Tyres living in constant fear as Hellcat is coming to UAE

SEVEN HUNDRED AND SEVEN HORSEPOWER.

Just think about that for a moment, and rethink the cars you've driven and the power they had. 

To give an idea of scale, here's something I made earlier.

Once you exceed 900bhp space time as we know it dissolves.

Can you think back to the first time you drove a car that you actually thought 'wow, this is quick'?

I can, it was a 2002 Skoda Octavia vRS, a Czech car based on the VW Golf with the humble 1800cc 20v engine.

Octavia vRS

180bhp turbocharged engine with five speed manual gearbox, I remember hitting full throttle in second and third and genuinely feeling that this was the fastest thing on the planet.

Fast forward to today and I don't get that same feeling I had back in 2002 very often, I had it in an SLS GT whilst on the Yas Marina circuit and remember thinking that an X5M I had a go in was oddly fast. 

Obviously I haven't driven a LaFerrari, P1 or any of the hypercars or even supercars.

That's why I'm so excited about the Hellcat, Surely 707bhp must be able to prompt some kind of emotion from me. The performance figures are in some serious territory.

Performance

Did I mention it has 707bhp? A good measurement of any muscle car is of course the 1/4 mile time, and this factory standard, fully road legal car can do it in 10.8 seconds.

Things that are slower than the Hellcat -

• Ferrari 599 GTO
• McLaren MP4-12C
• Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4
• Mercedes CLK GTR
• Audi R8 V10
• Porsche 918 Spyder
• Jaguar XJ220

Top speed whilst I feel it's sort of irrelevant is estimated to be approaching the 320kph mark, which I don't doubt at all. As for the handling I don't think anyone will care if it handles like a shopping cart missing a wheel, nobody expects it to climb Jebel Hafeet like a BMW M3, if you do want to have fun with it on a twisty road I'm pretty sure you will spend most of your time admiring the view from the side window and being deafened by the awesome sound.

Coming soon to Beach Road.

The best bit

In the States you can buy a brand new Hellcat for less than $60,000 which translates into 220,000 dirhams, I'm sure it will be more than that in reality, because, just because.

But let's say it ends up being 240,000. I am struggling to think of anything else I'd rather buy that would give me that feeling of 'wow, this is quick' that I mentioned earlier, and it's usable, it has space for shopping and space for passengers. You can even have passengers in the rear that actually have lower limbs.

The noise

There are countries that would declare a state of emergency upon hearing the Hellcat.

See what I mean? It's the sound I imagine two planets make when they collide.

Conclusion

I'm really looking forward to this car coming to UAE, and I just love the fact that it even exists. I'm certain regardless of the premium in price over what folks in the States will pay whatever allocation we do get here it will be sold out very quickly and residuals will be excellent.

Oh and it has 707BHP...