Daily Driver: 2015 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat

Daily Driver videos are micro-reviews of vehicles in the Autoblog press fleet, reviewed by the staffers who drive them every day. Today's Daily Driver features the 2015 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat, reviewed by Greg Migliore.

You can watch the video above or read a transcript below. Watch more Autoblog videos at /videos.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:

[00:00:00] Hey, everybody. It's Greg Migliore and today I am driving a 707-horsepower Dodge Charger. That can only mean one thing: I'm driving the Hellcat. Naturally, the spotlight feature of this car is the 6.2-liter supercharged Hemi V8. Makes 707 horsepower and 650 pound feet of torque.

[00:00:30] Now naturally the engine sounds great and you can hear all of those horses going out the exhaust in back, which I think the Dodge guys have tuned really well. I think it's got one of the more unique sounds in the industry. All that horsepower will do that, but they've tuned it so there's a low kind of growl, and then it burbles and it's angry

[00:01:00], it's visceral. I like it. It's intoxicating. It's different than other muscle cars. It's different than European exotics. I think it sounds great. I'm driving in sport right now which allows me to use the paddle shifters. I think it sounds a little better and the shifts of the eight-speed automatic transmission are a little bit more aggressive. For such a powerful car, Dodge did a nice job of tuning it to be actually pretty drivable. I just took a corner right there and the

[00:01:30] steering offers you satisfying weight to your inputs. It's a little bit of a heavier steering, especially compared to some of the earlier generation Chargers. It's sporty, but it's not crazy.
The design of the Dodge Charger is a critical element. That's why a lot of people buy this car, is it gives them that muscle car heritage look. The Hellcat has some special design cues that are also functional. You've got a couple of extra air intakes up front, keeps everything cool and breathing, the air flowing through; a nice spoiler in back

[00:02:00] that helps keep the aero, and the downforce keeps you on the ground. The HID projector headlights really pop, especially at night, and in back you've got the LED taillights that spread out wide across the back end of this car like some of the great Chargers of the past. This car rolls on 20-inch black wheels with a spiderweb design. I think they look good. They're kind of low-key, which I think is great. If you're going to drive 707 horsepower, you don't want everything to be crazy and over the top. They really, I think, fit in well.

[00:02:30] Another thing about the Hellcat is at its core it's still a Dodge Charger, albeit a really powerful one. That means it's got a huge trunk, a really big back seat, and it's pretty good for whatever you want to do over the course of a normal day. With 707 horsepower, you wonder what is Dodge's next move? You don't really need more than 707 horsepower on the street. You don't really need even half of that to have an exciting car. It will be interesting to see how they evolve the Charger

[00:03:00] and the Hellcat, which is fast becoming a sub-brand in its own right.
That's the 2015 Dodge Charger SRT Hemi Hellcat. It's a lot of fun, it has a lot of power, and if you're an enthusiast, it's worth checking out. For Autoblog, I'm Greg Migliore. [00:03:20]