[dodge boy]

Well ive been a member here now for three years this week and im starting to see a growing trend of members thinking trading in their RT's and SXT's for an SRT or even a Hellcat now for the extra power and appeal that they offer, at the same time a number of folks that want this power are also thinking about upgrading their RT's to match the power that the SRT is delivering and wondering which is the best choice.I myself have asked this question many times in the past and decided to go the modding route with the RT.The 5.7 is a good engine and if you want to get really serious about making some big HP their are a lot of factors to consider while the SRT it doesn't take much modding to have a real impressive street machine while staying N.A. and if you want to go further well the sky is the limit and then there is the Hellcat which is in a class of its own and basically requires no modding, you just turn on the key and go. Anyway i thought this thread might help some members here that are mulling their options now on which way to go. It would be nice to hear from some of you on the pros and cons of this subject that have already gone this route. Also on a different note i want to wish everyone here a very healthy and happy holiday season and a great New Year!!

 

[Dodgeguy]

Thanks for the Holiday wishes.Upgrade or mod, I think the easiest path is upgrade but the more rewarding path may be modding. Research, planning seeing it come to fruition probably a little more personal satisfaction.

 

[dodge boy]

Thanks for the Holiday wishes.Upgrade or mod, I think the easiest path is upgrade but the more rewarding path may be modding. Research, planning seeing it come to fruition probably a little more personal satisfaction.[/QUOTE

Their is no question that modding can be very rewarding Corbin, at the same time it can also be frustrating to when problems pop up, im dealing with a few now. I think if i had to do it over again now i would probably have gone for a Hellcat which wasn't an option when i started modding. I guess at the end of the day it all comes down to personal preference.:wavey:

 

[Dodgeguy]

Thanks for the Holiday wishes.Upgrade or mod, I think the easiest path is upgrade but the more rewarding path may be modding. Research, planning seeing it come to fruition probably a little more personal satisfaction.[/QUOTE

Their is no question that modding can be very rewarding Corbin, at the same time it can also be frustrating to when problems pop up, im dealing with a few now. I think if i had to do it over again now i would probably have gone for a Hellcat which wasn't an option when i started modding. I guess at the end of the day it all comes down to personal preference.:wavey:

Sorry you are having some issues, hopefully you will get them worked out.

 

[dodge boy]

Sorry you are having some issues, hopefully you will get them worked out.[/QUOTE

They are not serious, just a pain in the A$$!!

 

[MOPARMOM]

I have been thinking about this for for about a year now. Typically I only keep my cars for two years at most......I'm almost at three. I've been thinking about a ProCharger, I've also been seriously thinking about '14 Core. I'm very twisted about this. I've put so much time and money into my R/T, and still love it, so I guess I can't really answer that question right now.

 

[cdahl383]

I crunched the numbers out on this a few times. If I were to trade in my R/T now and get into a new 2015 Scat Pack I would have to come up with about $16-17K after trade-in and discounts/rebates/taxes, etc. I could get a 392 crate engine from Modern Muscle for $7,800 and have it installed for maybe $1,200 for a total cost of about $9K. With tuning and a few other mods, maybe $10K. Then I'd have the same 485hp as a brand new Scat Pack. Financially it's cheaper to mod than buy new for me.

With someone who has a newer R/T it might make more sense to just trade-up.

My plan is to just keep my R/T and mod it down the road when time/money permits.

Way down the road I'm hoping I can find a nice used Hellcat with 20,000 miles or less for a good price, I'd love to have one of those, just can't afford it at this point in life.

But it's true, anytime you mod something other stuff comes up that you also have to modify to get things to work. That's been the story of my Nova over the past 10 years or so haha! Always something to change, fix, or upgrade. Much easier to just buy something stock that is already fast. But it is fun and rewarding to do the work yourself and see how it all comes together due to your own hard work and research.

 

[TikiMan]

I would never trade in my PCP RT Classic for more HP. Let's be serious, how fast can you drive on public streets. I may install a Magnuson down the road if I have the desire that I need/want more HP.

