GT350 vs Hellcat: different class or competitors?

[needspeed]

Thank you for your kind words as you have made your point and in the end you are happy so all is good as there is no win or loss to be had......Steve

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[DrumReaper]

Steve, I believe we both can agree that both the HC and the 350 are fine rides...

They don't deserve to be compared to each other for obvious reasons.



Did someone really just cite Jalopnik as a reference? Lol...

 

[enzo101]

I love the Hellcat. If I couldn't get a 350 at sticker I would be in a hellcat right now. Love the looks. Love the power. Love the sound. It's comfy, practical, and just ticks all the right buttons for me. The 350 feels more special, having not gotten mine yet I cannot say for sure if it will be. I just don't understand the hate towards them. It's not a competitor for the 350 but id love to own one some day.

 

[Todd15Fastback]

Hmmm...seems like "it depends." The big dependent variable appears to be driving conditions.

The original post shows his Hellcat doing 192mph on open highway, not on a 1/4 or 1/2 mile drag strip--picture = 1k words. Granted, there are no track-like hairpin curves on the Autobahn, but that particular stretch is almost totally unrestricted for the next 80 miles before it dumps you into Switzerland, where the national speed limit is only 73mph (120kph) and there's a speed camera at every blink. So, if my GT350 (when it arrives) and his Hellcat make a run to Switzerland, who is likely to win, assuming either of us can do it on a single tank? The answer is I would, because I would insist on the Black Forrest route vice the Autobahn!:first:

The original post also mentioned that the same Hellcat held its own on the Nürburgring, registering 1.2g on the skidpad...more than once and better than what's officially advertised (stock tires). Also, there's an officially recorded Hellcat NB ring time of 7:51 (not his). The GT350 wins there by a country mile with 7:32. That seems like a huge difference, but when we look at the list of times below the Hellcat (link 2) we see it's difficult to judge without being able to account for individual driver skill. The fourth and especially the fifth link reinforce that further. It's important to remember that the Nürburgring is not a 2-3 mile track; it's 13 miles of "green hell". Again, the Hellcat is not a GT350 in this category, but it holds its own on the track, alongside the "M5 Taxis."

As Sabine shows, size doesn't matter; the driver matters. Seems to me like two fun cars...

Hellcat ring: https://thenewswheel.com/dodge-challenger-srt-hellcat-rumored-to-post-751-nurburgring-track-time/

Hellcat ring 2: https://thenewswheel.com/dodge-challenger-srt-hellcat-rumored-to-post-751-nurburgring-track-time/

GT350 ring: http://********************/report-2016-shelby-gt350r-clocks-732-19-nurburgring-lap/

GT350 ring 2: http://blog.americanmuscle.com/2016-mustang-gt350r-crashes-at-nurburgring/

Sabine:

FYI- there has never been official Ring times released for the GT350 by Ford. Never will be.

 

[needspeed]

Steve, I believe we both can agree that both the HC and the 350 are fine rides...

They don't deserve to be compared to each other for obvious reasons.



Did someone really just cite Jalopnik as a reference? Lol...

So true and in the end each car will bring their respective owners great joy and that is what makes life great as well as we are living in the greatest of times to be car lovers as we all can find off the hook cars that ignite our spirits......Steve

 

[dcasandman]

If I wanted a Hellcat fighter, which I do. I think you go with regular GT and just go with about any FI, and GT wins. If I want a track specific car I would go 350, which maybe the absolute best of all worlds stock. The thing is I would just leave my 350 stock if I had one. Where I don't mind modding the crap out of a regular GT. My choice of car would be 350>Mustang GT=Camaro SS>Hellcat>SRT8>Regular Challenger. I just had reservation about 60k for a mustang personally.

 

[needspeed]

If I wanted a Hellcat fighter, which I do. I think you go with regular GT and just go with about any FI, and GT wins. If I want a track specific car I would go 350, which maybe the absolute best of all worlds stock. The thing is I would just leave my 350 stock if I had one. Where I don't mind modding the crap out of a regular GT. My choice of car would be 350>Mustang GT=Camaro SS>Hellcat>SRT8>Regular Challenger. I just had reservation about 60k for a mustang personally.

Having had the gt350 for a while and over 1k miles I would not consider the gt350 a mustang as it reminds me of my f430 more than any other car and except for the lack of CF interior and leather to die for the gt350 is no mustang. Ford did it that well. As I live in Iowa I can hardly wait for autox season and a few HPDE days. The gt350 will represent remarkably well......Steve

 

[Caballus]

FYI- there has never been official Ring times released for the GT350 by Ford. Never will be.

