Dodge Hellcat-Viper-Hellcat Thrash Battle!

Roadkill hosts Mike Finnegan and David Freiburger got handed three brand-new 2015 Dodges at once — a 707-horsepower Challenger Hellcat, a 707-horsepower Charger Hellcat, and a 645-horsepower Viper GT — for a combined 2,059 horsepower in one parking lot. What follows includes burnouts, a drag strip, guest appearances from Motor Trend and Dirt Every Day talent, and an unplanned stop at a motocross track that none of these cars were built for. Watch to see how much of it survives intact.

Add up the horsepower of every vehicle in this video and you get a number so absurd it sounds like a typo: 2,059. That’s not a single car’s output — that’s what happens when a magazine show gets handed the keys to three of the angriest vehicles Dodge has ever built at once and told to have fun with them. There’s a wrestling ring’s worth of guest talent along for the ride, a motocross track that has no business being involved, and a dog in the back seat who looks more focused on the road than anyone driving. Nobody at Dodge signed off on everything that happens next.

The Moment Dodge Handed Roadkill the Keys

This episode marks the point where Roadkill officially became Dodge-powered programming, and the brand celebrated by handing hosts Mike Finnegan and David Freiburger three brand-new 2015 supercars at once: a 707-horsepower Challenger SRT Hellcat, a 707-horsepower Charger SRT Hellcat, and a 645-horsepower Viper GT. Add those three figures together and the combined output sitting in one parking lot comes to 2,059 horsepower — a number one commenter did the math on years after the episode aired and still sounds unbelievable typed out. For a show built on junkyard budgets and beater engine swaps, getting three factory-fresh, top-trim performance cars simultaneously was as close to Christmas morning as Roadkill gets.

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Why They Never Touched the Black Key

Dodge ships Hellcat models with two ignition keys, and the difference between them is enormous: the black key electronically caps output at roughly 500 horsepower for valet or new-driver situations, while the red key unlocks the full factory rating. Finnegan and Freiburger made a point of running the red keys for the entire episode, which meant every burnout, every drag strip pull, and every ill-advised stunt happened with all 707 horsepower on tap rather than the tamer, babysat version of the car. It’s a small detail, but it says everything about the episode’s approach: if Dodge built in a safety valve, Roadkill wasn’t interested in using it.

A Viper GT Treated Like a Rally Car

Of the three vehicles, the Viper GT drew the most disbelief in the years since — viewers still comment on watching two hosts point a 645-horsepower, largely track-focused supercar down surfaces it was never engineered for, less like a road car and more like something you’d enter in a stage rally. That’s very much in keeping with Roadkill’s format, which has never treated a car’s intended use case as a limitation so much as a suggestion. Looking back at it now, more than one commenter has admitted the Viper is the vehicle they miss most from this era of Dodge’s lineup, even with two 707-horsepower Hellcats parked right next to it.

The Motocross Track Nobody Saw Coming

Beyond the expected burnouts and drag strip runs, the episode includes what the description calls “a big, irresponsible surprise at a motocross track” — three street-legal supercars getting pointed at terrain built for dirt bikes, not 20-inch factory wheels and low-slung ground clearance. It’s the kind of stunt that only makes sense in the context of a show that treats consequences as part of the entertainment rather than something to avoid. None of the three Dodges were built with motocross jumps in mind, which is precisely the appeal for a channel whose entire premise is putting expensive, powerful machines somewhere they clearly don’t belong.

The Guest List Reads Like a Motorsports Crossover Episode

Roadkill pulled in outside talent for this one instead of running it as a two-man show. Carlos Lago represented Motor Trend proper, Fred Williams brought his off-road pedigree from Dirt Every Day, and professional drifter Tony Angelo joined for a segment where none of the assembled talent, by Freiburger’s own admission, should have been handed the keys to any of these cars. The crossover format let the episode borrow credibility from three different corners of the automotive world — off-roading, drifting, and mainstream buff-book journalism — while still keeping the chaotic, low-budget energy that separates Roadkill from a polished manufacturer press event.

The Line That Outlived the Episode

Freiburger’s on-camera description of the outing — “the most bitchin family car ever” — has stuck around in the Roadkill fan community long after the episode’s initial release, quoted in comment sections on nearly every re-upload or clip since. It captures the show’s particular sense of humor: treating a 707-horsepower factory supercar with the same casual affection you’d apply to a minivan, while fully aware of how absurd the comparison is. That tone, more than the horsepower figures themselves, is why an eight-year-old magazine-show episode about three Dodges still gets fresh comments from viewers discovering it for the first time.

Roadkill Dog Steals a Scene It Wasn’t Supposed To

Somewhere in the middle of a 2,059-horsepower thrash session, the show’s unofficial mascot — known to fans simply as Roadkill Dog — makes an appearance riding along and, according to viewers, is the only passenger in the entire episode who looks genuinely focused on the road ahead. It’s a small, unscripted moment that’s outlasted plenty of the episode’s bigger stunts in fan memory, proof that even a show built around triple-digit horsepower numbers earns some of its most-repeated comments from a dog paying better attention than the humans holding the wheel.

Why 707 Horsepower Was Such a Big Deal in 2015

When the Hellcat twins launched for 2015, 707 horsepower made the Challenger and Charger the most powerful mass-produced V8 muscle cars sold in America at the time, a title Dodge itself would later beat with the supercharged Demon and Redeye models. This episode landed right as that record was fresh news, effectively functioning as a live, chaotic celebration of the milestone rather than a standard press-fleet review. Watching it now, with even more powerful Dodges having since come and gone, the episode plays as a snapshot of the exact moment factory horsepower numbers on a Challenger first became genuinely shocking. Roadkill has never pretended to be a comprehensive review outlet, and this episode is a good example of why fans keep coming back anyway: it trades polish for the sense that anything — a motocross jump, a borrowed drifter, a dog riding shotgun — could plausibly happen next, and frequently does.

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