 

[cdahl383]

The 5.7L engine is a pretty solid engine and you can mod it to go pretty fast if you really want to. I'm with Tikiman, I love my Hemi Orange 6 speed, would take a lot to get me to trade it in for something else. Tossing a supercharger on it sure would be fun haha!

Either a 392 swap or a supercharger on the stock 5.7L would give you more than enough power to have fun on the streets and track. Otherwise you'd have to go with a bigger engine to start with and spend some serious bucks to go much faster.

 

[dodge boy]

I crunched the numbers out on this a few times. If I were to trade in my R/T now and get into a new 2015 Scat Pack I would have to come up with about $16-17K after trade-in and discounts/rebates/taxes, etc. I could get a 392 crate engine from Modern Muscle for $7,800 and have it installed for maybe $1,200 for a total cost of about $9K. With tuning and a few other mods, maybe $10K. Then I'd have the same 485hp as a brand new Scat Pack. Financially it's cheaper to mod than buy new for me.

With someone who has a newer R/T it might make more sense to just trade-up.

My plan is to just keep my R/T and mod it down the road when time/money permits.

Way down the road I'm hoping I can find a nice used Hellcat with 20,000 miles or less for a good price, I'd love to have one of those, just can't afford it at this point in life.

But it's true, anytime you mod something other stuff comes up that you also have to modify to get things to work. That's been the story of my Nova over the past 10 years or so haha! Always something to change, fix, or upgrade. Much easier to just buy something stock that is already fast. But it is fun and rewarding to do the work yourself and see how it all comes together due to your own hard work and research.

A lot of people don't realize that there is more to modding an R/T than slapping a S.C. and a few other boltons , you also have to consider the whole drive train and exhaust to do it the right way, i was told by HHP that with my car i need to upgrade the exhaust with headers any high flow Cats to get the full benefit of Supercharging, Superchargers are really tough on stock Cats.

 

[dodge boy]

I would never trade in my PCP RT Classic for more HP. Let's be serious, how fast can you drive on public streets.

That's very true Tiki, its even worse here in N.J. with all the traffic. Believe it or not for the most part I drive like a granny here, you have to if you want to keep your license, that's why i take it to the track, you can let it all hang out there.

 

[vin57]

I'm happy with my 09 R/T, truth be told it has more power that I need and use, to mod up for power for me would just be a waste and thats a lot to spend just to say I running 400-500+ HP. Think I'll just keep enjoying what I have and any modding will be cosmetic, I won't be faster....but I will be a little different.

 

[dodge boy]

I'm happy with my 09 R/T, truth be told it has more power that I need and use, to mod up for power for me would just be a waste and thats a lot to spend just to say I running 400-500+ HP. Think I'll just keep enjoying what I have and any modding will be cosmetic, I won't be faster....but I will be a little different.

That's a good way to look at it Rob, I'm a bit wacky sometimes when it comes to HP and speed, it was a bug I was never able to get rid of. LOL:wavey:

 

[cdahl383]

These cars are very expensive to mod compared to older cars as well. You can get an older car into the 10's or 11's for much less than you could one of these cars. Of course then it's not a modern Challenger either, so it all depends on what you want. I know that buying parts for my Nova is way cheaper than for the Challenger, it's just how it is.

It doesn't take too much to get these cars into the 12's from what I've seen. But once you start getting much past say the high 11's, you have to start spending some serious bucks.

At a certain point, while it may be cheaper still to mod, the Hellcat does get very appealing for the simple fact that it comes with 707 hp, runs high 10's on drag radials, the entire car is completely designed to run like that including the drivetrain, and it has a factory warranty. If you take a $30K car and sink $15-20K into it you're not too far away from Hellcat territory. I've seen them on dealer lots going for $58K. That's a lot of car for the money and if you want a modern Challenger that's crazy stupid fast that's a really great option, provided of course you can swing the $60K or so to buy it haha!

