The Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat is the quickest stock American muscle car ever, but the supercharged Mopar muscle cars are even more impressive in how well they take to modifications. One fine example of this willingness to make far more power – and to run stunning quarter mile times – is the Plum Crazy 2016 Hellcat Challenger which is owned and driven by Steven Ripa. With a surprisingly short list of modifications, Ripa’s Challenger was able to run a 9.34 quarter mile this past weekend, making his Mopar muscle car the third-quickest in the world while being the quickest blower-only Hellcat car in the world.
Steven Ripa’s Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat
Before getting into what his Hellcat Challenger ran, here is a quick look at Ripa’s surprisingly short list of modifications. The engine output has been increased by adding a 2.65 upper pulley, a 10% lower pulley, ID1300 fuel injectors, a KenneBell Boost-A-Pump, a Legmaker cold air intake and tune from Tim Barth. Barth’s name should sound familiar, as he has had a hand in tuning many of the world’s quickest Hellcat cars.
Next, to put the power to the ground as safely as possible, Rip Hellcat Challenger has a DriveShaft Shop aluminum driveshaft, 15-inch front and rear wheel conversion (meaning smaller brakes) and a set of 275 ET Street drag radials out back.
Mind you, Steven Ripa knows his well around a drag strip, having formerly owned, built and tuned the quickest manual transmission C7 Corvette in the country, so he also has the “good driver mod”. However, with that short mod list and the tuning expertise of Tim Barth, Ripa was able to turn the quickest blower-only quarter mile run by a Hellcat car ever. For those unclear, blower-only means that he is not running nitrous oxide, whereas the record-setting Epling Garage Dodge Challenger Hellcat ran its 8-second time with nitrous.
Most impressively, in addition to being the quickest blower-only Hellcat car in the world, the only Hellcat cars to run a quicker quarter mile are the two nitrous-fed Challengers which have been battling for the past year to be the quickest in the world. Those are the Epling Garage 007 Challenger with a manual transmission and the “TopCat” car from High Horse Performance, which runs the automatic transmission and a nitrous setup.
However, with a loaded interior and no nitrous, Steven Ripa’s Hellcat Challenger laid down the third-quickest quarter mile time ever – running a 9.34 at 143 miles per hour.
Best of all, the run is on video, so crank up your speakers and enjoy this video of the world’s quickest blower-only Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat in action.