The Epling Garage Hellcat Challenger Reclaims the World Record

The “007” Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat from the Epling Garage was the first Hellcat car to run in the 8s when the father and son team of Leon and Jason Epling ran an 8.91 back in mid-October. Since then, the Epling’s held the world record for the quickest quarter mile time by a factory Hellcat car, but last weekend, Josh Schwartz ran an 8.883 in the Hellcat Challenger known as “TopCat” to claim the record. Schwartz’s time atop the Hellcat quarter mile leaderboard didn’t last long, as this past weekend, Leon and Jason Elping headed to the track with their 007 Challenger and when the day or racing was done – they had reclaimed the record for the world’s quickest Hellcat car.

The Epling Garage 007 Hellcat Challenger
In case you haven’t read any of our previous articles about the Epling Garage Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat, here is a quick look at the modifications made to create the world’s quickest Hellcat car.

The supercharged 6.2L Hellcat Hemi under the hood has not been opened up. This engine has the stock displacement, stock bottom end, stock camshaft and the stock supercharger. The extra power needed to run in the 8s comes from adding a smaller upper pulley, larger fuel injectors, an upgraded fuel pump and a nitrous oxide system – all of which are brought together with a tune from Tim Barth at Barth Tuning. Again, while the addition of the pulley, the fuel system upgrades, the nitrous and the tune make this Hellcat Challenger far from stock – all of the engine internals are stock.

While the engine isn’t heavily modified, the rest of the 007 Epling Garage Challenger has been altered a great deal to run these numbers. A a race-ready 6-speed manual transmission from Liberty with a pro stock style clutch, a Knoxville Driveline 1 piece steel driveshaft, a 9” rearend from the Driveshaft Shop, 35 spline axles from the Driveshaft Shop and lightweight Holeshot 15” wheels wrapped in 29 inch Hoosier slicks all help to put the Hemi power to the ground. There is also a custom coilover suspension setup to help handle the power on its way to the wheels.

Since the team was the first in the 8s back in October, the only changes to the car are some adjustments to the clutch and a switch to the Tim Barth tune. Of course, there is the factor of added seat time and better air, but in the end, the only real change was the new Barth tune and the result was a new Hellcat world record.

When making these runs yesterday (Sunday, November 19th), the Epling Garage Hellcat Challenger ran a best time of 8.71 at 157.439 miles per hour. That is the quickest quarter mile ET ever by a Hellcat car and the fastest quarter mile trap speed ever by a Hellcat car, while also obviously setting each of those records for manual transmission Hellcat Challengers. On that record run, the 007 Challenger pulled a 1.363 60-foot time along with running through the 8th mile in 5.62 seconds at 126.91 miles per hour – all of which are world records for factory-built Hellcat cars.

During the course of the day, the Epling Garage Challenger also ran a handful of other runs which werent as quick as their 8.71, but with ETs of 8.74, 8.79, 8.80 and 8.88, the team showed that the record run was no fluke. It should also be noted that while Jason Epling has been making the majority of the record runs over the past year, Leon Epling made a run on Sunday and with a pass of 8.80 at 152mph, he proved that he can also get his Mopar muscle car down the track in record time. In fact, Leon’s 8.80 is quicker than any Hellcat quarter mile runs ever, shy of those passes made by his son in the same car.

Congratulations to the Epling Garage 007 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat for once again setting the world record for the quickest and fastest Hellcat car in the quarter mile, 8th mile and in the 60-foot sprint. Watch the record run in the video below!