Automotive
Oh, the joys of the infamous Hellcat vehicles from Dodge, which have stood the test of time in being one of most talked-about powertrains in our lifetime. Unfortunately, all things Hellcat are coming to an end as I get my hands on what may be the very last new Hellcat-powered test vehicle, the Durango Hellcat Hammerhead, one of the many last variations and so-called special editions of the 700-plus-horsepower SUV. 2025 is said to be the very last year for such a vehicle – though Dodge could change their minds at the last minute.
There’s no getting around the fact that the Dodge Durango is somewhat long in the tooth as it embarks on nearly 14 years of its current generation, albeit with refreshing updates along the way. Such age shows in the latest Hellcat adorned in the Hammerhead edition, which doesn’t change it up much from any other Durango Hellcat other than having Hammerhead Grey Laguna leather seats with sepia SRT Hellcat logo embroidering, forged carbon fiber interior trim, satin 20-inch wheels, a dark Night Moves blue paint color, and a satin vinyl wrap on the bulging and vented hood. Apart from such, the Durango Hellcat is a menacing monster, one that screams just as loud as all its Hellcat brethren found in the Challenger, Charger, and even the Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk. Here, the Stellantis branding bids farewell to their formidable and now historic Hellcat powertrains, which I, among many other countless enthusiasts, will greatly miss.
In terms of what you can still get in Hellcat form as of the publication date of my review, the Dodge Durango Hellcat remains a lonely beast that could become a collector’s item soon enough. With 710 horsepower and 645 lb-ft of torque pumping out of the 6.2-liter Supercharged V8, the Durango is surely transformed into something special. Having all-wheel-drive and a snappy-shifting TorqueFlite 8-speed automatic transmission makes things even more special in that you don’t have to worry much about traction off the line, something the Hellcat Charger and Challenger begged for with their rear-wheel-drive setups. Here, the Durango Hellcat jumps off the line with violence, somewhat like a powerful electric vehicle, pinning you firmly to the aged but-still-enjoyed thickly padded, heated, and ventilated front seats from Dodge. If you’re not hooning around, you can tow up to 8,700 pounds with this Durango when properly configured.
No matter if you use the launch control that’s quickly enabled with a press of a single button or matt the throttle from a stop, the Durango Hellcat surges to 60 mph in a consistent 3.6 seconds time after time. Fundamentally, the Durango Hellcat is a sleeper that no one expects to fire off such acceleration and speed, a top speed of 180 mph if you dare.
There’s some comfort found in any Durango, but with the Hellcat factor, that comfort becomes transformative and often a bit lofty with the adaptive dampers that have three settings dialed up from a rather intricate SRT performance settings menu. You can dial up just the right flavor of your liking from the default Automatic drive mode or a Custom mode to save your selected driving dynamics, from the steering effort to the suspension damper settings.
There’s really no shaking off the antiquated feeling of the Dodge Durango Hellcat, even with the latest and somewhat updated Uconnect 5 infotainment system and its 10.1-inch touchscreen. Sure, the system appeases most with a simplistic approach with a long list of menu sets and performance pages customized to give you a plethora of performance data out of your Hellcat SUV – but it doesn’t shake off that ‘old’ feeling as there’s still a lot to be desired. To add insult to injury, that old feeling doesn’t bode well when you consider the price of this 3-row, 6-passenger beast sitting at $115,315. That’s a lot of cheddar for something somewhat antiquated and has not yet captured that collector’s status. And you’ll need to budget for all of the fuel this thing’s going to burn up where you’ll mostly average 13 mpg as I did to match its EPA estimates of 12 mpg city, 17 mpg highway, and 13 mpg combined. Thankfully, the 24.6-gallon tank is large enough to have some timely fun.
Most of the Durango Hellcat’s value in its 6-figure price is the remarkably powerful drivetrain, something that’s rather hard to find in a 3-row passenger SUV unless you go the more expensive route to the Cadillac Escalade V. Still, the Durango Hellcat, in whatever last call special edition flavor, reigns supreme in the performance arena, and that’s the value in such a vehicle, which will be greatly missed as it potentially enters a collector’s item world. Farewell, Durango Hellcat – wishing you a smooth yet powerful sailing into a covetous world!
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