Introducing Our 1st Hellcat of the Month: Paul Powell's Plum Crazy Challenger

I am fortunate enough to be heavily involved in the Dodge Challenger and Charger Hellcat owner’s community and in seeing the passion behind all of these high performance Mopar muscle cars, I have decided to start up the TorqueNews Hellcat of the Month in cooperation with the Hellcat Group Facebook page.

Each month, I will feature a Hellcat Challenger or Hellcat Charger which has been selected by the members of the Hellcat Group Facebook page as the best of the five nominees – which are also selected by the community. In short, the Hellcat community picks the Hellcat of the Month and we feature that vehicle here on TorqueNews.

This month, it just so happens that our very first Hellcat of the Month award goes to Paul Powell – the man who helped to start the Hellcat Group Facebook page – and his Plum Crazy 2016 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat.

August Hellcat of the Month
For our first ever Hellcat of the Month contest, the members of the group nominated five Hellcat cars (four Challengers and a Charger) and when the voting ended, it was Paul Powell and his Plum Crazy Challenger which was picked as the group’s favorite.
I reached out to Paul for some background on himself, his vehicles and his favorite aspects of his Hellcat Challenger – this is what he had to say:

My Story:
I’ve loved cars for as long as I can remember and I always loved GM and Mopars. My dad was a big Mopar fan and my grandparents worked for GM their entire working lives. From the time I turned 16, I always owned GM vehicles because of the discount that I would get. I owned a 1997 Camaro Z28 Convertible, a Cadillac XLR and three 2000-2002 Trans Am WS6 models - all of which were 6 speeds.

In 2009 I looked at and nearly bought a 6 speed manual SRT-8 Challenger, but I didn’t care for the interior design and thought it was too heavy and the performance wasn’t where I wanted it to be. Anyway because of my growing family, I got away from sports cars and got into family vehicles like 3 different Cadillac Escalades and a couple Chrysler Town & Country minivans. In 2014 I ended up buying a Dodge Durango R/T because of the incredible value it offered over the GM equivalents and that really got me excited about Mopar products. The build quality, refinement, technology and price all were far superior to their competition.

When Dodge announced the Hellcat in 2014, I saw one in person when I was at the Woodward Dream Cruise and I fell in love with the looks and the changes that FCA made, especially with the interior. I suddenly realized that I had the chance to own the most powerful car ever made for people that are not billionaires. I would have put my order in right then, but I didn’t think that the hype would be what it turned out to be. I waited and figured I would let the hype die down and pick one up in the spring of 2015. Well, that didn’t quite work out the way I planned and I refused (Wife would castrate me) to pay over MSRP for a Challenger Hellcat. (More on Page 2)

In December of 2015 I was discussing with the wife about budgeting for one during the middle or end of the summer and my wife asked “why wait to get one?” Well, before she could change her mind, come to her senses, or wake up from her coma I had already talked to 3 dealers about Hellcats that they had in stock and were willing to sell them at MSRP. I settled on a 2016 Plum Crazy Purple Challenger with Black leather, Black Wheels, Sun Roof and Navigation. I would have preferred a B5 Blue A8, but I couldn’t find one nearby at MSRP and I didn’t want to chance my wife sleeping on it and changing her mind. A deal was made at Jack Phalen Dodge and I took my baby home.

About Me
I am married to my wife Tricia Powell and have 4 amazing kids, Nicholas (9), Matthew (7), Audrey (3.5), Sarah (1.5). I am 33 years old and manage an IT consulting practice surrounding Microsoft Infrastructure, mainly focusing on Azure and Office 365. I have been with my wife since High School and I have to say that I am the luckiest guy on the planet to have such an amazing wife and family.

Best features of the Hellcat
I love the Hellcat because I am able to get 4 kids in the car (Although not for a long drive) and let them all experience the fun. Audrey my daughter calls it the Hello-Cat or Kitty because Hell is a bad word and she likes kitty cats.

I also love that the car is comfortable for bigger gentleman like myself, I am a bit “Fluffy”.

On the day I brought the car home from the dealer my daughter Audrey changed into purple tiger pajamas so that she could match the car for the first time she sat in it.

My Oldest boy tells me that this is his car when he turns 16 no matter how many times I tell him no.

I will have this car until the day I die or Dodge makes a 708+HP Hellcat, whichever comes first.

So, congrats to Paul Powell for winning our first Hellcat of the Month award. If you are interested in participating in the largest Hellcat discussion group on Facebook – or if you want to get your Hellcat Challenger or Charger involved in our Hellcat of the Month program - click here to visit the page.