Even the fastest performance cars can’t outrun a stereotype. And the 707-horsepower Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat is well on its way to becoming the car of choice for drivers getting busted doing insanely high speeds on public roads, as a 22-year-old in North Carolina recently demonstrated with a 198 mph romp on a highway there. Only this time, police didn’t have to try and keep up—the speeder and his friends recorded the whole thing and posted it on YouTube.
ABC 11 News reports that an anonymous tipster sent the seven-minute YouTube video to the North Carolina State Highway Patrol. In the footage, recorded by someone in the passenger seat of the Hellcat, William Jefferson is seen accelerating from a sedate 70 mph all the way up to 198 mph in the middle of the night on US-1 outside of Raleigh. The feed then cuts to a roadside camera manned by two of his friends that captures his high-speed flyby. The Challenger is but a deafening blur as it roars past with another daredevil on a sportbike in hot pursuit.
The original video, which reportedly also showed Jefferson speeding on other roads and doing donuts in a parking lot, has since been removed from YouTube. Jefferson was arrested on August 7 and charged with “being in a prearranged speed competition, speeding and reckless driving,” according to the News-Observer.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=SYr24F7hfSU%3Frel%3D0
Where to begin with this? Uploading evidence of your own crime to the internet is a classic move, one that’s sure to result in online humiliation or actual legal consequences. Jefferson apparently had a clean driving record prior to this little hiccup, though his confidence in bringing the Hellcat close to its 200 mph top speed indicates this wasn’t his first rodeo.
Then there’s that speed. We’re quite familiar with the Hellcat in all its forms, and we understand having 707 horsepower at your beck and call is intoxicating. But this easily could have been a deadly stunt for Jefferson, his passenger, his friends, or anyone else who might have been unlucky enough to share the road with them that night. Please, Hellcat drivers: save it for the track. The latest ones are actually quite good there.
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