August 18, 2016
Mark Phelan

DETROIT -- A small engineering team kept management in the dark when it came to developing the most powerful car engine ever from Detroit Big 3 -- the Hellcat.

The Hellcat is a triumph of engineering bravado over common sense, a Hemi V-8 so powerful that eyeballs rolled when Dodge announced the engine in 2014.

Seven hundred and seven horsepower? Yeah, right; maybe for 10 to 15 seconds, before nanny software stepped in to protect the engine. I wasn’t sure Fiat Chrysler would actually build the Hellcat, but if it did, I expected the car would be completely undriveable, cost $100,000 and be the latest automaker stunt engineered to win the news cycle, not a drag race.

Wrong, wrong, wrong and wrong.

Source
Detroit Free Press