Al Gennarelli Racing recently earned the distinction of turning in the quickest elapsed time by a late-model HEMI-powered vehicle at Virginia Motorsports Park. Al’s Challenger relied on a 449 cubic inch Arrington Performance/shopHEMI.com-built HEMI all-aluminum engine topped off with one of shopHEMI’s custom twin-turbo kits to achieve the feat.

On a test-and-tune day for motorcycles, in much less than optimal conditions, they were able to take the 2009 HEMI Drag Pak Challenger to an incredible 7.85 at 176 MPH, making them the first Gen 3 HEMI into the seven-second zone.

The car is a real, Stock Eliminator-legal Drag Pak car that remains intact save for the engine and turbo system installation; it will be returned to Drag Pak configuration and the plan is to replace it with the street car that the engine originally came from and compete in X275. In addition, they plan to put 315 Drag Radials on the car next year and retain the World’s Fastest Challenger title as they shoot for the high 6’s with the HEMI powerplant.

The record-breaking car on the chassis dyno – 

The car consists of a converted street-car engine built in 2009, an Arrington Performance Stage 1 ported 6.1L intake manifold, and a set of o-ringed heads with copper gaskets. Transmission duties are handled by a Rossler/Paramount Performance Turbo400 transmission, and the custom Arrington Performance turbo system consists of a pair of Precision Turbo 67mm snails.

Kooks built the custom turbo headers, while engine management is handled by F.A.S.T and a Boost Leash boost controller. The car also has a Nitrous Outlet 100-horse nitrous system installed, but it was not used to achieve the record. Sponsorship for Al Gennarelli Racing comes from Arrington Performance/shopHEMI.com, Paramount Performance, Kooks Custom Headers, and Nitrous Outlet.