So to tell the story properly we gotta go back to 2015.
I find myself at Candian Tire motorsports Park ( Mosport) the race track East of Toronto Ontario Canada. There was a Sanctioned vent at the time the Series was called Tudor racing series it transitioned a bunch of times now, Anyways it was sports car racing. They had an Intermission at one point and the track was empty and low and behold I see this Black Challenger get on track and watch come through the turns at Turn 9 and 10 on just before the start finish of the track screaming. It was a Black challenger. But as a I saw it sail by I noticed it was not a normal challenger and that the taillights and ground effects had been styled differently. I hear from someone glancing on track just as I was saying "thats the Challenger Hellcat" Intrigued I start scoping the paddock as the car had came off track to see where it was. I could not find it. I find out later that it was being driven by Ralph Gilles who was visiting mosport for the event and decided to bring this new challenger as demo for people to see.
I said to myself that was a hell of a car. One Day I need to get one. As the market began getting injected with these cars I would see them more and more and I would always stop to admire one whether it be a picture or in person.
So Fast forward to 2018. I am working with a racing team as a mechanic based in Toronto, And am surrounded by all kinds of different motorsports cars. Particularly the Ferrari 333 Sp
So Being Able to explore this car and work on it as anyone would expect was a Joy. For its time it had all the new Technology and the sound was just amazing when it would fire up. Now with any race car, usually you have a bunch of spare parts on hand just in case things wear or break.
Now this car out of the many had an abundance of parts some were good some were already worn out. So one day The owner of the Car and team needed to make space for storage so we being the team and department that takes care of the car were tasked to assess the parts in storage and dispose of whatever we would find not usable to the vehicle. One commodity of parts we had in particular were Mufflers for this car specifically Tubi Style mufflers. there must have been atleast 20 sets of mufflers. So the owner gave us specific instructions to dispose of whatever we had in excess.
As I am chucking stuff into the dumpster An idea comes to mind just as I m chucking these mufflers into the trash " This would be awesome to put on the next car I wanna get" . So I put a set aside and decided to take them home. As I thought that night what car these would suit I thought back to that day years ago when I saw that hellcat ripping through space and time at mosport and instantly said to myself hell that was a car. so right away as I recalled that time I saw the car I said " these are gunna be sweet if I put them on a hellcat one day". Knowing this I wrapped them up and put them in storage waiting for the day I promised my self that these would go that hemi car.
Years forward the opportunity has finally come that I can afford one of these cars. So I start looking (not like I wasnt always before though) I'm looking I see white ones, A yellow one a ton of red ones. And every single one I m coming across is mainly automatic which I didnt want. I said if I m getting this car its Gunna have a 6 speed manual and I m gunna wheel this thing like they did when they first came out in the old school days,
So I m waiting to find the right one. Then Covid starts hitting January were hearing about cases of this disease killing and and all the fun stuff it does. So then in March I come across an auto trader ad 2016 Black, 6 speed, red Seat belts, Low km 7,456km Challenger Hellcat SRT at a Dodge dealer north of me, I believe it was. And I m like damn this is a car and it reminded me of the one I saw Gilles drive at mosport those years before.
So I buy it like to hell it with it this is the one
I get it and take the car no extended warranty not even a full tank of gas. Take her home and the first week I already start changing things.
First up I wanted a different shift knob I spin a piece of aluminum on my buddies lathe an Attach the same shift knob I had on my other car which was also custom. That way If I ever felt the need switch to the stock setup I would.
The Next thing I decided to do was exactly what I talked about previous I took those mufflers out of storage got some Vibrant Stainless steel stock and Tig welded my custom exhaust from Axel Back.
I used 2.75” V bands to join the Axel Back exhaust to the stock exhaust system.
Here the exhaust completed on the car
Now the sound is More crisp, there is no pop or crack like you have from the stock mufflers also Its not as loud as one would expect. So I definitely believe the next thing to do is delete the mid mufflers with some 2.75" vibrant stainless Tubing and attach 2.75" v bands to those on either end then see if it ll wake up the sound a bit.
Thats all for now hope you guys liked the story
