The Dodge Durango was never the type of vehicle that we expected to morph into a performance car. But after the Hellcat engine was fitted to it, it has proved itself good enough to hang with some very special metal. We've seen the six-seater take on a Lamborghini Urus and a Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk, and its AWD system is good enough to leave a Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 for dead, at least for the first gear or two. But how would a Dodge Durango SRT Hellcat fare against something lighter but with less power, something like the Chevrolet Corvette Stingray?

The drag race is conducted by Hennessey Performance, which aims to fit this particular example with a 1,000-horsepower performance upgrade. Before that happens, Hennessey wanted to see how the car performs in totally stock form - something evidenced by the protective plastic remaining on most of the interior. So how did it do? As you can expect, the AWD system does a decent job of managing the Durango SRT Hellcat's 710 horsepower off the line, leaving the C8 easily.

But even with a passenger on board, the lighter Corvette catches up very quickly, but not all the way. The Durango you see here is brand new with none of the racy driving modes active (track mode makes the Durango even faster), so it's probably not a realistic representation of both cars performing at their best.

That said, the Durango gets another win in the second race and pulls ahead until about 125 mph, at which point the Corvette's better aerodynamics and lower curb weight see it almost catch up again. The Durango is the heaviest of the Hellcat offerings, weighing a portly 5,710 pounds.

By contrast, the C8 Corvette has a curb weight of just 3,366 lbs, so although its 6.2-liter V8 is not force-fed and only produces 490 horsepower, it is certainly the better all-round racer. But which would you rather have everyday? A three-row SUV that can put the hurt on proper sports cars, or a two-seater that looks exotic and handles well? We'll have the sleeper this time around.