Richard Rawlings has a great story about his recovered Dodge Challenger Hellcat that was stolen—the kind everyone wants to have, but not experience personally. The Fast N' Loud star shared the muscle car's backstory in a recent video posted to the Gas Monkey Garage & Richard Rawlings YouTube channel while driving it to Kretzschy's Cajun BBQ in Texas, and it takes some unexpected turns along the way.
What Makes Richard Rawlings' Challenger Hellcat Special
Rawlings wastes no time in sharing what makes his black Challenger Hellcat so special: it was the second one to roll off the production line. While bearing serial #00002 might tempt owners to turn theirs into a garage queen, Rawlings has no intentions of going that route. Instead, he's better known for using his Challenger to do burnouts and donuts, and perfectly sums his ownership by admitting, "I've just annihilated this car." He suspects he's gone through 60 sets of rear Nitto tires, which has to be some sort of record. Sadly, though, the Challenger's burnout days came to a close (temporarily) back in September 2018 when someone managed to take off with it.
The Hellcat Heist
According to Rawlings, the Hellcat was stolen at a friend's house. After insurance covered the cost—though not to the extent that a serial #00002 Hellcat is worth, argues Rawlings—the Fast N' Loud star got a call nine months later. A tow truck driver contacted him with intel on the car's whereabouts, parked just six miles away from the shop. Rawlings decided to hatch a plan: with the keys still in his possession, he decided to go over and get the car back himself. Unfortunately, after tracking the car down, it wouldn't start, so the crew got it up on a trailer and rescued the Hellcat from the warehouse where it resided.
Smelling like marijuana, Rawlings suspects someone used the car to smuggle either drugs or money. Today, Rawlings and the crew have taken to calling it the "GMG Mule." Except it wasn't a walk in the park from there. The car had suffered some damage, and it needed lots of work.
"Now, we have to paint the whole car, we've got to replace the front engine carriage—cause it's all bent—we've got to replace all kinds of parts," said Rawlings. Fast forward a year later, and Rawlings gets a message online indicating that someone made a music video with the car, adding another wrinkle to the Hellcat's history.
As of the time of Rawlings' video sharing the Hellcat's story, the car had about 9,334 miles on the odometer. Rawlings estimates that whoever stole it put about one third of those miles on there, however. The Hellcat sure took a wild and strange detour, but at least it's back in the Gas Monkey Garage again where it belongs.