February Hellcat of the Month: Charlie Link's 2017 Destroyer Gray Dodge Charger

The February 2019 Hellcat of the Month as picked by the members of the SRT Hellcat and Demon Facebook Group is the 2017 Dodge Charger SRT shown above – owned , driven and raced by Charlie Link.

Over the course of the past two years, TorqueNews has worked with the members of the SRT Hellcat & Demon Group on Facebook to choose the Hellcat of the Month. The members – almost 19,000 of them – are asked to nominate five Hellcat cars that are owned by active members of the online community. Once those five Hellcat cars are chosen, the members are asked to vote on their favorite car of the five in the running.

For February 2019, we focused on the Charger and of the five nominations, Charlie took home the title with 46% of the votes. Zdung Ho’s Charger finished second with 31% and Dan Smith, Keoshi Shannon and Dave Mac finished third, fourth and fifth.

After the members voted him in as the February 2019 Hellcat of the Month, I reached out to Charlie for more information on his wicked Dodge Charger.

Charlie Link’s Super-Charger
I asked Charlie some basic questions – why he bought his Hellcat, what he has done to the car, what he has planned for the car and who has helped him in his Hellcat adventure. Below is his story in his words.

I picked up my 2017 Destroyer Gray Charger Hellcat on March 31st 2017.

The reason I got this specific car all started after I had watched some of the original video’s in 2014 of the Challenger Hellcat and was so excited that we were beginning to see a muscle car horse power war starting again between the big 3. The sound of that supercharger whine and the giggle the test drivers got every time they mashed the gas was just priceless. I never dreamed I would own one but I knew I wanted a Hellcat over any other car.

Fast forward to December of 2016.

I was just looking online at what it cost to get a Hellcat and my wife casually mentioned to me “Why don’t you just get one?” She was serious. I ended up going with the Charger instead of the Challenger only because I loved the idea of a 4 door sedan with that ridiculous power on tap. I do love both cars BTW. 3 months later I had found my dream car a 2017 Dodge Charger Hellcat in Destroyer Gray with every option but the carbon strips. My local dealership traded 3 of their vehicles with another dealership that had the exact car I wanted. I took delivery on March 31st 2017 and will never forget driving it home that day.

I first replaced the stock Pzero’s with Continental Extreme Contact Sports the ordered 11 by 20” Hellraiser wheels with 315 35 20 Continental Extreme Contact Sports. I only lasted just over one year before I no longer could hold back on voiding my warranty. After conferring with some experts on this page I ended up contacting HHP and talked directly with thee Joshua Schwartz on what was my best plan for modifications.

Below is the list of mods I went with.
Unlocked PCM with Diablo Trinity 2 Tuner
Lower 10% ATI balancer (pinned crank)
Upper 3.10 pulley ring for pump gas
Upper 2.75 pulley ring for Q16
ID1050X Injectors
JBA cat delete
NGK spark plugs
180 Thermostat
Per4mance Development Rear diff brace
S&M Driveshaft safety loop

In the works for this spring:
17 inch by 10 wheels w rim locks and tires
DSS driveshaft
DSS half shafts
And hitting solid high to mid-9’s in the 1320.

My future plans are going to be somewhat undisclosed but the basics are pulling the engine and transmission and working with HHP on beefing up the bottom end of the engine and building the transmission to handle more power. Not giving out detailed info here but I have a goal of going as fast as I can on stock transmission, stock blower, stock heads, and stock block all having some rework done to them. A roll cage but only when I absolutely have to.

I have to thank my wife first of all for helping make this dream come true. She has supported me through everything I do.

Secondly I have to thank Steve Sanayei for hooking me up with a deal that made me affording this car even possible. I spent many nights working late on his son’s bikes for free and this was his repayment to me for all I did for him and his son. He happened to be the finance manager working at the dealership I went to. I had no idea he worked there until I went looking for my dream car. It was fate I think.

I want to thank Patrick Rall for hosting the SRT Hellcat and Demon Group page. This was the first page I found when looking for a Hellcat to buy. There are so many helpful people on here and so much great information……..if you use the search function. LOL!

Thanks to Charles Titone III for helping me pull the trigger on the modifications I have done so far and all of his advice. He was one of the first people I started talking to and getting advice from on what to do.

Thanks Sumit Goyal and Tom Drago (Sensei) for helping me understand and learn my datalogs and how to use the Diablo tuner and for literally walking me through any details on doing my install of the pulleys, injectors and so many other things to help me get my car together correctly. Those two have been absolutely invaluable to me.

Thanks Joshua Schwartz for being patient with me and doing amazing tuning on my car plus making sure I got the right parts to do what I wanted to do with my car.

I want to thank David Baker for nominating me.

Lastly I can’t list everyone here because so many people have helped me along the way but I truly appreciate every single one of you. You do know who you are.
----------------------------------------------

Congratulations to Charlie Link for being named the February 2019 Hellcat of the Month. If you have a Hellcat-powered vehicle and you are interested in being a member of the biggest and best Hellcat group on FB, click here to join up. Introduce yourself, show off your ride and your supercharged Mopar might be featured here on TorqueNews.