The New Dodge Challenger's Hellcat Hemi Could Debut Next Week in Detroit

While the Chrysler Group hasn’t offered any real information on the future Dodge Challenger, insider information and spyshots have all but confirmed that there is indeed a monster supercharged version of the Challenger destined for showrooms in the near future. Like the Hemi V8 engines beforehand that received US military-based codenames like the Eagle 5.7L and the Apache 6.4L, the new supercharged Hemi is rumored to be referred to as the Hellcat internally. The discussions from around the automotive water cooler suggest that the Hellcat Hemi will very easily live up to that name with a roots style supercharger helping the new high performance engine to create somewhere between 580 and 680 horsepower.

It has long been expected that the Dodge Challenger would debut with the new Hellcat Hemi at the 2014 New York International Auto Show but a report by Allpar suggests that the new 600-ish horsepower Hemi could debut at the 2014 North American International Auto Show in Detroit’s Cobo Hall. Those sources who informed Allpar that the Hellcat Hemi could debut next week are unclear whether the new engine will debut on a stand, in a current generation Dodge Challenger or under the hood of a concept version – it will be what Chrysler offers up for the horsepower junkies in attendance.

We previously speculated that the Chrysler Group could have something special up its sleeve for the 2014 North American International Auto Show as the only known debut is the next generation Chrysler 200. That new midsized luxury sedan should play a big part in the continued growth of the Chrysler Group but with both General Motors and Ford Motor Company showing off performance models with the 2015 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 and the 2015 Ford Mustang – it seems likely that the folks under the Pentastar would bring out something performance oriented to help keep pace with their cross-town rivals. Even if the Chrysler Group brings out the Hellcat Hemi on an engine stand, a factory supercharged Hemi V8 with somewhere in the area of 600 horsepower would most certainly steal some high performance attention from the Corvette Z06 and the new Mustang.

While there are likely a great many Mopar lovers who are already dreaming of blasting down the highway in a 600+ horsepower Dodge Challenger – they might not want to get too excited yet. With the Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 priced at $75,000 and the similarly powered SRT Viper starting over $100k – the Hellcat Hemi-powered Challenger is likely to fetch similar money to the new Z/28. Considering that the current Challenger SRT model starts in the high 30s and tops out all loaded up in the low 40s, it seems like a tough sell to introduce a new Challenger trimline that costs $70,000 but if the Hellcat Hemi does indeed offer at least 600 horsepower – it is hard to imagine that the Chrysler Group would offer a muscle car with Viper-like power with a price that isn’t substantially higher than the 470hp SRT models.

In any case, you can be sure that if the Hellcat Hemi does debut at the 2014 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, you will find all available information right here on TorqueNews.com.

Source: Allpar