Two of the top American performance cars right now couldn’t be more different: one is the all-electric, all-insane Tesla Model S P85D, and the other is the old-school ferocious Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat. When the two faced off in a drag race in January, the Hellcat’s defeat was infamous. A few days ago, the Hellcat came back for a rematch.
The first between the two ended in the Hellcat’s defeat, largely because its driver — as he himself admitted on a Hellcat forum — was new at launching the car and only faced off against the Tesla at the request of an announcer. He tried, but had a lot of trouble hooking up. The incident got caught on video and spread like wildfire across the Internet.
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: The Hellcat is not for suckers. Mastering its full 707 horsepower, especially in a competitive environment, takes practice. The driver, JohnnyHellcat as he’s known on the forums, is no sucker. So he invested in some drag radials and practiced a whole bunch until he learned how to wield his supercharged street-weapon with skill.
So on Friday, he and the P85D owner squared off once again a friendly fight, and this time the Dodge emerged victorious.
The result? For the Hellcat, 11.08 seconds at 125.92 mph, and for the Tesla, 11.92 seconds at 112.11 mph. (It's not clear what kind of tires the Tesla was running; presumably, street tires.)
JohnnyHellcat had this to say on the Hellcat.org forum after his victory:
It happened tonight , but first off I want to take my hat off to the Tesla driver ! He went out of his way to get his cars up to the track tonight with really nothing to gain , much respect! In essence , we are both car fans and share a fondness for fast cars ! It doesn’t matter if those cars are American or Foriegn , gas or electric ! In the end it’s really just about people having fun and enjoying thier cars , and that’s what we did tonight ! I believe we left the track as friends ! I have no video and am going to leave you all in suspense ! I’m sure a video will surface somewhere as there we’re thousands of spectators ! I’ll leave you all with this , you won’t be disappointed !
I know I wasn’t. I say kudos to JohnnyHellcat for losing with grace the first time, and for not giving up until he got better at drag racing. It’s a lot harder than people give it credit for, especially when your opponent is as fast and quick as the P85D.
I also say congrats to both competitors for celebrating American speed, both the traditional kind and the new kind, and in a legal environment to boot. I have a feeling we haven’t seen the last of this matchup.
Hat tip to R&T!
Contact the author at patrick@jalopnik.com.