Eric Malone, lead petrolhead on the TV show Fastest Cars in the Dirty South is taking on four YouTube stars in a Hellcat grudge race for MotorTrend Presents Roadkill Nights Powered by Dodge.
He'll be going head to head against Tavarish, Alex Taylor, Westen Champlin, and Throtl. Each of the teams has been given their choice of either a Challenger Hellcat or a Charger SRT Hellcat and $10,000 to modify the car in any way they desire.
Of course, Nitrous, more boost, and stickier rubber will be on the list.
HotCars sat down with Eric himself to learn what else he's got up his sleeve and get his thoughts on drag racing and life.
This Hellcat Required A Different Approach
Typically, Eric and his 256 Crew work with older carbureted cars and he addressed that difference right away when asked about the Dodge.
"All of our cars are mostly carburetors...kinda the older-school stuff...so the roughest part of this (build) was fuel injection. I had to end up getting a little help on it. (I) didn't realize how much power these cars make with just a little bit of upgrades. It wasn't terrible, it was just something new to us."
He praised the robust design of the Hellcat motor too.
"This thing makes so much (durable) power and you can drive it anywhere. I actually ended up with a Challenger first, so we did a bunch of burnouts and stuff, and the stuff that this car took and never blew oil out of it, I just couldn't believe it. The durability of it is just crazy."
What might be shocking is just how much extra power they managed to extract from this beast.
"It made 1180 horsepower to the rear wheels last week. It made a lot of power."
Electric Power And Its Effect On Drag Racing
We also asked Eric about his thoughts on EV drag racing.
At this point in the game, I think that anything is possible. I mean, we've seen some electrical cars run real real fast. Today's technology is just going crazy and right now, Dodge is killing it.
Considering that Dodge has been very hush-hush about their plans, we wonder if Malone may be privy to some internal intel on future Dodge EV muscle cars. Surely, the era of the Hellcat will have to close at some point and it seems that the way forward for both Dodge and Team 256 might end up with electrons over nitrous.
Grudge Match Racing Wisdom For New Enthusiasts
We also asked Eric about his position and how far he's come from the days of hauling his racecar to the track with his dad's old pickup truck.
"I'll be honest with you, the reason I'm where I'm at right now (is that) I have a great team of people who helped me from day one. And the reason I continue on pushing so hard is because I have a 13-year-old soon that is 100% drag racing... That keeps me pushing because I know how hard I had it to get to this position, so I'm hoping by the end of the day to make it easier for him."
What about people who want to get into grudge racing or drag racing? Malone says the key is starting off on a good foundation.
"I would tell anybody right now... if you don't have the skills to work on a car but yet you want a fast car, get you one of these cars with the Hellcat motor in them. They have made it so that the average person can actually go out and have fun and race on the weekend and then actually use it for their everyday car and get 20 miles a gallon. If I had build a car that fast, it couldn't be driven at 30 or 40 miles an hour!"
Finally, we wanted to know how racing has affected his life.
"Racing is a family. We know we all got our personal close family but this racing family is totally different. I am up here in a place right now where I've never been and when it comes racing, if i need a wrench (or something else) it's there. That's the best part. That's the part I try to teach my son right there.
We want to thank Dodge and Eric Malone for being available to speak with us.