When it comes to road tests, there are really only two magazines to turn to: "Car & Driver," or "Motor Trend." Yeah, you can make an argument for any of the slew of other magazines, but these guys have been around for a long, long time. They were among the first to compare the new Camaro, Challenger, and Mustang, and now that the sticker shock has worn off, they've stepped the game up a notch.
"Motor Trend" took three tuned-up, 700 horsepower versions of the GT500, Camaro SS, and Challenger SRT8 to the track, and the results were both amazing, confusing, and a little shocking.
Photo Credit: Wesley Allison / "Motor Trend"
The cars in question were the
Hennessey Camaro HPE650, the
Shelby GT500 Super Snake, and a
SpeedFactory Challenger SRT8. Each car was supposed to put out around 700 horsepower, but they ran into some issues with the challenge.
Initially, Hennessey was going to contribute the HPE700 with the ZR-1’s LS9 engine, but they couldn’t get it to communicate properly with the rest of the engine. Then Shelby bumped their power rating up to 750 horsepower on the Super Snake. Finally, SpeedFactory wound up dropping in a stock 6.2 liter Hemi engine rather than the all-aluminum 525 horsepower engine they thought they were getting.
On the track, the Hennessey proved to be the competitor to beat, cranking out an 11.9 quarter mile at 121mph, while the Super Snake managed to make the pass in just 12 seconds at 120mph. Why the difference? To make a long story short, tires and suspension.
Surprisingly, the SpeedFactory Challenger managed to outpace the Super Snake on the road course, coming in second place to the Hennessey, while the Shelby placed a distant third. Again, it came down to traction. That is the long and short of it, but make sure to check out "Motor Trend’s" detailed article on this 1600 horsepower showdown.
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