We love the history of Mopar performance around here and we respect it. We respect the fact that in the mid 1960s you could drive off a dealer lot with a snotty, angry, snarling beast of a street car that would do burnouts for blocks and mix it up with the other machinery of the day at the strip. Those days were magic and they will forever be lionized in the hearts and minds of muscle car enthusiasts everywhere. One thing we cannot get on board with is calling those the "good old days," because frankly, we're living in the "good old days" and the 2016 Challenger Scat Pack of Illinois resident Jim Hayes is proof positive of that.

Largely stock aside from the addition of a Kenne Bell supercharger package, this thing runs middle 10s and kills Hellcats, classic muscle cars, and virtually everything else that rolls up next to it. Oh, and unlike the muscle car guys of yesteryear, he is not constantly running the valves, boiling the car over on a warm day, or stuck to a sweaty vinyl bench seat in the summer. Nope, he's rocking factory parts from front to back including the air conditioning in this Plum Crazy killer and that's what really caught our eye when we saw him competing at the Hellcat and Scat Pack Shootout during the Monster Musclecar Weekend at Gateway Motorsports Park outside of St Louis.

We'll get to the real meat of this 10-second late-model stormer in a minute, but one of the things that really stands out about this car is just how much of it is stock, as delivered from the factory, and yet still standing up to the abuse and massive 730-plus wheel horsepower the car has. The transmission? Stock. Rear end? Stock, driveshaft? Stock. Suspension? Totally stock. Yes, there are drag radials on the back but let's be honest, that is an even greater testament to the driveline strength of these cars. Late-model muscle cars of other persuasions would be spitting out parts like Tic-Tacs when trying to do what Jim is doing with this Scat Pack Challenger. The Challenger has not been lightened up at all and likely comes across the scales a little heavier than stock with the blower and its components installed, but it is also making hundreds more horsepower than FCA planned to have it. Tipping the scales at just over two tons before the blower, this car with its full interior and amenities is a luxury rocket.

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But there's always that one burning question: Why? Why build this car, this way? "I love all cars, but there's just something about these late-model performance cars that just blows me away," Jim said with a laugh. "These things take me back to the days when we were running at our local drag strip as kids making 400 hp and thinking we were the kings of the world. These cars today have huge horsepower along with reliability. You can hop in this thing and drive it across the country without a worry. I drove the car 200 miles from my house to the race at St. Louis, raced it, and drove home getting a total combined average of 20.6 mpg."

Jim is no stranger to the fun of late-model performance cars or the magic of a Kenne Bell blower. He has a 2010 Mr. Norm's car that is also boosted in the same manner. When the time came to scratch his performance itch again, Jim was thinking Hellcat all the way but his wife was not. "My wife was opposed to the Hellcat because she figured the insurance would be higher along with virtually everything else," Jim explained. "I thought that buying a Scat Pack and adding to it would be fine, so that is what I did. I saved a ton of money all around and my wife got a new Dart as well. The insurance is cheaper, I ended up with a bigger motor, a bigger blower, and more power anyway."

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Jim's itch to get one of his cars back onto the strip was kicked into overdrive when he found out about the shootouts: "I had been following along with the Hellcat and Scat Pack races and thought that when we were ready with the car we should bring it out. The winning elapsed times seemed achievable and with the combo we were working on we thought that we would have a legitimate shot at winning." The "we" that Jim mentions includes Tim Barth of the Midwest Performance Center in Rock City, Illinois. He's the talented wrench behind making this Scat Pack a Hellcat's worst nightmare.

The engine in the car from the cylinder heads down is 100-percent absolutely stock. As we all know, the Apache cylinder heads that these 6.4L engines wear are some of the best to ever get bolted onto a factory short-block in Chrysler's history, so if they work that good naturally aspirated, you darn sure know they will really gulp if you help them breathe a little.

The breathing "help" that Tim Barth decided to use happens to be a healthy Kenne Bell liquid cooled supercharger. If you are going to add a blower there are other concerns that need to be addressed, and those are primarily on the fuel, ignition, and exhaust sides. Stainless Works 1 7/8-inch long-tube headers were installed to get the gasses out of the engine.

Handling the fuel system upgrades was Midwest Performance Center. Using a Fore Innovations triple pump in-tank unit to supply the volume of fuel that the engine needs under boost, a Snow Stage 3 water/methanol injection system to keep detonation from hurting the engine, and other fuel system enhancements to handle the increased demands, this engine is making crazy power, Hellcat-dominating power—on bone-stock internals.

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As you might expect, when the car is in race tune mode with more boost, the fuel it is happiest on is E85. During normal driving, Jim is able to fill the tank with 93 octane and cruise the town.

It should also be noted that this is not an engine that is being run on the ragged edge. Consider when the 10.50/131mph run was made at the Scat Pack Shootout, there was only 8.6 psi of boost being put to work. It took a pass or two in order for Barth to get the car happy coming off the line to achieve those numbers, but they did it and in the weeks following the event, they achieved an elapsed time of 10.32/132 mph after more tuning and tweaking.