Not sure why that link doesn't work, but the best article I could find is on horsepowerkings from 2 Nov 2015.

 

[Todd15Fastback]

Not sure why that link doesn't work, but the best article I could find is on horsepowerkings from 2 Nov 2015.

That site is all click bait. That's why the link is masked on M6G.

 

[Caballus]

That site is all click bait. That's why the link is masked on M6G.

Fair enough, as is your point about Ford not releasing the official time. I doubt that they wanted to pics of it skidding off the track to hit the net either. Is what it is. The time is consistent across enough sites to make it feasible.

 

[Todd15Fastback]

Fair enough, as is your point about Ford releasing the official time. I doubt that they wanted to pics of it skidding off the track to hit the net either. Is what it is. The time is consistent across enough sites to make it feasible.

Lol...Ford came out and stated no official times. There were many topics on the forum here many months ago when all that starting hitting the web.

 

[bluebeastsrt]

How is that even a logical statement?... Doesn't even make sense.

The Hellcat is a one-circus pony show. How many times have you seen the Hellcat compared to Porsches, Z06s, Ferraris, M2/3/4s? This whole comparison makes no sense.

It doesn't destroy the 350... It merely does one thing "faster" - a straight line. It does nothing better than a Focus ST otherwise. It didn't even get the PCOTY in 2014 or 2015... Wasn't even a candidate in 2015. No one accolades the Hellcat as a gamechanger, just a straight line brute, which is what it is and will always be till it goes to Jenny Craig and finds a better chassis.

And by the way, it has to do all of this being forced. Smh...

It does one thing faster? There is faster in a straight line. Then there is faster around curves. Winning PCOTY matters almost as much as the 2016 Camaro winning motor trends car of the year. No one is calling the Mustang a game changer anymore than the Z28 was before it. Your argument is just as logical as the post your trying to pick apart.:shrug:

 

[Blk2015GT]

Here you go.

http://jalopnik.com/dodge-charger-hellcat-also-stupid-fast-does-0-60-in-2-1641256969

Dave

It was already proven BS as that claim all came from the same bad source- that hack site torquenews.com. It's still COMPLETELY unknown where that 2.9 sec claim came from or what was even done to the car. No one can even seem to substantiate it was real.

Go read a REPUTABLE car magazine review, not the same shady outlets regurgitating the 2.9 number likely all from the same bad source.

STOCK Hellcat C&D got 3.6 auto 3.9 manual 0-60; 11.7/11.9 auto/manual quarter. Motortrend 3.7 0-60; 11.7 quarter.

The tires are simply too skinny/small to handle 700hp. Now yes, you can swap tires but then you have to have the competitor car on equal tires. Not our fault Ford equipped the GT350 with proper width/compound tires and Dodge did not.

Also about that 2.9 time

I had a chance to speak with a representative of the Chrysler Group who had some unfortunate news on the video shown below. First off, the Performance Pages graphic shown on above does not correlate to the video showing the Hellcat Charger launching. The intent was to show the Charger launching during their intensive performance testing and the Performance Pages screen was added alongside the video to show what a resulting screen from a quarter mile pass might look like. They wanted to show the Performance Pages screen with some impressive numbers for those who haven’t dealt with the SRT Apps.

Also, the Charger shown launching was fitted with full race slicks and not drag radials – but that doesn’t change the fact that the Performance Pages screen showing a 2.9 second 0-60 and the 10.7 quarter mile does not pertain to this Charger drag strip pass.

Was a FARCE aka not true and based on the Nav screen tools photo, not a strip time, and the whatever the car really ran was on slicks. Too much bad info to give that time any credit. One bad news story regurgitated by many small outlets.


The GT350 was never ever meant or built to compete with a supercharged Hellcat straight line. That's a given. And a Hellcat isn't the best track worthy Dodge either simply because it has "moar horses" That's a rudimentary understanding of racing.

 

[Mustang1260]

Hmmm... "So I need to drive a HC or own one to be able to speak from common sense?"... YES

"Would owning a HC give me better street cred?... Yeah, no doubt. I've never flown the space shuttle but I have heard it can attain near-earth orbit." NOT with you driving it.

:gossip:

 

[DrumReaper]

:gossip:

Lol... Amen to that brother.

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