[luke916]

Hi guys, I'm in the market for a leisure/weekend car. My wife and I have a few other vehicles that we use for DD, and I work from home, so my "DD" is the 60-foot walk from the bedroom to my office. Even my actual DD only sees maybe 5k miles a year, and I think I only put 500 miles on my motorcycle in the last 12 months. So this would be a car that sits in a garage and goes out on weekends in mostly good weather for a couple hundred miles at a time. I'm currently torn between the Challenger HC 6-speed (not widebody) and a Maserati Granturismo (I know, polar opposites).

I think the only thing holding me back from being sold on the Hellcat is this irrational (?) fear about how sloppy everyone says they are. I've searched everywhere, and the only things I've found on this are either auto journalists full of hyperbole but not giving any concrete examples, or youtube videos showing people just driving around. I've driven 500+ HP cars and trucks, and my bike will run a 9-second 1/4 (not with me piloting it, but mechanically...), so the idea of speed isn't foreign to me. I just worry that it won't track straight when the tires spin, or that I'll downshift to third and punch it to pass someone on the interstate and it'll go all sideways on me at 80mph, or that I'll give it 20% throttle in second in the rain and it'll point me straight at a guardrail.

So I guess I'm looking for experiences. I've searched for a while and can't find anything clear on the interwebs. Given dry conditions and good road surface, can you floor it in 2nd gear? 3rd? Where does it finally get traction? If you're rowing the gears and do a hard 2/3 shift will it smoke the tires? How "sloppy" are these things in the real world? I feel like this is a topic that's probably been covered before, but I couldn't find it. If I'm beating a dead horse here, let me know. lol Thanks guys!

 

[allgoldmac]

with traction control on it is not hard to manage at all, granted you can't keep your foot planted very long without destroying the posted speed limit. I've never driven a granturismo but I think you would enjoy driving the hellcat more with manual trans.

 

[DGatzby]

Get the six speed Widebody so you can install 12" wheels on the back with the largest tires made and they work great! Got a Redeye Widebody with 345/30's PS4S Michlien tires on the rear and it works great. I have 100% confidence either from a stop and certainly rolling into it at any speed, that things will be fine. It allows us to use the right pedal as we want and need to. Keep the skinny tires and traction problems can occur, not worth it. The traction control on these works great and generally will keep you out of trouble unless something goes wrong or you really decide to be stupid.

 

[Catless]

Yes a 700 HP RWD vehicle on street tires will get "sloppy" if you floor it and don't use good sense. If it didn't I would be disappointed and feel it needed more power.

 

[Booky]

Given dry conditions and good road surface, can you floor it in 2nd gear? 3rd? Where does it finally get traction? If you're rowing the gears and do a hard 2/3 shift will it smoke the tires?

A proper rear tire setup will tame the big girl's dancing.


.

 

[DDG-18]

It can be a lot to handle until the driver is properly oriented. It is not a car for everyone, might be to much to handle. If you like the style go for the R/T.

 

[luke916]

with traction control on it is not hard to manage at all, granted you can't keep your foot planted very long without destroying the posted speed limit. I've never driven a granturismo but I think you would enjoy driving the hellcat more with manual trans.

Thanks! Really the GT is in the running because I find it stunning to look at, but it makes 450 hp and is about as heavy as the Challenger, so it's not going to be as fun to drive for sure.

As a real-world example - if you were going highway speeds, shifted to third, and floored it, would it grip or slip? Just trying to get an idea of how sloppy it's going to be. I understand power makes wheels slip - I had a modified twin turbo Z in college where first gear was useless, and second would slip if you let it when the turbos spooled. I'm just trying to figure out where these things fall in that scale.

 

[2fast4u]

These monsters do have a learning curve, but if you cautiously learn the power curve, you will be amazed at how easy it is to control MOST of the time. As stated above, tires are a REAL necessity to get the power moving the car and not just going up in smoke. Just learn it like you did as a kid on a bicycle, before you know it you're wondering why you waited so long for this kind of enjoyment!

 

[HellcatMatt]

Hellcat over the Gran Turismo for sure. The Maserati will be very disappointing in comparison of power....but they sure do sound amazing!

A 6spd Hellcat is much less "wild" than the A8's (the autos being notably faster). Can you make them squirm? Yes but they are very easy to control and as others have already mentioned, traction control does a great job. Also as DGatzby mentioned, put on some Michelin P4S's and it will help tremendously. My 6spd car makes over 900whp and with even 295 P4S's I could floor it in 3rd gear in 40-50 degree temps and not lose traction. Even hard hits in 2nd gear would hook in 50+ degrees on good surfaces at times.

