Motor Trend Magazine Redesign

COVER STORY Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 vs. Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat
Public reaction to our Challenger, and
to a somewhat lesser extent our Camaro,
remained strong throughout the day along
old Route 66 and at the Route 66 motel,
but when we visited Irwindale Speedway for
Thursday night drag racing it became pretty
clear which car had more street presence.
From the moment we pulled into the lots,
it was obvious which car the crowds cared
more about. People immediately began
flocking to the Hellcat, leaving the poor
Camaro, and Evans alone in line. Fathers and
sons, young and old, import and domestic
fans -- it didn’t matter; all had to have a peek
at the new Challenger for themselves.
Even after our first photo runs down the
eighth-mile strip, the initial curiosity didn’t
wear off. The Challenger drew constant
crowds of kids, car enthusiasts, and even a
random local journalist who wanted to know
exactly what all the fuss was about. The
Hellcat and ZL1 went head to head at least
three times throughout the night, with the
races neck and neck due to the Camaro’s very
real traction and weight advantage compared
to the Challenger over the short strip.
Still high after our night of drag racing,
our first stop the next morning was the USS
Iowa Museum in San Pedro. Even with the
iconic battleship in the background, the two
cars -- especially the Hellcat -- drew a crowd.
Underneath the sinister sheetmetal and aside
from the blown engine, the 2015 Challenger SRT
Hellcat is really quite the complete package. It
sports one of the best interiors in the segment
with high-quality materials, a great infotainment
system, an even better audio system, room
for five, and a stunningly low starting price
of just $60,995, with an as-tested price of
$64,570. The Camaro ZL1 feels somewhat less
special than the Challenger inside. Sure, it’s
got Alcantara just about everywhere, and snug
bucket seats, but you can tell Chevy’s focus
was elsewhere. The Challenger gets all the little
details that make a musclecar special right (like
the Dodge Brothers logo hidden in the center
console), whereas the Camaro doesn’t really
have a cohesive interior design, with things
such as its navigation system tacked on like an
afterthought. Even so, the Camaro ZL1 is the
cheaper of the two, with a $57,650 base price
and an as-tested price of $59,045.
While the Camaro and Challenger have traded
blows in straight-line versus cornering speed, and
been evenly matched just about everywhere else,
street presence is an important criterion. Simply
put, the Challenger SRT Hellcat has tons and the
Camaro ZL1 has considerably less. Musclecars
are supposed to be as much about the show as
they are about the go. Dodge proves that it still
understands that with the new Challenger, while
what’s supposed to be the most potent Camaro
on the block appears to have forgotten that.
Ultimately, this is America, and in America,
like in baseball, there are no ties. The Challenger
Hellcat comes out on top. Its focus on power,
presence, and straight-line performance shows
that the Dodge boys still know how to make a
killer musclecar after years of being consistently
stomped on by Chevrolet and Ford. As capable
and well-balanced as the Camaro ZL1 is, the
Challenger SRT Hellcat cements itself as the
ultimate musclecar. Like the musclecars of the
late ‘60s and early ‘70s, it’s built to be a street
king with some serious power under the hood,
and it looks the part with its new drool-worthy
sheetmetal. The Hellcat proves that the heyday of
the musclecar wasn’t 45 years ago -- it’s now.
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