 |
Aftermarket transbrakes have been drag racing staples for decades, but no manufacturer had ever put one in a production car until Dodge teased the 2018 Challenger SRT Demon. The system locks the transmission so the car sits motionless at high rpm, then releases everything in an instant for a reaction-time edge reported at around 30 percent. Read on to find out how Dodge made a pit-lane modification survive daily driving, a factory warranty, and a 9.65-second quarter mile.
A 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS396 running a factory Turbo Hydramatic 400 automatic squares off against a modified 1951 Henry J nicknamed the Green M&M in this quarter mile nostalgia drag race. Kaiser-Frazer built the Henry J as a stripped-down economy car decades before drag racers discovered its featherweight unibody made it a natural straight-line weapon. Viewers praised the channel’s consistent camera work and asked for more up-close burnout footage. Does decades of muscle car engineering really beat a proper weight-to-power ratio down the strip?
For three weeks in early 2017, Dodge fed the internet nothing but teasers for its upcoming Challenger SRT Demon, letting forums debate whether it would top the Hellcat’s 707 horsepower. The eventual reveal delivered 840 horsepower, a 9.65-second quarter mile, and a Guinness-certified wheelie — numbers big enough to justify weeks of speculation. Read on to find out how the hype campaign actually played out.
In spring 2017, Dodge fitted a factory production Challenger with hardware normally reserved for professional dragsters – a trans brake capable of building 534 lb-ft of launch torque via its Torque Reserve system. With 840 horsepower on 100-octane fuel, a driver’s seat as the only seat that came standard, and a production cap of just 3,300 units, the Demon reportedly ran too quick for NHRA certification without a roll cage. Read on to find out how the technology actually works.
TheAutoSpotter’s cameras caught a lineup of American muscle unloading burnouts at a European car rally — and one black Charger with airbrushed green flames stole the entire show. A commenter claiming to know the car’s owner says it runs on biofuel and produces over 1,000 horsepower, which would explain why the street ended up coated in melted rubber. Watch to see which car in the lineup earned the most respect from a crowd that clearly knows its muscle cars.
Drag racing looks like the simplest form of motorsport there is — two cars, a green light, first to the finish line wins. A pair of road-racing enthusiasts attended their first-ever drag event to test that assumption, and quickly discovered how much nuance hides behind 60-foot times, reaction times, and track prep. Watch to find out what actually separates a winning run from a losing one.
A supercharged 707-horsepower Jeep Trackhawk should have no trouble against an electric SUV in a straight line — at least, that is what the horsepower numbers suggest. At Palm Beach International Raceway, a Tesla Model X P100D set a new quarter-mile record for production SUVs against exactly that Hemi-powered Jeep. Watch to see how close the gap actually was, and why the Trackhawk needed a few runs to catch up.
A 2017 Camaro SS and a brand-new Dodge Charger Scat Pack lined up for a straight-line grudge match that should have come down to horsepower. Instead, it turned into a lesson about factory tire widths that muscle car owners are still citing years later. The comment section didn’t blame the driver – they blamed Dodge. Watch to see exactly where it went wrong.
Drag racing legend Don Garlits personally introduces the HellScat, a one-of-a-kind Dodge Challenger engineered past 1,000 horsepower and built specifically to be given away for charity. The name mashes up two existing Dodge trims, but the build goes well beyond anything either one offered from the factory. See why a figure as credible as Garlits was the right person to tell this car’s story.
From the mid-1950s through the 1970s, street racers ruled the boulevard, the drive-in, and the local dragstrip, marking their best times in shoe polish on the windshield for the whole school to see. Crashes, license suspensions, and new laws eventually ended the era, but a surprising number of cars survived, quietly passed down to children and grandchildren who still race them today. Read on to find out where this culture actually played out.
A modestly modified 2003 SVT Cobra lines up against a brand-new, completely stock 2016 Corvette Z06 in this DirtySS street pull, and the result has split comment sections for years. Longtime Mustang owners argue the horsepower math doesn’t add up for a bolt-on Terminator to hang with a factory-supercharged Z06, which only fuels the debate over what’s really under that hood. The footage keeps circulating precisely because nobody can fully agree on the answer.
WYCO Racing’s Operation Octane no-prep event turned the pit road at Kansas Speedway into a proving ground for genuinely street-driven cars, no dedicated race builds allowed. A supercharged Mustang Cobra, an Eagle Talon, and even a four-door CTS-V all took their turns on unprepped pavement. Watch to see which daily driver came out on top when the safety net of sticky racing rubber disappeared.
A grandfather who sold used cars for 60 years, a mom who beat the neighborhood Corvette owner in a full-size Pontiac, and a dad who won a drag race at 69 — this is a family where muscle cars run three generations deep. From a Mach 1 Mustang to a Dodge Super Bee to a 2016 Mustang GT painted in a nod to Steve McQueen’s Bullitt car, the cars change but the obsession never has.
One of the actual Dodge Chargers used on screen by Dominic Toretto in the original Fast and the Furious now belongs to an Italian collector — and in 2015, he did something most owners of movie-used muscle cars never risk. He ran it down a real quarter-mile at Rivanazzano’s dragstrip in Italy. The pass has racked up nearly six million views since, mostly from people who can’t believe he actually did it.
Jeff Lutz has a pattern: flat black paint, twin-turbo big-blocks, 1957 Chevrolets, and Drag Week wins to back it all up. His newest build, unveiled at the Tri-Five Nationals, keeps the 540-cubic-inch big-block he has used before but steps up from 88mm to 98mm turbos in pursuit of roughly 3,500 horsepower. Read on to see how the new car fits the formula that made his two Mad Max ’57s and his Drag Week-winning Camaro famous.