Over the past year or so, Chrysler has been working on a supercharged V8, supposedly codenamed Hellcat. Awesome name. But anyway, this thing is a 6.2-liter beast that could potentially rival the SRT Viper's naturally aspirated 8.4-liter V10. No joke, and it's actually causing a major debate over at Chrysler. SRT chief Ralph Gilles, always one to be upfront with the media, recently told Hot Rod magazine about his company's "internal horsepower race."

"We have a situation where, you know – we may have a situation – where the flagship car is not the most powerful car in our arsenal....how do we explain that to ourselves? So we have an internal horsepower race as well as an external one." So what current or even future model could this Hellcat cause future hell for the Viper? The obvious choice is the Challenger, which has a new Mustang to face off against as well as a new Camaro arriving next year. Looking even further ahead, however, is where things get really interesting. The Challenger is aging fast, and it's been long rumored that a new Barracuda, based on an also new Alfa Romeo RWD platform, is on the agenda.

It'd be significantly lighter than the Challenger and if given the Hellcat V8, an even more ferocious horsepower war with Ford and Chevy could begin. What's more, its performance potential may even surpass that of the Viper. Controversial, indeed.