In summary, get the hellcat and we'll help you manage any "slop" (they aren't in my opinion)

 

[therumguy]

I went from a 2016 Porsche Macan S to a 2019 Manual Challenger Hellcat and couldn't be happier. The giant supercharged V8 sold me on it, and I thought that I'd be taking a huge step down in build quality. I was completely surprised how solid and nimble this car is. After many years of driving German cars, I'd put this one on par with any of them.

 

[JOHN JONES]

Every YouTube vid of the challenger has the driver smiling from ear to ear,,that should tell you something
forget the numbers,,there's no number that describes how wide your smile will be when you hit that go petal

 

[luke916]

Every YouTube vid of the challenger has the driver smiling from ear to ear,,that should tell you something
forget the numbers,,there's no number that describes how wide your smile will be when you hit that go petal

It also has almost every driver nearly messing their drawers, so I take that with a grain of salt.

Thanks everyone, this is exactly the type of feedback I was hoping for. My wife's pushing for the Hellcat also, so I suppose my decision's nearly made. haha

 

[ACMAVRO]

Hi guys, I'm in the market for a leisure/weekend car. My wife and I have a few other vehicles that we use for DD, and I work from home, so my "DD" is the 60-foot walk from the bedroom to my office. Even my actual DD only sees maybe 5k miles a year, and I think I only put 500 miles on my motorcycle in the last 12 months. So this would be a car that sits in a garage and goes out on weekends in mostly good weather for a couple hundred miles at a time. I'm currently torn between the Challenger HC 6-speed (not widebody) and a Maserati Granturismo (I know, polar opposites).

I think the only thing holding me back from being sold on the Hellcat is this irrational (?) fear about how sloppy everyone says they are. I've searched everywhere, and the only things I've found on this are either auto journalists full of hyperbole but not giving any concrete examples, or youtube videos showing people just driving around. I've driven 500+ HP cars and trucks, and my bike will run a 9-second 1/4 (not with me piloting it, but mechanically...), so the idea of speed isn't foreign to me. I just worry that it won't track straight when the tires spin, or that I'll downshift to third and punch it to pass someone on the interstate and it'll go all sideways on me at 80mph, or that I'll give it 20% throttle in second in the rain and it'll point me straight at a guardrail.

So I guess I'm looking for experiences. I've searched for a while and can't find anything clear on the interwebs. Given dry conditions and good road surface, can you floor it in 2nd gear? 3rd? Where does it finally get traction? If you're rowing the gears and do a hard 2/3 shift will it smoke the tires? How "sloppy" are these things in the real world? I feel like this is a topic that's probably been covered before, but I couldn't find it. If I'm beating a dead horse here, let me know. lol Thanks guys!

You need to be going around 35mph+ to punch it in 2nd to get it to spin and when it does you can come out of the throttle a bit and control it (knock on wood). Mine will rarely spin in 3rd. Still on the Pirelli 275/40's. I find the car to be controllable, but I don't drive like a maniac either. You should find one that you can really get on, and see how you like it. I'm sure you wont be disappointed.

 

[Doublewide]

A good set of tires do wonders. I found even with the stock summer pirelli tires it never seemed too wild. Yes in the a8, you would light them up big time in first and a good amount in second as well. In the cold weather months, it will light them up in 3rd too. BUT even when it does start spinning, my experience has been that it tracks pretty damn straight even during wheel spin and never felt uncontrollable

 

[91681]

2017 Challenger HC here, Continental ECS
275/40/40s on stock 9.5s up front, 305/35/20s on PKAD 10.5 HR5s with 3mm spacer out back. With that setup, the M6 HC feels great rain or shine. Can you get sloppy, sure if you are aggressive or oblivious to what the car is telling you. But otherwise, it is very stable and a pure blast to drive.

 

[91681]

Oops..fronts 275/40/20s

 

[Stl376]

Sloppy? No... Fun? yes... I DD mine through Ice rain and snow... just gotta respect the power. -and being a 4400lbs car, its not as bad as other fast cars.

 

[ciphros]

Got stuck behind a string of cars going 50mph. Passed all 5 at once on a 2 lane road. I dont see where there is any worry about the cars. Pic below is the top speed from that pass.

 

[TheBeaSSt]

Got stuck behind a string of cars going 50mph. Passed all 5 at once on a 2 lane road. I dont see where there is any worry about the cars. Pic below is the top speed from that pass.
View attachment 530111

How do you pass 5 cars all at once on a 2 lane road?

 

[ciphros]

How do you pass 5 cars all at once on a 2 lane road?

Floor it and go.