The Dodge Challenger Hellcat has become a measuring stick of sorts, particularly when it comes to muscle cars. Sporting that already-legendary, 707-horsepower, 6.2-liter supercharged V8, the Hellcat is arguably the car to beat when it comes to straight-line performance. When you need to show off just how fast your new car or performance package is, you hunt down a Hellcat and challenge it to a drag race.
That’s what Hennessey has done in the above video of a 2016 Camaro SS equipped with its HPE750 package lined up against a Hellcat, even adding the graphics reminiscent of Mike Tyson’s Punch Out!!! (the exclamation points are part of the name, we promise).
Admittedly, watching Hennessey’s powerful contraptions continue to leave factory-stock performances car in the dust can get a bit boring. The graphics and music add a bit more punch to the video, though the results shouldn’t exactly come as a surprise. Hennessey’s HPE750 package, nominally rated at 751 crank horsepower, adds a supercharger, stainless steel headers, a Hennessey-designed camshaft and CNC-ported cylinder heads to the 6.2-liter LT1 engine. That doesn’t even touch the whole host of supporting and cooling mods that allow Hennessey to claim over 40 more horsepower than the Hellcat.
Beyond having more power at its disposal, the Hennessey-supercharged Camaro can also boast a much lower curb weight. At its heftiest, a Camaro SS boasts a 3,685 pound curb weight. The Hellcat, meanwhile, comes in at a portly 4,449 pounds, granting the Camaro a nearly 800 pound advantage. More power. Less weight, and probably for about half the cost when all is said and done.
Sure, the Hellcat is the Hellcat, but a Hennessey Camaro SS has plenty to recommend it too, and it definitely delivered a knockout punch to Mopar this time around.