The other day a buddy of mine called and told me that his B-I-Law had come into some money and had bought a 2015 Challenger Hellcat, Did I want to drive it? He brought it over and it was in menacing black with a red and black interior. The first thing I noticed was that it had a set of drag radials on back... Hmmn, I wonder if the previous owner might have beat on it a bit? The guy that bought it is a nice guy, but I swear, he is a poster child for the totally clueless. He did not know they were drag radials and he had just driven ti Houston from Florida on them with no clue that they are not suitable for cross-country hi-speed touring. I asked if he hit any rain and he said no, so I gently brought him up to speed on the perils of the situation. He handed me the Red key(707 hp) and we went for a spin. Preface that I have been restoring,racing and playing with musclecars since I was 17, my main toy on the weekend is a 69 Plymouth Satellite with a 712 horse 528 Hemi, so I am at least, familiar with handling a few horses. I was impressed! That car is dying to be let loose, the throttle response off idle is just this short of scary and I don't scare easy behind the wheel. You have to be extremely careful with this car, I know now why some many of them get wrecked the first week! I have many years of bracket racing under my belt, but they should make most people take a driving course before they turn them loose. Man, I 'd love to get hold of a 840 horse Demon! I did not think I would be impressed with it based on driving the R/T and the Scat pak cars, but this was a hell of a car! Did I mention that it handles extremely well and the ride is better than I expected also? Pretty fun experience!

High horse power vehicles bring that old spiritual to mind "Nearer My God to Thee"

Dave

So, for the uneducated like me, I assume that drag radials are smooth, like F1 tires? Why radials for a straight away?
Peter.

Street drag radials , and there are many versions, have minimal tread and are generally meant to be put on the car to drive it to the dragstrip, raced, and driven home fairly safely. Modern cars all have radial tires on them and you should not have radial tires on the front with a bias ply tire on back as you can end up in the wall, they don't play well together. With advances in racing suspension technology, radial Drag Slicks work extremely well under good conditions on many cars. Bias ply slicks and also bias ply drag treaded(they are classified as D.O.T. legal...Riiight) tires are more forgiving for marginal track surfaces. Radial slicks have stiffer sidewalls, don't grow in diameter like bias, and have less rolling resistance, therefore can allow the car to be faster.

I bought a new 2003 Viper once upon a time. It was a ton of fun to drive, but had so many mechanical issues that I sold it below BB at 9000 miles just to be rid of it.

I can only imagine the reliability of a Hellcat.

BH63

quote:

Originally posted by BuffHunter63:
I bought a new 2003 Viper once upon a time. It was a ton of fun to drive, but had so many mechanical issues that I sold it below BB at 9000 miles just to be rid of it.

I can only imagine the reliability of a Hellcat.

BH63

There must have been an issue with moving from the Gen II to Gen III Vipers then. I have a 2002 Gen II Viper. Have had it for 5 years now. Had 30,000 miles on it when I got it. Has about 75,000 miles now. Have not had a single mechanical issue with it.

Speaking to Dodge reliability, I also have a 2004 Ram 2500 Cummins 4x4. Bought it new in November of 2003. It's got 400,000 miles on it now. The only mechanical issues it had is replacement of lift pump at about 250,000 miles, and replacement of fuel injectors at 300,000 miles. And the kicker ... it's still on the original transmission without a rebuild. And yes, I pull a 39 foot fifth wheel camper with it so it hasn't been babied.

[/QUOTE]I have a 2002 Gen II Viper.[/QUOTE]

And does it ever sound good when he hits the gas.