Very few people look at something like the 807-horsepower Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye and think it's lacking in power. That is unless you work for the evil geniuses at Hennessey Performance down in Texas. To them, more is better, and when it comes to tuning cars, this reporter is inclined to agree with that mindset. This is why creating a custom package to take your Challenger all the way up to 10 seemed like the only logical decision.
The video below introduces us to their new Challenger Hellcat package: the HPE 1000. It takes your mundane, boring 700+ hp muscle car and imbues it with a whole host of goodies like an upgraded supercharger, high-flow cats, mid-pipes, new injectors, and much more. All the upgrades together bring the total output of the package to 1,000 hp and 948 lb-ft of torque. Not exactly Hennessey Venom F5 numbers, but we'll take what we can get.
Driving around the Pennzoil Proving Grounds, they state this specific car is a customer's vehicle, so they don't push it particularly hard.
In stock form, it started out life as a Dodge Challenger Jailbreak, a package for the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye Widebody (really quite a mouthful) that allows the customer to create their own special "one of one" Challenger. Things that the customer would normally be blocked from doing, like matching specific paint with specific wheels and whatnot, are now open season.
Being a Redeye, the car started out life with 807 hp, and now with 200 more, is an even scarier straight-line monster. The whine of the engine and the looks on the drivers' faces are enough to let you know this is another winning combination from the company.
The HPE 1000 package isn't specific to the Jailbreak, however, and can be ordered on any Hellcat, but this is the first time the tuner has applied the upgrade to a Jailbreak model. Naturally, however, the componentry required to hit 1,000 hp/948 lb-ft differs if you bought a Super Stock, a redeye, or a regular Hellcat.
Hennessey also offers an HPE 900 package for the owner who only wants a little more power, 900 hp to be exact.
Best of all, the packages are backed by a Hennessey warranty: two years/24,000 miles on the HPE 1000 and three years/36,000 miles on the HPE 900.
Pricing for the packages isn't advertised publicly, but we know from previous dealings that Hennessey's quality workmanship doesn't come cheap. Know that if one has the $70,000 to purchase a Hellcat in the first place - or $88,430 in the case of the Jailbreak Edition before options - this addition will most likely not come cheap.
For those of us not in that club, we can still enjoy the visual and auditory thrills in this release video.
With owners willing to take unique 'one-of-one' spec cars like the SRT Jailbreak to Hennessey for further modification, it begs the question of whether we'll see anyone doing the same with the Last Call special editions. Dodge has entered the final production year of the Charger and Challenger and is revealing seven special edition models that will be available in highly limited numbers. Several of these already come with the 807-hp specification engine, so eking out the extra 193 needed for the HPE 1000 package should be a cinch.
