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2019 Dodge Challenger First Drive: When Hellcat Met Demon ...

We’ve wished that the Dodge Challenger SRT Demon’s fiery engine would be available in many vehicles, and for 2019, it’s found a new home in the Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye. Think of it as a mashup of the best Hellcat bits and the best Demon parts, bolted together in a car meant to tackle a road course instead of a drag strip.

Related: More Power Never Hurts: 2019 Dodge Challenger Hellcat Redeye First Drive

For this Challenger, Dodge took the heart and lungs out of the Demon and bolted them right into the top Challenger SRT muscle car model with as little modification as possible, stuffing in that supercharged 6.2-liter Hemi V-8 engine and all of the wonderful bits that made the Demon so remarkable, like the charge cooler that operates off of the air-conditioning system.

Shop the 2019 Dodge Challenger near you

White 2019 Dodge Challenger SXT Coupe
Used
2019 Dodge Challenger SXT
59,956 mi.
$20,028
Pitch Black Clearcoat 2019 Dodge Challenger SXT Coupe
Used
2019 Dodge Challenger SXT
73,852 mi.
$18,890

Where the Demon was a one-trick muscle car pony meant for quarter-mile drag-strip duty only, the Hellcat Redeye is a far better, more usable, balanced everyday vehicle. Power is down a bit, however, while weight is up. How does that affect the Redeye’s driving dynamics?

Watch the video of the Hellcat for more.

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Detroit Bureau Chief

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I handle new car reviews, news, events, auto shows, and contribute to special projects and multicar comparisons while representing our team in the heart of the U.S. auto industry. I’ve been a part of the industry my whole life, growing up in an automotive family, spending the past 30 years working for Bosch and Nissan, and serving as an industry analyst for years before coming to Cars.com in 2012. I’m a graduate of the University of Michigan (Go Blue!), have an MBA from Wayne State University in Detroit with a focus on international business strategy, and I’m a member of both the <a href="https://www.automotivepressassociation.net/">Automotive Press</a> and the <a href="https://mamaonline.org/Home">Midwest Automotive Media</a> associations. My personal fun car is a pristine 2002 Ford Thunderbird, which I love because it is </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">not </span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">an SUV, has zero touchscreens, and nothing dings at you all the time. My pronouns are he/him, but my adjectives are fat/sassy.</span></p>

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