Of course the cheapest option is like the others have said, just be happy with what you've got, there will always be someone faster, etc. But it is fun to modify stuff and see how fast you can go, sometimes it's hard to just leave a car alone haha!

 

[vin57]

That's a good way to look at it Rob, I'm a bit wacky sometimes when it comes to HP and speed, it was a bug I was never able to get rid of. LOL:wavey:

I get it, I enjoy the "spirited runs " as well, I love turning a wrench, all of it :smileup: It was never about the top end for me, its about the acceleration, ( the take off in a plane is the best part of flying LOL) I can't imagine how it would feel to be pinned back in the seat of a Hellcat, hopefully one day I'll get to experience it....but the desire for it isn't enough to spend the money for it, otherwise it's not much different that what I have now, for my driving style anyway.

 

[MommaBetty]

That's very true Tiki, its even worse here in N.J. with all the traffic. Believe it or not for the most part I drive like a granny here, you have to if you want to keep your license.

Alan, it is too bad that we can't just trade places for a few weeks so you could drive your car out here. Just driving up to Rapid City is all open roads with very little traffic, your love of horsepower would get some satisfaction!

As far as trading my car for more horsepower, I guess I would like to get exactly what Dan is getting on Christmas Day. But I do love my car, and really it would be very dangerous to turn me loose with anymore horsepower at my age!

Merry Christmas to all of my Challenger friends. Wish you all a great New Year with lots of fun in your Challengers!

 

[dodge boy]

Alan, it is too bad that we can't just trade places for a few weeks so you could drive your car out here. Just driving up to Rapid City is all open roads with very little traffic, your love of horsepower would get some satisfaction!

As far as trading my car for more horsepower, I guess I would like to get exactly what Dan is getting on Christmas Day. But I do love my car, and really it would be very dangerous to turn me loose with anymore horsepower at my age!

Merry Christmas to all of my Challenger friends. Wish you all a great New Year with lots of fun in your Challengers!

I guess im lucky to have a 1/4 mile track close by and that im able to enjoy my car safely (for the most part), ive always enjoyed 1/4 mile racing even when i was a teenager,
What a hobby!! Merry Christmas to you too Betty!!

 

[cdahl383]

Drag racing is fun, can't beat it!

 

[Home Theater Guy]

There are lots of great examples on how to upgrade the SXT and RT. At the core, these are Challengers and having seen some of these results in person at meets I have to say the results are quite amazing. Given that, there are other issues to consider. The one that sticks out for me the most is the support of the products. When you purchase a new car, by law the manufacturer must support the parts to that vehicle for 20 years. Lets just say one of us purchases a Whipple supercharger. Do you think companies like Whipple would support that supercharger and its replacement parts for 20 years? Nothing against Whipple, but I am not 100% comfortable that the post market manufacturers will support those parts as long as the OEM manufacturer would.

Second point to consider is the valuation of the vehicle. All of us are very sure how these cars are built, RT, RT Plus, RT Classic, SRT Core, SRT each have different builds and we know them all. When we go adding third party parts to these cars they make them unique to us, that is all. If you are going to keep your car as an investment, you are going to want the best possible car that had the least amount of units shipped. Meaning rarity of the vehicle.

So, it all depends on what you plan for your car in my humble opinion.

 

[friendoffur]

Alot of good post here and things I agree with. Believe me...I KNOW how hard it is to give up a GREAT car. Like Rob...it's not about top speed for me but rather the G's under full throttle. The problem is to get more of that...with dependability and a warranty...in a package engineered together...it really doesn't make sence even from a cost prospective IMO to go the modding route. There are just SOOO many things that many do not even think about that are better and upgraded already when you let Chrysler do it for you. The real iceing on the cake....at least for me...was all the non HP things that a new car VR modding the other car brings with it like the halo headlights and upgraded interior and having all new parts and fluids and tires and the list goes on. Not to mention that new car smell...LOL I know on the face of it it seems cheeper to mod the one you love....but when you add all the "other" things of which I have only mentioned a few here...it gets harder to justify not doing the trade.