16 Things About The Dodge SRT Super Stock Challenger

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16 Things About The Dodge SRT Super Stock Challenger

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16 Things You Didn’t Know About the Dodge SRT Super Stock Challenger
If you’re asking what a Super Stock is, you aren’t alone!
https://www.motortrend.com/features/dod ... r-details/
The Dodge SRT Super Stock Challenger is one of the best-kept secrets in the car business, and that's the way Dodge wants it. Back in 2020, during the depths of the pandemic, Dodge announced a new muscle car called the Super Stock, based on the Hellcat Challenger. Dodge made a big deal out of it for about 15 minutes, then went on to the next thing. Quietly, over the next four years, the Super Stock would reign as the world's quickest, most powerful muscle car, just this year topping the 1,500-unit production mark for all four years of combined production. Yes, it's quick, powerful, and rare. Think you know your late-model Mopar muscle cars? Take the test and see what you know!

The Super Stock Challenger Is Not a Demon

When the Super Stock Challenger hit, people thought it was a Demon with a Redeye hood, calling it "Demon lite." Though the Super Stock does have the Demon's "Redeye" Hemi V-8 (the red engine block and red eye in the badge are the giveaways) and beefed-up TorqueFlite trans, power chiller, line-lock, race cooldown, torque reserve, Bilstein active drag suspension, and thicker axle halfshafts, it doesn't have the 2018 Demon's all-important race-tune module, transbrake, hollow anti-sway bars, or specialized Demon crate with dedicated front-runners. These account for, at the minimum, a half-second advantage in the quarter-mile.

The Super Stock Formula Is Misunderstood

The Super Stock is intended to be the master and commander of the open road, not a drag-specific one-trick pony or a track-day specialist. It does this at the best possible price/performance ratio and without calling undue attention to itself, if you can call a widebody subtle. The Super Stock name reference hearkens back to the 1968 Dodge Hemi Dart, of which just 80 were made. Those were bare-bones cars built as basic, lightweight stripper models with the 426ci Hemi. Today's Super Stock maintains this ethos—all beefcake, no gingerbread—but erases the earlier car's lack of handling, braking, and traction (it had ordinary tires), and adds a 5-year/60,000-mile powertrain warranty. Our Super Stock Challenger is one of the rare ones with zero options, cloth seats, and rear-seat delete, making it the lightest of the Hellcat widebodies.

There’s No Badge on a Super Stock Challenger Identifying It as One

When a buyer purchases a new Dodge Super Stock Challenger, the only way to tell it's a Super Stock for sure is to look at the Monroney label affixed to the windshield. There are no badges, external or internal, that call out the model's name, and the words "Super Stock" are only printed on the window sticker. On the occasion of the Super Stock's public introduction, Dodge prez Tim Kuniskis told the press that this is one of those cars that will require insider information for proper identification. The slogan he coined that will forever be linked to the Super Stock: "If you know, you know … "

Most 2023 Super Stocks Are Sold Orders

What follows is unconfirmed but supported by chatter on all the Hellcat forums and by Dodge's eShop channel (which shows availability of all models in inventory): Most 2023 Dodge Super Stocks are sold orders and there is no more allotment available for special orders. A check of the nationwide supply of 2023 Dodge Super Stock Challengers at press time showed only 19 cars were still available (dealer inventory) and all of them are commanding tens of thousands of dollars over sticker price (MSRP). Note that the Dodge eShop Horsepower Locator only displays the manufacturer's suggested retail price, not the dealership's asking price.

The Super Stock Challenger Is Rarer Than a Demon

Dodge built 3,300 Demons in 2018 (3,000 for the U.S. and 300 for Canada, where the car is built) and would like to build around the same number of Demon 170s in 2023, which makes the Dodge Super Stock about four times as rare. According to the Hellcat.org forum, 190 Super Stocks were built in 2020, 559 in 2021, 571 in 2022, and approximately 207 will be built in 2023, for a total of 1,527 cars over a production run of four years.

Only the Narrow-Body Jailbreak Redeye Is Rarer

As stealthy and rare as the Super Stock Challenger is, there's one model that is even rarer that is sure to catch speed hunters unaware: the narrow-body Redeye Jailbreak with 807 hp (illustration above). These cars look like ordinary narrow-body 717-hp Hellcats, and the only thing keeping them from knocking your lights out are narrow, hard 275/40R20 Pirelli tires. Swap on a set of the Scat Pack 1320's factory Nexen SUR4G drag radials and no one will be the wiser. Only 29 narrow-body Jailbreak Redeye Challenger examples are allotted to be built for the 2023 model year and just 18 of them were on dealer lots nationally as of this writing.

