During the HEMI Highway Tour in late 2010, our Dodge Ambassadors Scott and Heather stopped by Hennessey Performance in Sealy, Texas for a shop tour and to checkout all the cool “eye candy” for late-model enthusiasts. Now you veteran gear heads know Hennessey has been a major player in making modern day super cars even more wicked, mean and nasty. Their talent pool includes a combined 100 plus years of experience in design, manufacturing, testing and installation of high-performance upgrades.
With over a one thousand city and highway “break-in” miles, our new 392 HEMI® SRT8 Challenger was ready to make some noise. When Hennessey gave us the invite, we couldn’t resist the temptation to strap our Challenger on their Dynojet 248C chassis dynamometer. Now we know the 392 HEMI is rated 470 horsepower and 470 lb.-ft.torque at the flywheel, however we wanted to know how much was getting to the rear wheels. The Hennessey technicians quickly quick set-up the chassis dyno and calibrated the equipment. We fired-up the mighty 392 and made some warm-up runs and then dropped the hammer. Like a sucker punch to the face, the graph on monitor flashed the numbers – 432 rear wheel horsepower and 424 rear wheel torque! The Hennessey guys were amazed and impressed on how stout the numbers were for a bone stock engine. Now granted, our Tremec TR-6060 six-speed manual probably helped minimize the inherent parasitic loss of horsepower and torque as it travels along the drive train to the rear wheels. Still, the guys began crunching the numbers and concluded the actual power is north of the factory 470 rating. Think of it as an added bonus at no extra cost. So, sit back and turn your speakers up and listen for yourself!
Article Courtesy of RedLetterDodge