s the problem Dodge had to solve after building a 707-horsepower muscle car that couldn’t put its power down without turning every green light into a fight for control. The fix borrows parts from one of the most extreme cars Dodge has ever built. Whether that fix actually works, and whether it’s enough to settle an ongoing argument about which modern muscle car deserves the title, is exactly what this review sets out to answer.

707 Horsepower Was Always the Easy Part

Since its introduction, the Hellcat’s supercharged 6.2-liter Hemi has made 707 horsepower, a figure that was already enough to overwhelm the standard Challenger’s rear tires the moment traction control got switched off. Sending that much torque through only the two rear wheels created a genuine handling problem, not just a marketing footnote — reviewers and owners alike found themselves fighting wheelspin in everyday driving, let alone at wide-open throttle. Dodge’s engineers understood early on that horsepower alone wasn’t the whole equation; putting it down cleanly was the part that actually needed solving. That decision to raid the Demon’s parts inventory rather than engineer an entirely new solution from scratch also kept the Widebody package’s cost increase relatively modest, making genuinely useful traction upgrades available to buyers who had no interest in the Demon’s stripped-down, drag-strip-only mission.

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Borrowing From the Demon’s Parts Bin

Dodge’s solution was to borrow directly from the Demon, the drag-strip-focused Hellcat variant built to run in the nines. The Widebody package takes the Demon’s wider fender flares and pairs them with a significantly wider front and rear track, allowing for meatier tires all around without any bodywork rubbing. It’s a rare case of a genuinely extreme, low-volume special edition directly influencing the car sold in real numbers to real buyers, rather than the usual direction of a mainstream car eventually spawning a track-focused variant.

What 3.5 Inches of Width Actually Buys You

The extra 3.5 inches of width isn’t just a styling flourish — it’s the difference between a Hellcat that spins its tires trying to leave a stoplight and one that actually hooks up. Wider front and rear tires mean more contact patch to manage 707 horsepower, and the reviewer’s own reaction to the car’s launch behavior in this video makes clear the difference is immediately noticeable behind the wheel. It’s still not a car that forgives a careless right foot, but the Widebody package meaningfully closes the gap between the Hellcat’s power output and its ability to use it.

An Interior That Splits Opinion

Reviewers don’t always agree with themselves in real time, and this video captured exactly that kind of moment — the host praised the Widebody’s brown leather seats as attractive, then almost immediately admitted he didn’t actually care for how they looked. It’s a small, unscripted contradiction that viewers picked up on instantly in the comments, and it says something honest about reviewing a car like this: the Hellcat Widebody is loud, aggressive, and occasionally over-the-top enough that even the person driving it can talk himself into two different opinions within the same sentence.

When the Reviewer Becomes Part of the Story

Part of what makes this particular review memorable isn’t just the car — it’s the reviewer becoming an unintentional part of the story. One comment jokes about the camera zooming into the host’s face at the exact moment he starts discussing the Hellcat’s design, and another notes that the subtitle track simply labels the engine note as ‘(MUSIC)’ rather than attempting to describe it. Small production details like these turned into some of the most-replied comments under the video, proof that viewers pay as much attention to how a review is made as to the car being reviewed. It’s worth noting that this same argument rarely gets applied to the Challenger’s closest rivals, most of which have moved toward smaller-displacement, turbocharged engines in recent years — a shift the Hellcat has deliberately avoided, which is exactly why the debate keeps circling back to it specifically.

The ‘Last True Muscle Car’ Argument

Buried in the comments is a debate that shows up under nearly every modern Challenger video: whether the Hellcat represents the last genuinely true muscle car left on sale, built around a front-engine, rear-drive, V8-powered formula that most of its rivals have long since abandoned for turbocharged four- and six-cylinder platforms. It’s not a universally accepted claim — some viewers pushed back hard — but the fact that the argument keeps surfacing says something about how the Challenger has positioned itself in the current muscle car conversation.

How Redline’s Review Format Works

Redline’s review format leans on unscripted, conversational walkthroughs rather than tightly scripted narration, which is exactly why moments like the seat comment and the camera zoom ended up in the final cut instead of being edited out. That looser approach means viewers get a reviewer’s actual, in-the-moment reaction to a car like the Widebody rather than a polished sales pitch, and based on the comment section, that authenticity is a big part of why the channel keeps pulling in engaged, opinionated viewers. Whether or not it deserves the title of last true muscle car standing, the Hellcat Widebody has made its case loudly enough that the argument shows no signs of going away anytime soon.

Still the Loudest Argument in the Room

Nearly a decade after the Hellcat name first appeared, the Widebody package remains the clearest answer Dodge has given to the question of how to make 707 horsepower usable on public roads. It’s still brash, still loud, and still capable of overwhelming an inattentive driver — but with the extra width borrowed from the Demon, it’s finally a Challenger that can back up its power figures with the grip to match, which is exactly the argument this review sets out to make.

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