Some car names are more than they might appearโwhile the mighty Hellcat might make everybody think of Mopars nowadays, the U.S. military has used this designation in the past and with great impact. Well, the 2021 Dodge Charger Hellcat showcased in this digital work, which features a Time Attack conversion, pays tribute to the Grumman F6F Hellcat WWII fighter plane.
Before Dodge released the Challenger SRT Super Stock back in 2020, the rumor mill attributed a different type of racing to the Mopar special. So, while the Super Stock was built with the drag strip in mind, some enthusiasts believed the carmaker would give us an ACR (American Club Racer) variant of the Challenger, which, not unlike the ACR iteration of the Viper (not this Hellcat-swapped Viper madness, though), would be a time attack monster.
Now, not long before the release of the 2021 Challenger Super Stock, Dodge quashed rumors of an ACR version and, given the hefty scale footprint and massive size of these coupes, most people understood the carmaker’s reasons. However, there are a few rebels out there who believe the Challenger, and even the Charger sedan, can be made fit for track duty. And a Dodge Challenger Scat Pack owner named Justin (aka justintodriving on Instagram) is one of them.
The Grumman F6F Hellcat and another important military use of the Hellcat name in WWII
No, the Mopar owner hasn’t built his big coup into a stopwatch destroyer, but he has done the next best thing. You see, the man approached virtual artist Billy Taymiya (aka artsbybildraw), commissioning a 3D work showcasing the said Charger Hellcat Time Attack. As for linking the digital build to the said World War II fighter aircraft, this is an ode to Justin’s grandfather having served as a mechanic for the F6F Hellcat.
For the record, Grumman’s (yep, the now-defunct company that also made the LLV postal vehicle) F6F Hellcat made for America’s top fighter in the second part of the Pacific War.
Animated by a 2,000 hp supercharged engineโa 2,800 ci (46L) Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp twin-row, 18-cylinder, air-cooled radial engineโthis was built to fight the agile and efficient Mitsubishi A6M Zero. The F6F Hellcat managed to outdo its nemesis and contibuted in a singificant part to the US dominating the Pacific theater.
While we’re at it, we’ll also remind you of the M18 Hellcat tank destroyer that entered service in 1943. Built by Buick, this featured GM’s innovative Torqmatic automatic transmission and became the most effective U.S. tank destroyer of World War II. But this is another story for another time.
The digital fantasy that is this Dodge Charger Hellcat Widebody track tool
Returning to this CGI Charger Hellcat, its fights are the peaceful kind (note the stickers of the “conquered” tracks on the front doors). And while its its wing, with its swan neck mounts, is reversed, the super-sedan is rendered here in the Sea Blue hue of the fighter plane.
On top of the factory widebody of this Charger Hellcat, w find the kind of monstrous aero that can keep the sedan glued to the tarmac at frightening speeds. And, if we look past the front splitter, side skirts and rear diffuser, the vehicle also sports front wing air extractors, which can always be considered an ode to the NASCR record-setting 1969 Charger Daytona.
We expect a large number of panels to have been replaced with carbon pieces (you can see the wonder material on the said downforce hardware) in a bid to help the four-door work on its factory weight of 4,586 lbs (2,080 kg).
Of course, the brakes and tires also play a crucial role for a track-serving machine. How do we know that? Well, to show you that such Mopars are not unheard of on the track, we’ll remind you of how a Dodge Charger Scat Pack Widebody recently lapped the Nurburgring, delivering a respectable performance on the Green Hell.