Which Roars Harder: Dodge Challenger Scat Pack or Hellcat?

Over the past year, I have had the great pleasure of putting miles on all of the 2015 Dodge Challenger models, but my two favorite have been the R/T Scat Pack and the mighty SRT Hellcat. The consumer market has also found these two to be the best of the 2015 offerings, as both the Scat Pack and the Hellcat sold out during the 2015 model year. Each of these high performance muscle cars has a unique exhaust system that allows them to roar like few other new cars sold in the USA, but with 707 horsepower, you would expect the Hellcat to be the louder of the two, right?

Maybe not.

Scat Pack VS Hellcat Exhaust
While there is no question that at full throttle, the supercharged Hellcat Hemi is louder than the 392 cubic inch Hemi in the R/T Scat Pack, it has been discussed which sounds better at lower RPM. With both cars using a free flowing exhaust system and the Hellcat using a special valved setup, you might expect that the Hellcat just plain sounds nastier in every situation, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

I took two short videos – one of the 2015 Dodge Challenger R/T Scat Pack and one of the 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat. In each video, the cars fire to life, idle for a while, rev a few times and shut down while sitting in my driveway. I used the same camera situated roughly the same distance from the cars, sitting on the ground in the same way for the Scat Pack and the Hellcat. Remarkably, it seems as though at idle and when revving in park, the 485hp Hemi definitely roars louder than the 707hp Hellcat Hemi.

When watching the videos below, keep in mind that both of these cars have systems in place that prevent you from revving the engine hard in park or neutral, so I was only able to spike the RPMs up to around 4,000rpm, but that is true for both the 392 Hemi in the Scat Pack and the 6.2L supercharged Hemi in the Hellcat Challenger. If I was able to rev both engines to their redline (or at least closer to the redline), I imagine that the Hellcat might be the louder of the two Mopar engines, but at idle and under light load while parked, it certainly seems that the Scat Pack exhaust is louder and raspier than the tubes attached to the mighty Hellcat.

The first video below shows the Scat Pack in the dark while the second video shows the Hellcat during the day, both starting, idling and revving a few times. I also ease into the throttle of the Hellcat a touch, showing how easily the beast smokes the tires – but check out the videos and focus on the roar of the Hemi, as the less powerful model seems to pack more bark than the Hellcat.

Crank up your speakers and enjoy!