Imagine a bone-stock Ford Explorer ST and a bone-stock Dodge Durango SRT Hellcat on the drag strip. Which mid-size utility vehicle would you bet your money on? Yours truly would go for the 'Rango because of that fabulous Hellcat powerplant that will be discontinued in favor of electric muscle.
How about we spice up the straight-line brawl with some go-faster mods for the Explorer ST? Think better tires, an upgraded transmission, more boost, and better fuel. We're not certain what the Fords in the featured clip are hiding under the hood, though. But given their surprisingly impressive ETs, both definitely crank out more ponies and pound-feet than claimed.
Filmed at the Mission Raceway Park in British Columbia, the Ford v Dodge showdown begins with a blue-painted Explorer on the right lane and a gray Durango in the left lane. The muscled-up utility vehicle is also featured in the second of two races on the left lane of the dragway, yet we're dealing with a different Explorer from the first one.
With ETs of 12.26 and 11.49 seconds at speeds of up to 121.14 miles per hour (194.95 kilometers per hour), those Explorer STs are ridiculously quick by all accounts. The Durango SRT Hellcat is pretty impressive as well, clocking a best of 11.74 seconds at 117.24 miles per hour (188.67 kilometers per hour), two-tenths off Dodge's official 11.5-second claim.
The aftermarket for the 3.0-liter EcoBoost twin-turbo V6 may not be immense, but there certainly are peeps out there who know how to extract every ounce of performance potential from that engine. In this application, Ford promises 400 horsepower and 415 pound-feet (563 Nm) on premium-grade gasoline.
A member of the Nano family of engines, the 3.0-liter EcoBoost is also used in the Bronco Raptor and Ranger Raptor. The former produces 418 horsepower and 440 pound-feet (597 Nm), which may seem like a lot. On the other hand, bear in mind the Braptor is a body-on-frame affair that weighs quite a lot. Due to arrive stateside for the 2024 model year, the Ranger Raptor is available in two market-dependent states of tune.
Aussies have it better than European customers due to laxer emission regulations. More specifically, the Australian variant nets 392 horsepower and 430 pound-feet (583 Nm) as opposed to 284 horsepower and 362 pound-feet (491 Nm) in the EU and UK.
Even though Dodge promised to make around 3,000 units of the Durango SRT Hellcat 2021, the Stellantis-owned marque revived it for 2023. This resulted in a lawsuit against FCA US LLC that has yet to be concluded. On the one hand, it's easy to understand why 2021 owners are this angry. At the same time, can't we simply be happy that Dodge is building more Hellcats than originally intended? These are future classics, boys and girls, and there'll come a day when V8s will be squeezed out of the market by emission and fuel economy regulations in favor of EVs.
Similar to the 2021 model, the 2023 Dodge Durango SRT Hellcat belts out a ridiculous 710 horsepower and 645 pound-feet (875 Nm) of tire-shredding twist. The V8-powered colossus also happens to be far pricier than the Explorer ST, with Dodge charging $91,740 sans taxes versus $50,005 for the Explorer ST.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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