Turbos are fantastic for making power, but for a guy like Jim who was already in love with a previous supercharged modern Mopar, he knew what he wanted. The Kenne Bell blower used on this car is an interesting piece. It is a twin-screw style that uses a liquid cooling system to manage the heat that is inherent in the supercharging process. When you compress anything you get heat, and that includes air. This is also a big benefit for all the moving parts inside the blower to keep them cool, lubricated, and happy. This particular application also uses the Kenne Bell Mammoth rear inlet manifold. This high-flowing piece allows the air to more efficiently make it into the blower, which in turn makes the whole system more efficient. Finally, the blower is equipped with a bypass valve that bleeds off boost during low-rpm, part-throttle situations like cruising down the highway. This allows the supercharger to be more efficient and reduce any parasitic drag on the engine trying to turn it. By using the bypass valve, the supercharger is effectively returning air back to the inlet. The end result is you have a car that is really nice to drive and then REALLY fun to drive when you land on the loud pedal.

The bottom line is that in today's world of muscle cars, a guy like Jim can have a Scat Pack Challenger with a 100-percent stock engine making nearly 900 hp at the flywheel and well over 700 hp at the tires. Yes, it requires the knowledge of a tuner to help it all live happily together, but the point is that it can be done, enjoyed, and counted on to get you around town. That's a mind boggling thing for anyone who lived through the dark ages of performance in the 1970s when it looked like 300hp engines would be a stretch, let alone monsters like this one.

Jim Hayes absolutely loves his car and he should. It has rekindled emotions he has not had since he was a young buck. It has garnered awards at shows like the prestigious Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals, it runs 10s, and it is cheaper to insure than a stock Hellcat. This thing is Plum Crazy and the man is enjoying every second of it.

See all 39 photos This Plum Crazy colored 2016 Dodge Challenger Scat Pack looks stock, and frankly, it mostly is but it doesn't run like it. The Kenne-Bell liquid-cooled supercharger makes sure of it. Owner Jim Hayes rips off 10s.

See all 39 photos Here's the heart of the beast, a thumping Kenne Bell supercharged 6.4L blown Hemi that makes huge power and does so reliably. The blend of robust factory parts and some well-placed modifications have turned this Scat Pack into a Hellcat hunter.

See all 39 photos The Kenne-Bell blower with its Mammoth series air intake is a well packaged horsepower making wonder. The twin-screw design keeps things compact and under the stock hood. We dig the support on the blower snout—it looks beefy!

See all 39 photos People may moan about the "good old days" of muscle cars being over, but owner Jim Hayes disagrees. An otherwise stock modern muscle car with a blower that can wax virtually anything that rolls up next to it with the AC on? What's that about the "good old days" again?

See all 39 photos Anybody with a 392 Hemi can bolt on a Kenne Bell 2.8L supercharger kit and get similar results to Jim Hayes, although Hayes did convert to E85 and add Snow's water-meth injection kit to further extend the capability of the stock 6.4L Hemi bottom end.

See all 39 photos Outwardly the only deviation from the stock appearance is the presence of drag radials in the rear. Mounted on the factory wheels, unsuspecting victims may glance right past that part of the equation. This car needs the grip that those tires provide.

See all 39 photos Want to see just how awesome the power curve is for this car? Here's the dyno sheet to prove it was still making power like a freight train when the dyno rip ended. With some more rpm there's more power potential to unlock. Long live the Gen III Hemi!

FAST FACTS

2016 Dodge Challenger Scat Pack

Jim Hayes; Machesney Park, Il

ENGINE

Type: 392ci Gen III "Apache" Chrysler Hemi

Bore x stroke: 4.09(bore) x 3.724(stroke), 392 ci

Compression ratio: 10.9:1

Block: stock

Rotating assembly: stock

Cylinder heads: stock "Apache" cast A319 alloy aluminum

Camshaft: stock

Valvetrain: stock

Induction: Kenne-Bell 2.8L liquid-cooled twin-screw supercharger

Fuel system: Fore Innovations fuel system with three pumps

Exhaust: Stainless Works 1 7/8-inch diameter long-tube headers

Ignition: stock

Oiling system: stock

Cooling: stock

Fuel: gasoline

Output: 733.74 hp to the wheels and 673.75 lb-ft of torque

Engine built by: FCA of America

DRIVETRAIN

Transmission: stock 8-speed TorqueFlite 8HP70 automatic overdrive transmission

Driveshaft: stock as delivered by Chrysler

Rearend: stock and unaltered, 3.09:1 limited-slip

CHASSIS

Front suspension: stock, independent SLA, with high upper A-arm

Rear suspension: stock, five-link IRS in isolated suspension cradle

Steering: factory stock, electric power steering

Brakes: stock Brembo, 14.2-inch rotors with 4-piston calipers (front);

13.8-inch rotors with 4-piston calipers (rear)

Chassis: stock, unit-body construction



Color: factory applied Plumb Crazy purple

Painter: FCA of America

Interior: stock



Wheels: stock 2015 Challenger Scat Pack 20 x 8 wheels

Tires: stock 245/45R20 Goodyear (front), Mickey Thompson 275/40R20

SS Drag Radials (rear)