The Super Stock’s Nitto Tires Are Already Discontinued

The Super Stock Challenger's OE tire is the Nitto NT05R, but this tire has been discontinued by Nitto, and only enough were made to equip the cars leaving the factory. The replacement tire is the Nitto NT 555 RII, a throwback design that dates to the 1990s. (The NT 555 RII is the same model of tire and compound the author used in a square setup for a dual-use street/road course 1993 Firebird Formula.) Super Stock owners have a limited number of options for 315/40R18-sized tires; for a DOT-legal race tire it will be just the Nitto NT555 RII and the Hoosier R7, and if you dare go with a hard compound for drifting (both intended and unintended!), the Nitto NT555 G2 stands ready to be smoked to the cords.

The Super Stock’s Wheels Aren’t Exactly the Same as the Demon’s

The best thing about an 18-inch-diameter wheel is that it has significantly less rotational inertia than the same-weight wheel in a 20-inch diameter. This is what SRT engineers had in mind when they uncaged the Demon in 2018. The Super Stock Challenger's lightweight alloy 18 x 11-inch wheels are the same ones that graced the Demon, except they are a matte granite finish, not matte black like the 2018 Demon's. They look identical in pictures, but when you see them side by side, the Super Stock's wheels take on a warmer, lighter, bronze tone. If that isn't enough of a giveaway, the Super Stock will have closed-top lug nuts, different from the Demon's open-top lug nuts.

The Dodge Super Stock Shares Wheels With the 2023 Super Bee Widebody

You may have thought that only the Demon and the Super Stock Challenger share the lightweight alloy 18 x 11-inch wheels, but these specially designed hoops with their knurled anti-spin seats are also shared with the 500 special-edition Plum Crazy 2023 Last Call widebody Super Bees. (Those cars, sadly, will not have the 807-hp Redeye Jailbreak Hemi or even the 717-hp Hellcat Hemi, but rather the standard 392 Scat Pack Hemi.) The Super Bee Widebody's center caps are even more different, with a twin-rhombus logo instead of the SRT emblem.

Power Broker Stage Kits Take the Super Stock Challenger to 885 HP

For $2,785, you can buy Direct Connection's Pre-Stage kit, the Stage 1 kit, and the Stage II kit together and bump your Super Stock Challenger up to as much as 885 hp when used on 100-octane unleaded fuel (the same thing the 2018 Demon requires). At the moment, Stage kits for the 2018 Demon are unavailable, which in the interim opens the door for the Super Stock to outpower the 2018 Demon. With ordinary 91-octane pump fuel, the Stage II kit provides 837 hp on the Super Stock—that's 29 hp more than the 2018 Demon's 91-octane pump-gas tune.

There’s an Easy Trick to Spotting a Super Stock

There's only one reliable way to positively ID a 2020-to-2023 Dodge SRT Super Stock Challenger and it will require a good look at the nose to identify the dual-nostril hood as well as a good look at the wheels. All 2018 Demons had a wide, single-slot opening for a hoodscoop that mimicked Super Stock hoods of the 1960s, so no 2018 Demon will have a dual-nostril hoodscoop. Only a Super Stock will have both the Redeye dual-scoop hood and the lightweight 18 x 11 five-spoke wheels. It is possible for a Demon to convert to a later-year hood or for a Widebody Hellcat to swap to 18 x 11-inch wheels, though that would require downsizing the brakes front and rear.

Dodge Fans Can’t Spot a Super Stock but Chevy Fans Can!?

This one is purely anecdotal, but nonetheless took us completely by surprise. We took our Super Stock Challenger to the biggest Mopar event on the West Coast (Chrysler Performance West Spring Fling in Los Angeles), and in two days only one showgoer properly identified the car as a Super Stock—and it was parked next to two 2018 Demons. Two weeks later, we took it to LS Fest West in Las Vegas, where it was parked in the vendor lot with food trucks and Toyotas, and it was properly identified as a Super Stock by every group of Chevy fans who walked by. (Factoid: Even though the Super Stock has been in existence for four years, there's no Super Stock merch except for a 1:18 scale model. You either know, or you don't … )

