Dodge Challenger 2016 Hellcat Burnout & 0-60 MPH & MPG Review

Dodge’s 2016 Challenger SRT Hellcat paired a 707-horsepower supercharged V8 with an 11.2-second quarter mile and a factory fuel economy rating nobody expected it to hold onto. This is the story of what that power actually cost owners day to day, from tire wear to insurance premiums, and why the Hellcat era changed how every manufacturer building a pony car thought about horsepower. Read on to see how the numbers held up once the burnout ended.

Dodge did something in 2016 that should not have been possible inside a factory warranty: it built a two-door coupe that could out-accelerate cars costing three times as much, then backed it with an EPA fuel economy sticker nobody expected to survive a burnout, let alone a hundred-mile highway loop. The Challenger SRT Hellcat’s supercharger whine became instantly recognizable, its power figure became a talking point in showrooms that had nothing to do with muscle cars, and yet the real test wasn’t the number on the spec sheet. It was what happened once the tires stopped smoking and the car had to behave like an actual daily driver. So what did the stopwatch, the dyno, and the gas pump actually reveal?

707 Horsepower Built For A Showroom Floor

At the heart of the Hellcat sits a supercharged 6.2-liter Hemi V8 rated at 707 horsepower and 650 lb-ft of torque, output figures that were essentially unheard of in a mass-production American car before 2015. Dodge achieved that number with a 2.4-liter IHI twin-screw supercharger fed by a pair of intercoolers, running just enough boost to make the Hellcat livable on pump gas rather than requiring race fuel. With launch control engaged, the Challenger Hellcat ran 0-60 mph in as little as 3.5 seconds and covered the quarter mile in 11.2 seconds on the factory street tires that came standard, numbers that put a two-ton coupe in the same conversation as European exotics costing two or three times as much money.

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A Six-Speed Or An Eight-Speed, Buyer’s Choice

Dodge offered the 2016 Hellcat with either a Tremec six-speed manual or an eight-speed automatic sourced from ZF, and while the automatic’s launch control shaved a few tenths off the manual’s acceleration times, both versions carried the same factory-rated 199-mph top speed. That top speed required the Hellcat’s wide-body-style front fascia and a set of Pirelli P Zero tires rated to handle triple-digit speeds without coming apart, a detail that mattered because the Hellcat was never intended to be a straight-line-only car. Choosing the manual meant a taller shifter feel and more driver involvement at low speeds, while the automatic delivered quicker, more consistent runs when launch control did the shifting instead of a human hand.

The Fuel Economy Number Nobody Believed

Fuel economy came in around 16 mpg combined regardless of transmission choice, according to EPA figures, a genuinely reasonable result considering the power on tap and one that made the Hellcat surprisingly livable as a daily driver rather than strictly a strip-only toy. On a steady highway cruise well under wide-open throttle, the supercharger spends most of its time barely spinning, which is the only reason a 707-horsepower engine can return economy numbers closer to a V8 pickup truck than a dedicated supercar. That gap between worst-case burnout fuel burn and best-case highway cruising is exactly what a 100-mile MPG loop is designed to expose.

Why 707 Horsepower Changed The Conversation

Before the Hellcat arrived, 700-plus horsepower in an American production car usually meant a heavily modified aftermarket build, not something available at a dealership with a factory warranty and a service department down the street. Its arrival forced every other manufacturer building a pony car to reconsider what “fast” actually meant in the modern muscle car era, and it set off a horsepower arms race among Detroit’s three rivals that continued for years afterward, eventually leading to even more extreme variants like the Redeye and Super Stock. Watching one launch, hearing the supercharger whine build under load, and reading the numbers on a timing slip made it clear this was not a nostalgia play aimed at older buyers, it was a genuine performance leap delivered with air conditioning and a back seat.

The Engine Dodge Almost Didn’t Build

Dodge engineers reportedly debated whether a supercharged V8 or something closer to a Viper-derived V10 made more sense for a flagship Challenger, ultimately settling on the Hemi-based architecture because it could be built at high volume on existing production lines rather than in the low numbers typical of the hand-assembled Viper engine. That decision meant the Hellcat’s 6.2-liter block shared its basic architecture with far tamer Hemi V8s found in Ram trucks and Durangos, just with a forged crankshaft, stronger connecting rods, and forged pistons added to survive the boost. Building a halo engine out of a platform the company could scale kept the Hellcat’s price within reach of enthusiasts instead of pricing it purely as a limited-run specialty car.

Living With A 707-Horsepower Daily Driver

Day-to-day ownership came with real trade-offs that a burnout video rarely shows: the factory Pirelli tires wore quickly under enthusiastic driving, insurance premiums for a car rated at 707 horsepower ran noticeably higher than a standard R/T, and the eight-speed automatic’s launch control required a specific sequence of steps most owners had to learn from the manual rather than intuit on their own. None of that stopped the Hellcat from becoming one of the more livable high-horsepower cars ever sold, with a usable back seat, a trunk large enough for real luggage, and factory air conditioning strong enough to keep the cabin comfortable even after a full quarter-mile pull.

How The Hellcat Stacked Up Against Its Rivals

When the Hellcat launched, its closest factory rival was the supercharged Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, which offered similar power in a lighter, more track-focused package, while Ford’s answer came later with the Shelby GT500’s own supercharged V8. The Challenger’s advantage was never outright lap times, it was the combination of raw straight-line performance, a comfortable interior, and a usable back seat that made it viable as an only car in a way its rivals were not. That trade-off, more weight and size in exchange for everyday usability, became the Hellcat’s defining character among enthusiasts cross-shopping all three pony cars.

What A Hellcat Costs Today

Used 2016 Hellcat values have held up unusually well compared to typical modern muscle cars, with clean, unmodified examples commanding a real premium over a standard V6 or R/T Challenger years after production ended, largely because Dodge discontinued the Challenger nameplate entirely after 2023 without a direct gas-powered successor. That finality has turned the entire Hellcat generation, from the original 2015 debut through the later Redeye and Super Stock variants, into cars enthusiasts increasingly view as the last of a specific era in Detroit’s horsepower wars rather than just another used car on a dealer lot.

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