The Dodge Super Stock Is the Quickest, Most Powerful Muscle Car You Can Buy

In the five years that bookend the 840-hp 2018 Dodge Demon and the impending appearance of the 1,025-hp 2023 Dodge Demon 170 (which happens in the late summer of 2023), there hasn't been a lot of noise about what car owned the title of the quickest, most powerful production muscle car, but it turns out to be the 2020-to-2023 Dodge Super Stock Challenger with 807 hp. By virtue of its Nitto drag radials, the Super Stock edges out the identically powerful 807-hp Dodge Widebody Redeye Challenger and Charger by a big margin because tires—i.e., grip—make such a huge difference. Who's fastest? Hands-down, it's the Dodge Charger Redeye, which has no artificially imposed speed limit, and tops out at 203 mph.

The Dodge Super Stock Has the Highest Base Price of any Dodge Challenger

As of this writing, Dodge's website did not have pricing on the Demon 170, but the price of every other 2023 model was published. The base price for a 2023 Dodge Super Stock Challenger (subject to change) is $89,300, whereas the Jailbreak Hellcat Redeye Widebody Challenger is $87,295. For 2023, Dodge announced that all Hellcat-powered Dodges are available in Jailbreak form—the term used to denote that any Hellcat model can be ordered with any trim, color, or combination of options—with the exception of Super Stock models. (Do Super Stocks stay in jail because they are the prison wardens?)

You Can’t Find a Dodge Super Stock Challenger for Sticker Price

In the eight months we spent looking for a dealership that would sell us a new 2022 Dodge Super Stock Challenger model, we found zero nationwide that would accept a full-sticker offer (manufacturer's suggested retail price) to special-order a Super Stock or to buy one from inventory. Dodge president Tim Kuniskis told us at the onset of the Hemi's final year of production: "Don't say we didn't warn you!" It doesn't seem right, but it's capitalism at its best, and in this country, you're allowed to sell stuff for whatever price you want, even if that means as much as $100K over sticker. We put in our special order online in July of 2022 to lock in our price on a 2022 model. The order was pushed into the 2023 model year, and we took delivery for full sticker price at the end of March, which shows just how hard it is to get one.

The Super Stock Stops and Corners Better Than a Widebody Redeye

If we face facts, people get hung-up on the Super Stock Challenger's smaller, 14.2-inch four-piston brake package (the Redeye has 15.4-inch rotors with six-piston calipers), and in doing so forget about the Super Stock's grippy drag radials. Also forgotten: ordinary UHP performance tires give up long before the Hellcat's 15.4-inch, six-piston brakes. Quite aside from their starting-line hook, these DOT drag tires provide astounding grip—so much more grip, in fact, that a Super Stock Challenger can out-perform a Widebody Redeye Jailbreak in every measure of roadholding power (cornering g-force, figure-eight, slalom, braking 60-0 time, etc. ). In the reality of everyday driving, where brake fade doesn't apply, the Super Stock is the king of muscle cars in every respect except for top speed, which is limited to 168 mph in the Super Stock due to its drag radial compound.

Dodge SRT Super Stock Challenger: 16 Things You Didn’t Know!

* The Super Stock is not a Demon
* The Super Stock formula is misunderstood. It's about austerity in the service of performance.
* There's no badge on a Super Stock identifying it as one
* Most 2023 Super Stocks are pre-sold orders
* The Super Stock is rarer than a Demon
* Only the Narrow-Body Jailbreak Redeye is rarer than the Super Stock
* The Super Stock's Nitto NT05R tires are discontinued
* The Super Stock's wheels aren't the same color as the Demon's
* The Dodge Super Stock shares wheels with the Super Bee widebody but not the center caps
* Power Broker Stage kits can legally take the Super Stock's horsepower to 885
* There's an easy trick to spotting a Super Stock—look for the hood and the wheels in combination
* Most Dodge fans can't spot a Super Stock but Chevy LS fans can
* The Dodge Super Stock is the quickest, most powerful muscle car you can buy (2020—fall of 2023)
* The Dodge Super Stock has the highest base price of any Dodge Challenger except Demon 170
* You can't buy a Dodge Super Stock for full sticker price
* The Super Stock stops and corners better than the Widebody Redeye because of its drag radials
Very cool write-up on the unique features of the SRT Super Stock! What a sweet Challenger!

#Dodge #Challenger #DodgeChallerger #SRT #SuperStock #SRTSuperStock #ChallengeSuperStock #HEMI
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